Long Bio
Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock is a noted leader in higher education with expertise in online teaching, course design, and professional development and advocate for access to higher education. Michelle’s work has helped college professors, instructional designers, and institutional leaders across the nation and beyond understand how to craft relevant, humanized online learning experiences that support the diverse needs of college students. Michelle's earliest memory of technology is from the 1980s when her dad pointed to his huge computer screen and said, "See that? That's a message from my co-worker." The notion that a computer could connect two people across distance formed her mindset about technology. Over the decades, Michelle's work has consistently examined the intersection of relationships, technology, and learning, emphasizing the vital role that emotions play in one's ability to achieve their full potential. In addition to holding positions in teaching and faculty development at open-access and access-oriented institutions, she has also led two grants totalling $2 million that advanced a model of humanized online teaching across the California community college and California State University systems. Currently, Michelle is leading statewide professional development efforts in support of AI in California's community colleges. She is also the author of Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies (2nd edition, Routledge), the recipient of several national teaching awards, and has an unhealthy obsession with wiener dogs.
Condensed Bio
Michelle's work explores the intersection of relationships, has helped online instructors across the world understand how to craft relationship-rich online learning experiences that support the diverse needs of college students. Over the decades, her work has consistently examined the intersection of relationships, technology, and learning, emphasizing the vital role that emotions play in one's ability to achieve their full potential. She is an author and frequent keynote speaker and has received several national awards for her teaching excellence. Recently, she led two large intersegmental grant projects that scaled humanized online teaching across California's massive public higher education systems. Currently, Michelle is leading statewide professional development efforts in support of AI in California's community colleges. In her free time, you will find her spending time with her family, doing pilates, or adoring her two miniature wiener dogs, Zeus and Dwight.