Office and People Directory

Nicholas Pierce

Biography

Nick is the current Access Services Manager for the Champlain College Library at the Miller Information Commons, and has held a career in academic libraries for over 15 years. He’s worked at several institutions- Skidmore, Babson, UVM, and most recently, Yale. Nick loves leading and managing teams focused in access services and collections management, but he also has experience in interlibrary loan, preservation, and reference work. He lives in South Hero with his wife, Julia, who works as a wedding photographer, and their 3-year-old rescue pup Pickles. Nick is absolutely thrilled to be joining, contributing to and serving the Champlain community.

Hobbies

Hiking with my wife Julia & Pickles the pup, homebrewing, reading!

Favorite Local Eateries & Things to do in Vermont

Two Heroes Brewery, Winooski River Walk, Colchester Pond, Museum of Everyday Life!

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John Pile Jr

Biography

John Pile Jr is a Technical Director and Principal Engineering Manager at Schell Games. Previously a full-time professor for Champlain College, John now teaches as an adjunct faculty for the Game Studio.

John has a deep background in digital entertainment, video games, and interactive story-telling experiences for PCs, Mobile, Game Consoles, and specializes in MR / VR / XR. He is the author of “2D Graphics Programming for Games” and has presented at the Game Developer Conference on topics in computer graphics education.

Publications & Abstracts

2D Graphics Programming for Games

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Andersen Pinckney

Biography

Andersen is a Game Design graduate from Champlain College’s class of 2020. He has worked as an aerospace software engineer for Saber Astronautics, a project manager for the DoD, and in production for Rockstar Games. He has been an adjunct professor for Champlain College since Fall 2021.

Favorite Quote

“Shake and bake, baby!”

–Ricky Bobby

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Hallie Pixley

Biography

Hallie Pixley is the Sustainable Transportation Coordinator with Campus Operations, where she passionately advocates for biking and active transportation. A 2024 graduate of Champlain College, Hallie holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and Policy. Her dedication to promoting sustainable transportation solutions is driven by her commitment to environmental stewardship and community well-being.

What are your hobbies?

Hallie loves biking, skiing, playing guitar, going to see live music, and painting/drawing (as well as most things involving the great outdoors).

Favorite local eateries and things to do in Vermont:

Nothing beats The Grey Jay’s shakshuka followed by a bike ride down the Colchester Causeway!

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Michelle Platt

Biography

Michelle earned a BA in Political Science at Southern Illinois University in 2008 and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) at Southern Illinois University in 2014. Michelle began working in Higher Education in 2014 after a 15 year career in retail management. Michelle was previously the Director of Outreach and Recruitment at a College in Washington State. Michelle is passionate about access to education, removing barriers and promoting educational equity. Michelle looks forward to working with students throughout their educational journey through to completion. In her spare time, Michelle is a geek and a dog mom who enjoys; attending Comic-con, tabletop gaming, pop-culture, movies and tv, reading, traveling, and collecting fandom art and collectables.

What are your hobbies?

Reading, Gaming, Listening to music, Travel, Film/Television, Comic-con and collecting fandom memorabilia.

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Robin Ploof

Biography

Robin’s long career of working with students includes teaching and mentoring across a spectrum that includes the very youngest learners as well as adults. She can still be found occasionally reading a story at Stepping Stones Children’s Center in Burlington, Vermont where she served as the Founding Director for 25 years. Robin was a literacy trainer for the Vermont Humanities Council for 20 years. She also served in various roles on the board of the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children, and is currently the Facilitator of NAEYC’s Play Policy and Practice Interest Forum. She is also a Master Play Coach certified by the Institute for Self-Active Education.

Publications & Abstracts

Connection Between Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Regarding Play

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

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Kimberly Polite

Biography

For the last 29 years, Dr. Kimberly Polite has built her career in business and Higher Education Administration as a leader in training and development, management, project management, sales, marketing, and team engagement. She is also a veteran.

Kimberly holds a doctorate in Business Administration from Walden University, a Master of Education in Management as well as a Bachelor of English, both from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She currently teaches and trains in business and educational organizations on strategic change management and employee engagement.

Her concentration areas include research on employee engagement and what factors contribute to increased engagement and productivity.

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Isabella Poloes

Biography

Isabella is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and has worked at Champlain College since 2020. Isabella strives to create a nonjudgmental and welcoming environment for students, where they can collaboratively work on the issues that are most important to them. In her work, she recognizes the impact systems of oppression have on our mental health and welcomes exploration of these themes. She appreciates humor and honesty within the therapeutic relationship and practices from an eclectic, trauma-informed lens- bringing in elements of narrative, feminist, and cognitive behavioral theories as appropriate.

Outside of the office, she enjoys cooking, hanging out with her dog, Oliver, and reading in hammocks.

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Carla Ponti

Biography

Dr. Ponti has a PhD in music from University of California, San Diego and specializes in American popular music. She is currently adjunct faculty at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia and at National University online. Dr. Ponti is a classically trained soprano who has sung in the choruses of the San Diego Opera and Genesis Opera Company (among others) and has been a soloist and section leader for churches in Southern California.

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Raymond Presky

Biography

Ray is originally from London, England, and moved to the USA in 1979. Married since 1982, his wife is from Japan, they have 3 children, all of them have left home years ago, so he is an empty nester with extra time. He enjoys teaching at Champlain and like getting to know the students.

He was a self-employed store owner for 15 years, it was a lot of work, enjoyable but stressful. He considers himself fortunate to have fallen into networking and security engineering around 2000.

He is currently working for a large ISP and has been working in Networking, Security and Communications since 2000. He has worked with Telco, Fiber-Optic and Cable Companies and covered all aspects of networking and security from the user to the internet and lots in between.

Favorite Quote

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

—1 Corinthians 17:7

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Ginger Pressey

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Hannah Puryear

Biography

Hannah is a versatile Systems & HR Specialist with a diverse background that encompasses roles ranging from Recruiting Administrator to Onboarding Specialist and HR Generalist. With a wealth of experience in the human resources landscape, Hannah’s expertise has been honed through her multifaceted career journey.

Having begun her professional journey as a recruiting administrator back in Oklahoma, Hannah quickly displayed a natural flair for nurturing meaningful connections. Her transition to an onboarding specialist role allowed her to ensure seamless assimilation of new hires into company culture, underlining her dedication to a positive employee experience.

She moved to Vermont at the beginning of 2021 and began a new role as an HR generalist. This allowed her to gain a comprehensive understanding of various HR functions such as, benefits, reporting, recruiting, and more.

Hannah has been with Champlain College since August 2022.

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Susan Ragusa

Biography

Sue joined Champlain’s Information Systems team as in 2024. Sue serves as the Canvas LMS administrator and provides academic technology support for the Center for Learning and Teaching. Prior to supporting instructional technology she spent many years as a design and technology instructor in higher ed. She holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and BA from Cedar Crest College.

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Willard Sterne Randall

Biography

See my personal website.

Favorite Quote

“Do the best you can with what you have, where you are.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

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John Rasmussen

Biography

John Rasmussen is an Associate Professor for Visual and Performing Arts: Film & Photographic Arts in the Division of Communication & Creative Media. He is a filmmaker working in narrative, documentary, and experimental forms. His work ranges from project documentation for organizations such as Oxfam, The United Nation to grassroots local narrative filmmaking in the U.S. Haiti, and Italy. Rasmussen’s work has been exhibited in festivals in Mexico, Haiti, France, Canada, China, and the United States.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

University Film and Video Association

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• La Chien by Jean Renoir
• My Last Sigh by Luis Buñuel

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