Faculty

John Lavallee

Biography

Began working at Champlain as a software developer in June 1970. Moved on to Director of the Computer Center. Later promoted to Director of IT. Began teaching for Champlain around 1973, and later became the Division Chair of the Information Systems division. Simultaneously, Selected to head up the Champlain Online program. Retired from Champlain in 2015 and has continued to serve as an adjunct instructor ever since.

Distinctions & Awards

An annual award created in my name hiring the individual or group showing innovation.

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Dean Lawson

Biography

Dean Lawson has worked in the Games Industry for nearly 30 years, primarily as a Programmer but also as a Designer, Project Lead, and Director of Programming.

He has worked on 14+ shipped titles, including SimCity Societies, Caesar IV, Majesty, Risk: Global Domination, a number of online board game conversions for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, and World of Zoo and Club Penguin: EPF: Herbert’s Revenge on the Nintendo DS for THQ and Disney Interactive, respectively. Throughout his career, Dean has focused on game AI and how it helps shape the player experience.

Dean’s other main passion in games is Game Architecture; how to engineer flexible technical frameworks for games. Dean advises at the EMC at Champlain College, as well as working as a contract programmer for a number of game and educational companies. Dean has been teaching at Champlain College since 2010: he previously taught Game Programming and Design at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Dean Lawson earned a BS in Computer Science from Union College in Schenectady, NY and an M.Ed in Secondary School Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Felipe Lega

Biography

Felipe Lega is the Director of the Animation Program at Champlain College and holds an MFA in Fine Arts with a focus on 3D Animation and Special Effects from Lynn University, USA. Felipe has designed educational models for Champlain College and has taught several classes for the animation and video game programs. He is also currently advising the projection mapping project at the Emergent Media Center, which is being developed in collaboration with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

His teaching methodology is based on motivation, self-realization, and compassion. His work with students always involves mentorship, fostering the development of individuals with strong human and professional capacities. The success of his method is attributed to his faith and motivation in his students and in understanding them as individuals to support them in achieving their desired results.

He was an associate professor at UDEM – Universidad de Monterrey, where he developed and taught several classes in the master’s program in video games and the bachelor’s program in 3D animation and visual effects. He also participated in significant academic projects for this institution, such as the Experience 360 “Lamentos Encontrados” project developed in collaboration with Breda University in the Netherlands. Additionally, he served as an advisor for several award-winning thesis projects and short films.

Felipe was involved for approximately four years in the design, production, and creative direction of animated content for various projection mapping shows across Europe. Notable projects include: the HCA Hans Christian Andersen Festival show in Haderslev, Denmark; the Taastrup Library projection mapping show in Denmark; and the Christmas show at the Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania, among others.

During his industry experience, Felipe has worked as a visual effects artist and 3D animator in different areas of TV post-production and production, including Hasbro toy commercials for Avengers, Spider-Man, and Transformers. He also created special effects for Latin American international series such as Kdabra, Sikis, and Mentes en Shock, and developed 3D animations for Nat Geo and Discovery Channel.

In 2014, he was awarded the YCE (Young Creative Entrepreneur) Award by the British Council in the Broadcasting category, representing his visual effects studio, Entertainment & Visual Arts, at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Distinctions & Awards

Rising Star Award – Champlain College, YCE – Young Creative Entrepreneur Award, 2014 British Council.

Favorite Quote

“Imagination is Everything, It is the preview of life’s coming Attractions.” – Albert Einstein

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Kathleen Legg

Biography

After graduating with an Economics degree from Harvard University, Kathleen fell into a career of teaching and has never looked back. Kathleen earned her Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Secondary Mathematics from University of Colorado, Boulder. She’s taught mathematics to children since “93 in Colorado, Vermont, and internationally in London and the Hague. She also teaches science and in 2014 was recognized as VASE Science Teacher of the year.

Kathleen moved from teaching children in the classroom into a K-8 coaching role for Champlain Valley School District. This experience renewed her passion for math education and the importance of making mathematics meaningful and accessible for all learners. Kathleen has a passion for supporting teachers to be the best teachers of mathematics that they can be, regardless of their own mathematical journey.

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Amy Letinsky

Biography

Amy has lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of her life, growing up near the Canadian border in Washington State, in a small farming community. Her love of teaching college classes developed when she taught Journalism and ESL courses at her local community college. She moved to Vermont and taught writing at UVM, and she’s been an instructor at Champlain College since 2005. In 2006, she returned to the Northwest with her husband for his work as a family practice doctor in the Seattle area. She have two daughters, with whom she’s thrilled to be sharing the love of reading and writing.

She enjoys writing for many different circumstances. She’s done a lot of writing for the web (especially blogs), newspaper and magazine articles, and research based essays. Personal essays are her favorite form of writing, but she also writes some short stories, is working on a few non-fiction book projects, and she’s written a couple of novels, including one she wrote several years back for NaNoWriMo (The National Novel Writing Month).

I’m passionate about reading and count among my favorite authors John Milton, Jane Austen, and Neil Gaiman.

When I’m not reading a good book or writing my humble attempt at one, I’m volunteering as an art teacher at a local elementary school, painting with watercolors in my sketchbook somewhere out in nature, tent camping in the woods, running for fun and competition, swimming with my family, fishing for salmon on one of the many majestic Northwest rivers, or kayaking on one of our local lakes with the kids.

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Joseph Letourneau

Biography

A Champlain College Alumni, Joseph Letourneau has worked on various projects in Managed Security Services Consulting, from Incident Response, Vulnerability Assessments, PCI Investigations, Security Training, and Malware Analysis.

Recommended

https://thecrashcourse.com/topic/computerscience/
https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_feynman_physics_is_fun_to_imagine
https://nnedi.com/

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Favorite Quote

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

—Carl Sagan

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John Levee

Biography

John Thomas Levee is an artist, composer, and educator working at the intersection of a variety of mediums. His work often examines notions of human interaction with the environment and with technology. Often site-specific, Levee’s work strives to ask of the viewer: “How does this work relate to its surroundings? To you? By extension, how do you relate to your surroundings?” These questions are meant to drive dialogue regarding humanity’s influence on the natural world and on ourselves, specifically in regards to industrialization and technological advancement.

Obsolete technology, field recordings, and found objects are all integral to Levee’s work. For him, all of these components are evocative of specific places and times, and function as transportive tools. In regards to obsolete technology, his video work tends to use VHS tapes, CRT TVs, and cameras which record to outdated media formats. Not only do these provide constraints to the process of artmaking, which is integral to Levee’s artistic production, but also point to technology as a thematic element of the work.

Levee believes that using obsolete, recycled, often landfill-bound technology in the production of the work draws connection to the relationship between ever-advancing technology and human destruction of natural spaces. They currently teach at Champlain College, where they are the Assistant Program Director of Game Sound Design. They have studied at Columbia University in the City of New York, where they received their MFA in Sound Art, and at Stetson University, where they received their BS in Audio Technology & Industry and their BA in Digital Arts.

Favorite Quote

“If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever it was I was doing in the studio must be art.”

—Bruce Nauman, 1978

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Michael Levy

Biography

Michael Levy lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He uses a holistic approach during the Web creation process. Consideration is given to accessibility, search engine optimization, and usability throughout the course of Web site construction. He works with non-profit and corporate clients from around the country, helping them achieve their strategic needs.

He programs backend applications using PHP with MYSQL databases, focusing on reusable, bug-free code. Emphasis is placed on efficient administration that is easy to use.

For front-side design, he is proficient with HTML and CSS, as well as interactive development with Javascript and React. All front-side coding is done with semantic markup that is optimized for search engine visibility and accessibility to handicapped users.

As a fine artist, he has shown in venues in New York, Boston, Providence, and Vermont. Working in photography, and mixed media his work explores formal harmonies using traditional and non-traditional techniques.

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Sheila Liming

Biography

Sheila Liming, PhD, came to Champlain in 2020 and settled into teaching an array of classes in writing and publishing. She is the author of three books: What a Library Means to a Woman (University of Minnesota Press, 2020), Office (Bloomsbury, 2020) and, most recently, Hanging Out (Melville House, 2023), and the editor of one, a new version of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (W.W. Norton, 2022). Her writing has appeared widely in venues like The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Globe and Mail, LitHub, and elsewhere, while her work has been reviewed and featured in People magazine, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She received her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and, in her spare time, she continues to play the Scottish bagpipes (just as she did as part of the Carnegie Mellon University pipe band).

Distinctions & Awards

Maryland Humanities — State-wide Common Read finalist (HANGING OUT / 2023)
Reader’s Digest Most Anticipated Book of 2023 (HANGING OUT / 2023)
LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2023 (HANGING OUT / 2023)
Teaching Excellence Award (North Dakota University System / 2018)
Whiting Foundation — Fellowship Finalist (2018)

Publications & Abstracts

• Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time (2023)
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (2022)
• Office (2020)
• What a Library Means to a Woman (2020)

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP)
• Edith Wharton Society (EWS)
• Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Reading: I wrote my first book about the author Edith Wharton, who was a chronicler of Gilded Age privilege in America. People often ask me where to start with Wharton’s oeuvre and I like to recommend her short novel SUMMER (1917), which is page-turner dealing with rural politics, sex, gender, and class inequality.
• Reading: One of my specialties is gothic fiction and gothic storytelling. Some outstanding recent work in this genre comes from the Vermont writer Melanie Finn. Her novels THE HARE (2021) and THE UNDERNEATH (2018) blend a feminist perspective with classic features of the gothic genre.
• Reading: When you get serious about studying writing, you come into contact with other writers, and some of those connections turn out to be long-ranging. For instance, I went to college with the Asiya Wadud, a powerhouse poet whose collections SYNCOPE and CROSSLIGHT FOR YOUNGBIRD will challenge and provoke any aspiring writer.

Favorite Quote

“Sit as little as possible; give credence to no thought that is not born in the open air and accompanied by free movement in which the muscles do not also celebrate a feast.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, ECCE HOMO

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Charles Lloyd

Biography

Dr. Chuck Lloyd serves as the President of White Mountains Community College. Dr. Lloyd has been in this role since 2017 and maintained successive positions in the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) for twenty years. Lloyd’s me within CCSNH has included service in student life, enrollment management, academic administration and instruction, coaching, and leadership research.
Chuck is also a professor for graduate level leadership courses at Champlain College and Granite State College. Lloyd’s volunteer work includes Board roles with the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, NH Higher Education Assistance Foundation, Granite United Way, and Governor’s Commission on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs.
Originally from Franklin New Hampshire, Chuck graduated from Keene State College with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education, earned his Master’s Degree in Education and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from Plymouth State University, and his Doctorate is in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University.

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Katie Loesel

Biography

Katie Loesel grew up on Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from The Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio and a Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She is a snowboarder, sailor, crafter, gardener, environmentalist, cyclist, and lover of local food and drink. After living in Thailand and Boston, Katie moved to Vermont to focus on her art. She tends to make prints, drawings, installations, and sometimes books. She has participated in artist residency programs at Vermont Studio Center and Zea Mays Print Studio. Her work has been exhibited nationally, with frequent shows throughout Vermont. Katie is the recipient of a 2016 Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant. Katie has taught printmaking at Burlington City Arts and Champlain College.

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Peter Lotto

Biography

Peter Lotto is an adjunct professor in Champlain College’s CCO in the Master of Business Administration program. He is also an adjunct instructor at Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont in the strategic studies and business departments. He has been an adjunct instructor of management, finance, accounting and international business at Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica, New York, Pikes Peak State College and National American University, Colorado Springs, Colorado. His experience includes course development as well as delivery for both on campus and online teaching.

He has held executive level corporate consulting, general management, chief information officer, supply chain management, business ethics and international positions in such companies as Carrier Air Conditioning, UTC Fire and Security, Danaher Corporation and Infor Systems. Prior to his retirement from United Technologies, he was the Chief Information Officer for the Fire and Security Division in Denver, Colorado, where he also served as the Business Practices Officer with oversight of the group’s ethics practices.

Peter earned an M.S. in Management from the State University of New York at Binghamton, an M.A. in International Relations from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in Religion from Hamilton College. He has served on the board of directors nonprofit organizations, and is actively involved in collegiate scholarship ““ practice tools directed toward the creation, revision and application of business knowledge.

He currently lives in Fayetteville, NY and is a married father of three and grandfather of five. In his spare time he studies the Spanish Civil War, is an avid photographer and a frustrated fly fisherman.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

Hamilton College Alumni Council

Favorite Quote

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

—René Descartes

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Benjamin Luthy

Biography

Benjamin Luthy is a cybersecurity professional with over 20 years of experience in delivering client-focused technical solutions to safeguard information systems and data in highly regulated environments. He holds multiple industry certifications, including CISSP, CISM, and CDPSE reflecting his commitment to continuous learning and expertise in security and enterprise technologies.

Ben Luthy is the Program Director for the Champlain College Cybersecurity programs as well as an adjunct professor for Information Technology and Cybersecurity.

His research interests include information security, intelligence, and cloud computing and traditional infrastructure. As a recognized speaker at industry conferences such as CMMI Capability Counts, he has shared insights on strengthening cyber compliance and has been actively involved in competitive cybersecurity events, including winning the B-Sides Las Vegas Capture the Flag Competition on the ‘Joes’ team for his work in Windows Operating System Defense.

Outside of his professional pursuits, Ben is a professional musician, enjoys the outdoors, and spending quality time with his family.

Distinctions & Awards

• Guest speaker at CMMI Capability Counts 2020
• Winning team of B-Sides Las Vegas Blue Team Pros Vs. Joes Live Combat Capture the Flag Competition 2018

Publications & Abstracts

Strengthening Cyber Compliance Through CMMI V2.0

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• ISACA Huntsville
• ISC(2) Member

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

Darknet Diaries

Favorite Quote

“The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.”

—Gene Spafford, computer security expert

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Sergio Tenreiro de Magalhaes

Biography

Sergio holds a PhD in Information Systems and Technologies in the field of cybersecurity, and his experience includes academia, industry, and public service. Prior to Champlain College, Sergio had managerial responsibilities in several corporations, as well as consulting roles, and served as faculty member in several colleges, including the Catholic University of Portugal, where he coordinated the B.S. in IT and the graduate certificate in Information Security.

His research interests include information security, intelligence, and information warfare. He was a researcher in several projects, including the “Security in the Armed Forces Data Distribution Network,” promoted by the Ministry of Defense of Portugal, and he was an academic member of the NATO Multinational Cyber Defense Education and Training Project.

Sergio is currently a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, participates in the scientific committee of several international conferences, and regularly serves as reviewer for multiple scientific journals. Sergio has published a book on the viability, requirements and implementations of behavioral biometric technologies, authored several book chapters, and published more than 60 papers in security related topics, both in international journals and in peer reviewed conference proceedings, being cited more than 700 times.

When he is not working, Sergio enjoys woodcarving, following the investment markets, reading, and assembling jigsaw puzzles.

Publications & Abstracts

PUBLICATIONS & ABSTRACTS

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

Association for Computing Machinery

Favorite Quote

“There’s nothing worth getting in this world that you can get easily.” Then, as if starting a new paragraph, he briefly cleared is throat. “But, when you put in that much time and effort, if you do achieve that difficult thing it becomes the cream of your life.”
-“Cream?”
-“In French, they have an expression: crème de la crème. Do you know it?”

—Haruki Murakami, Cream

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Joseph Manley

Biography

Joe Manley is an experienced developer, educator, game designer, and artist. After receiving an undergrad and graduate degree in ceramic sculpture from RISD and CU, Boulder respectively, Joe began making games and interactive media in Flash. This interest in making interactive experiences is what drew him to Champlain College. Since 2003, Joe has been an integral part of the Game Studio at Champlain College and taught some of the first game related classes at the school. Joe currently spends most of his making time in either Unity or Unreal but also steps back into the clay studio when given a chance.

CV

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