Faculty

Michelle Hobbs

Biography

Michelle Hobbs has over 25 years of experience creating design that inspires engagement and impact for corporations and brands in a variety of sectors. Through her career she has managed her own design studio, built national brands, and managed creative teams. Michelle has taught design off and on over the past 10 years including Champlain College, the University of Vermont and the Community College of Vermont.

Currently she is a partner at ReFrame Lab, a strategy and consulting firm in Burlington, Vermont, where she is working to meet organizations and businesses in times of transition and help them recognize and visualize opportunities for greater alignment, creativity, and impact. She does this through design-centric workshop facilitation, strategic planning, and product design workshops.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• AIGA
• Vermont Business for Social Responsibility

Curriculum Vitae

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Latoya Hogg

Biography

Latoya S. Hogg holds a Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University. Her research focuses on the Impostor Phenomenon in Black social work doctoral students attending historically Black colleges and universities. Dr. Hogg received her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at Tyler and her Master of Social Work from Stephen F. Austin State University. She has had accepted presentations at the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting, the National Association of Social Worker’s National Conference, the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference, and the Network for Social Work and Management Annual Management Conference. Dr. Hogg works as a full-time Analyst at the United States Government Accountability Office. In addition, she also virtually mentors emerging social work undergraduate and graduate students across the country and hosts virtual accountability spaces for doctoral students on the weekend. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member in social work at Howard University and the University of Texas at Arlington.

Distinctions & Awards

Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductee, 2023

Favorite Quote

Veni, vidi, vici.

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Rebecca Holt

Biography

Becky began her career in journalism, where she was an award-winning newspaper and online editor for 20 years. She then spent a decade as a nonprofit development and communications director. Since 2016, Becky has helped nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals (youth and adults) learn how to share their stories through interactive workshops, personalized trainings, and one-on-one coaching. She also writes creative fiction for young adults. Becky has a Bachelor’s of Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Distinctions & Awards

Gannett Supervisor of the Year (2008)
Missouri Lifestyle: National Award for General Excellence, First Place (2008)
Vermont Press Association: Outstanding Website, Daily (2008)
Gannett Chairman Award (2007)
Missouri Lifestyle: National Award for General Excellence, Second Place (2007)
Missouri Lifestyle: National Award for General Excellence, First Place (2004)

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• Member of Griffiths Leadership Society for Women, University of Missouri Alumni Association
• Church Street Marketplace Commissioner, City of Burlington, Vermont (2019-present; current Vice Chair)

Curriculum Vitae

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Favorite Quote

“The sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it’s here is up to us. Journey wisely.”

—Alexandra Elle

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Rachel Hooper

Biography

As a Creative Media Faculty member at Champlain College, Rachel Hooper teaches a range of courses including Human-Centered Design, Creative Media, and Video Game Production. Additionally, she serves as the Project Manager at the Emergent Media Center, where she empowers students to seek patterns, connect dots, and imagine new futures by using data and empathy to uncover and define problems worth solving.

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Miriam Horne

Biography

With a PhD from the Faculty of Education at McGill University in Composition and Rhetoric, Miriam has been teaching in the Core Division at Champlain College since 2008. She is a full professor and the Assistant Dean for Adjunct Support in the Core Division. As a professor, Miriam has taught a range of classes from introductory rhetoric, to service-learning travel courses in Nicaragua, to partnering on a senior capstone in criminal justice. Her teaching philosophy aligns writing with ways of learning in interdisciplinary settings and she encourages students to push their thinking in new directions through hands on learning (such as baking bread) and non-traditional course content (like the rhetoric of recipes). In her research, Miriam prioritizes the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in areas ranging from civic discourse to collective writing practices, and, most recently the intersections between weaving and pedagogy. Her work has been published in The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, College Teaching, and Writing in Knowledge Societies. As an assistant dean, Miriam is privileged to work with adjunct faculty and support their teaching in the interdisciplinary liberal arts program known as the Core.

Publications & Abstracts

• Writing in the Knowledge Society
• Writing in a Community of Practice
• Reading in a New Age
• Promoting a Deliberative and Active Citizenry

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Amy Howe

Biography

Amy Howe has been an interdisciplinary educator for 20+ years. Her experience includes designing and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in gender studies, general education, critical theory, American studies, and the study of religion at Harvard, Brown, Middlebury, Smith, and now at Champlain College. Before her graduate studies and teaching career, she held a nonprofit career managing California- and nationally-based youth-led community organizing projects for underrepresented communities. In 2019, she earned her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the study of religion (religion, gender, culture). She also serves as the Academic Director of Women, Gender, and Representation for Smith’s summer Precollege Programs.

Over the last five years at Champlain, Amy Howe has taught widely across the Core Division. Her leadership in innovative curricula and classroom design and leadership, student support, and involvement in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice issues earned her the Francine Page Teaching Excellence in 2021. Centered on experiential learning techniques, she regularly engages students in community partnerships in rural humanities, digital humanities, and racial and gender social justice issues.

Amy Howe not only remains incredibly proud of being the first in her family to pursue higher education, but she is also a relentless advocate for students who navigate first-generation lives. In her free time, Howe loves spending time with her two dogs, growing house plants (too many these days), crafting, exploring new outdoor spaces, and enjoying circus arts.

Favorite Quote

“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which one is being educated.”

—James Baldwin

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Ken Howell

Biography

Ken Howell is an Associate Professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media, where he teaches in multiple programs. He started teaching at Champlain as an adjunct in 2006, having previously taught at the New York University Steinhardt School and New Jersey City University.

Ken has been working with Champlain’s Emergent Media Center (EMC) since 2008. He has worked on an array of projects, including the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women and IBM Virtual Worlds project. Along with support from the EMC, Ken recently served as Faculty Advisor for the Sandbox team, a group of students exploring new and novel forms of human-computer interaction. Work from that team has been exhibited at the Chicago Design Museum, the Game Developers conference, and many other venues internationally. He also works with a group of artists called the Illumination Collective, exploring digitally controlled lighting as a means of art making.

In addition to teaching, Ken has been an independent Interaction Designer and Developer for over twenty years, and has worked on such broad-ranging brands as Urban Outfitters, Rossignol, Pantene, and Skittles. He is also active in the Maker Movement, and is a founding board member of Generator Makerspace

When he is not working or teaching, Ken enjoys drawing, painting, tinkering in his laboratory, taking care of his Bonsai trees, and all things outdoors.

Curriculum Vitae

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Maggie Hunter

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Michelle Irish

Biography

Educator, Administrator, Positive Organizational Development Practitioner, Educational Equity Leader

20+ years experienced public and private educational administrator and strengths-based organizational development practitioner. Interested in developing opportunities to strengthen public-private partnerships in the spirit of creating shared value, and cultivating a purpose-driven organization using strategies for building meaning, leveraging strengths, and using collective talents to transform experiences for collaborators and consumers.

Strengths: creativity, flexibility, strategic thinking, developer and systems design

Curriculum Vitae

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Harry Jackson

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Benjamin Jelter

Biography

Ben Jelter is an illustrator, game designer, and instructor. He has created a large number of independent comics and video games over his career. His last release was The Machine, published through Incube8 games. His next published game will be Unearthed, an expanded version of the game that won GBCompo21. It will be published through Limited Run Games.

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005)
• Ikaruga (Arcade, 2001)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS, 2013)

Favorite Quote

“If the professors of English will complain to me that the students who come to the universities, after all those years of study, still cannot spell “friend,” I say to them that something’s the matter with the way you spell friend.”

—Richard Feynman

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Mark Johnson

Biography

Mark Johnson has had a 40-year career in Vermont journalism as a reporter, editor and talk show host. Johnson has worked at the Eagle Times in Springfield, the Burlington Free Press, the Vanguard Press, VTDigger.org and Seven Days as a reporter, editor and columnist. For 25 years, he hosted an influential political and general interest two-hour daily talk show on WKDR and WDEV radio stations. He also served as a regular panelist and guest host on Vermont Public Television’s weekly roundtable news show “Vermont This Week.” He and his wife, Lauren-Glenn Davitian, the founder of Town Meeting Television, and their daughter, Stella Rose, live in Burlington.

Distinctions & Awards

Vermont Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award 2012

Favorite Quote

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

—Steven Covey

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Max Johnson

Recommended Reading

• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
• The Foley Grail by Vanessa Theme Ament
• Aaron Marks’ Complete Guide to Game Audio

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Eric Jollymore

Biography

Eric is an enthusiastic digital forensics instructor who is passionate about exploring how technology works and discovering the information that can be extracted from it. With a strong commitment to research and testing, he brings an enthusiastic and hands-on approach to his teaching.

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Meg Jones

Biography

Meg Jones joined Champlain College having received their PhD in Education from the University of Rhode Island. Meg’s research interests include preservice teacher education, social justice & inclusion in PK-16 education, literacy for PK-16, and qualitative research methods. They have over ten years of experience in education including as an elementary and early childhood classroom teacher, district level technology integration coach, professional development facilitator, college course instructor for literacy courses and qualitative methods, and international research fellow.

Meg was the recipient of a Fulbright Finland Foundation grant (2021-2022) and American-Scandinavian Foundation fellowship (2022-2023), which combined supported two years living and researching in Finland. Meg brings these experiences to Champlain to connect local and global communities while ensuring future teachers are ready for diverse classrooms.

Meg’s educational philosophy is rooted in critical approaches to teaching and learning, drawing from the works of bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Paulo Freire. In the classroom, Meg practices “engaged pedagogy” (hooks, 1994) which prioritizes the wellbeing and empowerment of students.

Publications & Abstracts

• Disrupting cisheteronormativity in STEM through humanism
• Unpacking Anti-femininity Among Masculine Identifying STEM Students with Minoritized Identities of Sexuality and Gender
• “You Assumed That Everybody Was…”: Hermeneutic Injustice and Cisheteropatriarchy in STEM Coursework
• Embodied Literacies of Sexuality and Gender of College Students
• Using Digital and Media Literacies to Expand Global Perspectives

Recommended Readings

• Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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