Faculty

Beth Peloquin

Biography

Beth has been working with children, families and professionals in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) field since 1989, earlier if you count her babysitting jobs that started when she was nine. She earned her Masters in Special Education in 2000 and began working in Vermont that year in inclusive preschool classrooms. She spent 14 years in the classroom, all the while doing side gigs teaching in higher education, presenting on inclusive practices for ECE and ECSE professional organizations, and training and supporting other teachers with assessment, social and emotional practices, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). She loves working with the education students at Champlain and tries to make her classes fun and experiential. Her favorite course is Math and Science for Young Children, closely followed by Preschool Curriculum – Play as Learning.

Outside Champlain, she owns an education training and consulting business, Pyramid 802 Plus, which helps teachers and ECE programs increase their social and emotional teaching practices. She also works with Teaching Strategies as a national trainer, supporting the Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies GOLD, which are curriculum and assessment systems used in Vermont and across the nation.

Publications & Abstracts

DEC Recommended Practices Monograph Series No. 2: Environment

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

National Association for the Education of Young Children
Council for Exceptional Children Division for Early Childhood

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

The Power of Play by David Elkind

Favorite Quote

“Every child deserves a champion.”

—Rita Pierson

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Craig Pepin

Biography

Craig Pepin is Lead Faculty in the Degree Design Lab and also teaches in the Core Curriculum. He earned a Ph.D. in European Intellectual History from Duke University, with a special interest in Modern Germany and the History of Higher Education. Teaching interdisciplinary inquiry-driven courses at Champlain led him to the importance of integrative learning in developing students who can think broadly and synthetically, and in particular, to the intersection between integrative thinking and learning assessment. Most recently his research and praxis has focused on competency-based education, particularly in a general education context, and on the history of General Education in the United States.

He served as Assistant Dean for Assessment at Champlain for 12 years, and four years as President of the New England Educational Assessment Network. He has also consulted with other institutions on general education and assessment, and has served as an accreditation reviewer for the New England Commission of Higher Education. He has presented often at assessment conferences and at the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies. As chair of the College Competency Committee since 2014, he has facilitated the development of the Champlain College Competencies.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• New England Educational Assessment Network
• Association for Interdisciplinary Studies

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

Watchmen (the novel). Ground breaking in its time, (I read the original comics when they came out in 1986), it holds up exceptionally well. It inverts and explores many of the tropes of superheroes and vigilantism, of conspiracy theories and power. The writing is razor sharp and the images are densely allegorical and intimately interwoven. The HBO miniseries of the same name (2019) is also great, transposing issues of race and policing in ways that again challenge our beliefs about what it means to be a hero. Both are brilliant.

Neal Stephenson’s Anathem is a work of science fiction that renders a richly drawn alternate reality that simultaneously steps through the most interesting thickets of classical Greek philosophy, and mashes it up with quantum mechanics. It is a novel of big ideas wrapped up in adventure, and appeals to everything I love about science fiction.

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Robin Perlah

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Tony Perriello

Biography

Tony Perriello is a professor of law, criminology and criminal justice, Director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice program, and Assistant Dean of the School of Social Innovation. Tony practiced law in the private sector for two years before beginning a career in the legal and higher education publishing and media industries. During his publishing career, he developed and produced numerous legal casebooks and treatises covering many different subject and practice areas, as well college textbooks, educational technology and instructor resources across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Immediately prior to joining the faculty at Champlain College, he was a legal affairs reporter and editor at Bloomberg in Washington, D.C., where he covered the courts and several congressional committees. During his seven years in Washington, he was also a member of the adjunct faculty at American University, where he taught undergraduate courses in news writing and media law.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• American Society of Criminology

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
• “The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse” by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham
• “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson

Favorite Quotw

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

—William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

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Denyse Perry

Biography

A dedicated contributor to a workplace and world that works for all, she is a former consumer packaged goods marketer and business leader. Presently she is a professional mediator, coach and part-time online adjunct faculty. She is a lifetime learner committed to continued formal education and observing what is happening in her areas of expertise and interest.

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Book: Nonviolent Communication; Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships, third edition, Dr. Marshall Rosenberg
• Book: The Myth of Normal; Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture, Dr. Gabor Mate
• Book: Us; Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, Terrence Real

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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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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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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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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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Kristine Reynolds

Biography

Kristine (Kris) Reynolds (She/Her/Hers) is the Director and Founder of the Vermont Center for Resiliency. She received her Masters Degree in Social Work from Colorado State University and has been working in the mental health field for over 18 years.

She has experience in EMDR, CBT, and mindfulness. It was while working with Veterans in Colorado that Kris found her niche working with individuals who had experienced major stressors and trauma. In addition to specialization in working with individuals who have experienced complex trauma, Kris specializes in the treatment of anxiety, mood disorders, relationship conflicts, and serves children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly.

In addition to individual psychotherapy, she facilitates group, couples, family therapy, and provides supervision to clinicians working towards licensure. Kris teaches courses as an Adjunct Instructor in the School of Social Innovation at Champlain College.

Kris is an avid runner and enjoys all things outdoors, and spending time with her family which includes the furry and feathered variety as well as the human.

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

National Association of Social Workers

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

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Christopher Riddell

Biography

Dr. Christopher Riddell is a twenty-year veteran having served 12 years with the U.S. Coast Guard and eight years with the U.S. Navy. Riddell has approximately 30 years’ combined experience behind the lectern. He has been in higher education for 18 years and served as an instructor at various military commands earning him the title of Master Training Specialist (select) for both services. He earned both his master’s degrees from Utica College in Economic Crime Management and his second in the field of Cyber Policy and Risk Analysis. He earned his doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University. Riddell is also a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Distinctions & Awards

Adjunct Faculty Award, Utica College-2017

Director’s Award For Teaching, Utica College-2009

Master Training Specialist (select), United States Navy-1992

Master Training Specialist (select), United States Coast Guard-1985

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