American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) Appoints New Members to Board of Directors

GAINESVILLE, Fla., July 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) announced the appointment of seven new members to its Board of Directors effective July 1, 2013. Ian Tebbett, Ph.D., director of University of Florida's world-renowned online Forensic Science program, has been named as ADEC's new president and CEO.

Ronnie D. Green from the University of Nebraska has been appointed as ADEC's secretary-treasurer. Additional new Board members include Mari Cini (University of Maryland University College), Bruce McPheron (The Ohio State University), Jay Ackridge (Purdue University), and Allen Wysoki (University of Florida). Ann-Louise Everett (Apollidon, Inc.) and Lloyd Day (IICA) have been named as special Board seats.

Continuing Executive Committee members are Chair Sue Day-Perroots (West Virginia University), Chair-Elect Dave King (Oregon State University), and HBCU Representative Dalton McAffee (Alcorn State University).

"The ADEC Board and Executive Committee members will help serve all academic leaders. With over 70 percent of today's chief academic leaders saying that online learning is critical to their long-term strategies, it's imperative that ADEC fundamentally supports the academic community at large," said Tebbett. "We are going to build on our commitment to distance education by becoming a central repository for thought leadership in the field."

ADEC's HBCU Coordinator Dan Godfrey (North Carolina A&T University) and Assistant Treasurers Jeff Bassford (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Brian Karcinski (University of Florida) will act as Ex Officio members.

A. Frank Mayadas from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will remain as a special Board seat on behalf of the foundation sector.

Other continuing Board members include:

• Dave Cillay (Washington State University)
• Wayne Smutz (The Pennsylvania State University)
• Scott Reed (Oregon State University)
• Ken Spelke (Southern Connecticut State University)
• Robert Rubinyi (University of Minnesota)

"Collaborating with these thought leaders from top institutions provides members with the opportunity to gain market share within online learning," said Ann-Louise Everett, chief operating officer at Apollidon, Inc. "ADEC is giving these schools a platform to communicate what's working in the field and a vision of the innovations and trends we can expect to see in the future."

Retiring members include previous President and CEO Jan Poley, Professor Emeritus at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Past-Chair Bobby Moser, Vice President of Agricultural Administration as well as University Outreach at The Ohio State University; and Board member Alan Moeller, Assistant Vice Chancellor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The University of Florida will partner with the University of Nebraska, ADEC's inaugural host institution.

About ADEC
ADEC is a nonprofit distance education consortium with members from state universities and land-grant colleges. The consortium's members collaborate to gather research; identify developments, initiatives and trends; as well as share worldwide best practices for online learning. ADEC also provides teaching and learning models that are designed for active and effective learning through high-quality distance education.

For more information about ADEC, please visit the website at http://adec.edu.

SOURCE ADEC