Lisa Sawtell joins Stetson University’s staff as director of Online Learning and Educational Technology, effective March 14, 2016.
Ms. Sawtell brings to the Stetson community over 15 years of experience in online learning and educational technology. In this new joint venture between Information Technology and Academic Affairs, Ms. Sawtell will provide leadership and management expertise in support of the design, delivery and evaluation of online/hybrid courses, pedagogies and instructional materials.
Prior to this role, Ms. Sawtell served as director of Instructional Design for MCPHS Online, a virtual campus of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her primary responsibility was managing online course development strategies for seated and online courses. At MCPHS Online, she implemented processes to enhance quality instructional design within online courses and their related technical building blocks. She served as chair of the Instructional Design Committee for the Council for Online Learning, formed to support the rapid growth of online programs at MCPHS University. She also managed content, design and marketing for the MCPHS Online Faculty Resource Center website, as well as a Blackboard training program for faculty and students. Before MCPHS Online, Ms. Sawtell served at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in a variety of progressively responsible positions. She oversaw the newly formed Distance Learning Department for Continuing Education and in this role, she helped grow online programs and courses, and managed the implementation of two learning management systems.
Ms. Sawtell recently completed her M.Ed. in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She graduated with honors from the Professional Writing and Technical Communication Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and holds a B.A. in English from the same institution. Ms. Sawtell and her husband Richard, son Austin, and their three lively dogs are looking forward to the sunshine as they relocate from central Massachusetts.