Lin Harper

  

I have a multidisciplinary background and an interdisciplinary approach. As an undergraduate I studied biology & chemistry, English, psychology and sociology. My master's degree was in counseling psychology with minors in management and anthropology. My Ph.D. is in adult education. I've worked in non-profits for much of my career, including the areas of literacy, alcohol/drug treatment, and now higher education. I instituted a program for disadvantaged youth who expressed a desire to go into military service but who could not academically achieve their goal; we prepared them academically, vocationally, and physically to be successful in their chosen career path. I've taught adult people to read, tested their eyesight and hearing, and trained volunteers to work with other adult non-readers, at one time running 100 volunteer tutor-student pairs. I worked in an Alcohol/Drug treatment facility as Chief Therapist and started their out-patient treatment program. I've been in private practice as a therapist, and have written a book.

At the university level, I have written, implemented, and managed multi-year federal grants related to instructional technology and the teaching-learning-technology interface. I've been the Director of Online Education. I've created and managed a faculty development center with the emphasis being on teaching-learning and technology. I've taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level; most recently, I've taught in the Interdisciplinary Studies program, perhaps the best "fit" I've ever had. I also work with faculty in my college (Arts and Letters) to set their research agenda and pursue funded research. Much of this is humanities focused.

Extra-vocationally, I am married (29th anniversary on Jan. 6) to a poet/wordsmith/birder. We are the proud "parents" of two labrador retrievers, a one-ounce Amazon parrot, and a host of geckos and fish. We live in an old Victorian cottage built in 1900, complete with ghost, leaky roof, and a "secret room" under what is now our bedroom. I serve on the board of a non-profit humane society in our city and our local Audubon Chapter in the area. We have family and "family of choice" all over the country, and we work hard to stay in touch with folks and visit whenever possible. Travel is my favorite "sport" but lately I'm finding wine-drinking to be a steadily rising second. Birding is and will always be a passion, and I have a strange and dark liaison with a treadmill in our wellness center.