Celebrating OERth Week

Tanya Spilovoy

Director, Open Policy, WCET Staff 2016 - 2022

Tanya was the director of open policy at WCET where she led the National Consortium of Open Educational Resources (NCOER) initiative, which focuses on the policy, practice, and implementation of Open Educational Resources in compact regions, states, systems, and higher education institutions. She and her team conducted research, shared best practices, and initiated efforts to ensure all students have equitable access to low-cost, openly licensed, high-quality learning materials. As director, she collaborated with the regional compacts (MHEC, WICHE, NEBHE, and SREB) to implement open educational resources in states and systems across the nation.

Tanya joined the team in 2016 and previously served as the director for distance education and state authorization for the North Dakota University System. Her continual commitment to the field is evidenced by her engagement in multiple capacities, from co-authoring two national reports to co-creating and teaching at the SPARC Open Educational Leadership Program. She was also presented the 2020 MHEC Outstanding Service Award.

In her spare time, Tanya can be found at the ice rinks cheering on her kids Dakota and Ruby as they play ice sports, although one can also spot her singing or acting in a local musical production.

Neil Butcher

OER Strategist, OER Africa and Director, Neil Butcher & Associates

Neil Butcher is based in South Africa, from where he has provided policy and technical advice and support to a range of national and international clients regarding educational planning, uses of educational technology, and distance education. He has worked with various educational institutions (including UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning), assisting with transformation and research efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and OER. Neil works with OER Africa as the project’s OER Strategist and is also currently consulting to the World Bank on a range of project activities across several African countries and in Asia.

Paola Corti

OE Community Manager, SPARC Europe

Paola Corti has been working in distance learning since 1998. She is a passionate advocate for Open Education and has advocated for OER adoption in her university, Politecnico di Milano. As OE Community Manager at SPARC Europe, she works with the European Network of Open Education Librarians, passionate professionals who work toward implementing the UNESCO OER Recommendation by facilitating access to OER and encouraging their production and dissemination. A member of the CC OpenEdu Community since its inception, Paola strongly believes in the link between social justice and Open Education and its ability to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, “Quality Education for All.”

Mojca Drevenšek

Communications Consultant, Consensus (Slovenia) and OE4BW Hub Coordinator

Mojca Drevenšek is an energy literacy enthusiast, an experienced communications consultant, and a passionate connector, working to motivate natural science, social science, and engineering experts to openly share their knowledge and raise awareness about energy issues among key stakeholders. She consults with energy sector corporate clients and leads communication activities for international research projects like the European Horizon2020 project NEWCOMERS. Mojca is passionate about Open Education and is currently enrolled in the Master’s program Leadership in Open Education at the University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. She is part of the Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) both as a developer and as a Hub Coordinator, supporting the achievement of Energy, Biodiversity, and Sustainable Living related goals.

Paul Stacey

Executive Director, Open Education Global

Paul Stacey is a global education leader with over 40 years’ experience. Since 2018, he has served as executive director for Open Education Global. Previously he worked at Creative Commons where he helped organizations and creators around the world adopt open licensing practices, led support for the $1.9 billion Open Educational Resources Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program of the US Department of Labor, and led creation of the Creative Commons Certificate program. Prior to Creative Commons, Paul helped found BCcampus for British Columbia’s Ministry of Advanced Education and led an Open Education Resources development program, which provided grants to British Columbia’s universities and colleges to create for credit courses and degrees with open shareable resources.

Sadia Afroze Sultana

Professor, Bangladesh Open University

Professor Dr. Sadia Afroze Sultana joined Bangladesh Open University (BOU) in 1998. She served as dean of Open School, BOU from 2012 to 2016 and elected vice chairperson of Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA) from 2014 to 2016. Sadia has been involved in the Commonwealth of Learning-sponsored projects regarding women empowerment, ODL, and OER movement in Bangladesh and contributed to the development of OER and Quality Assurance Policy for BOU. She is a global network member of Creative Commons, USA and a Creative Commons facilitator. She regularly writes in different journals on ODL, OER, women empowerment, and nuclear physics.