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Beginning in 2025, WCET introduced the WCET Excellence in Policy and Practice Awards to expand and enhance our long-standing recognition program.
These awards are inspired by the original Sally M. Johnstone Award and continue to honor Sally’s legacy while also celebrating the remarkable contributions of Russ Poulin to digital learning policy.
Together, the awards reflect the dual focus of WCET’s mission—policy and practice—by recognizing individuals who have dedicated their careers to advancing digital learning in higher education. Each year, one award will be given, alternating between excellence in policy and excellence in practice.
Open to individuals affiliated with WCET member organizations, the awards celebrate those who have made significant, lasting contributions to digital learning—during their careers and beyond.
These awards honor individuals who have significantly contributed to the higher education digital learning field during their career and beyond. Both awards are open to for nominations from those affiliated with a WCET member organization.
The Russ Poulin Award for Excellence in Digital Learning Policy
The Russ Poulin Award for Digital Learning Policy is given every other year to an individual who has significantly contributed to advancing digital learning policy. Selection criteria for the award include actively participating in the development of state and/or federal digital learning policy, advancing analysis of existing or proposed digital learning policy, and advocating for the development of policies that lead to learner access to quality digital learning.
The Russ Poulin Award for Digital Learning Policy was established in 2024 to recognize the contributions of Russ Poulin. As WCET’s long-time policy expert and executive director, Russ participated in numerous federal negotiated rulemakings and initial committees to develop state authorization reciprocity. Russ also advocated for developing federal and state policies that increased learner access to high-quality digital learning in higher education while balancing important student consumer protections. After a thirty-year career at WCET, Russ retired in 2024.
Nominations may be submitted by the individual under consideration or by a colleague, supervisor, or other interested party.
One award recipient will be chosen every other year in odd years and honored at the WCET conference.
Eligibility Criteria:
Candidates must be affiliated with a WCET or SAN member institution, organization, or corporation in good standing.
This award recognizes professionals who have…
- actively participated in the development of state and/or federal digital learning policy,
- advanced the analysis and explanation of existing or proposed digital learning policy,
- advocated for the development of policies that lead to learner access to quality digital learning.
The Sally M. Johnstone Award for Excellence in Digital Learning Practice
The Sally M. Johnstone award honors leaders for their leadership and service to the higher education digital learning community and WCET. The award is named after WCET’s founding executive director and was originally founded to honor emerging leaders for demonstrated leadership potential. Starting in 2025, this award will showcase nominated individuals who have made a significant contribution and advancement in the practice of digital learning.
Sally Johnstone led WCET from 1989 to 2006, creating the foundation for what the organization has become. After WCET, Sally held several leadership positions at various organizations before retiring from The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) in 2023.
This award recognizes members of the digital learning community who activily promote excellence and quality in digital learning and is also intended to highlight thought leadership and demonstrated leadership capabilities.
One award recipient will be chosen every other year (alternating with the Russ Poulin Award) and the awardee will be honored at the WCET conference.
Eligibility Criteria:
This award recognizes professionals who have…
- made an outsized contribution for their ‘rank’ to the digital learning community,
- not achieved the rank of senior leadership at their organization,
- demonstrated leadership, including thought leadership, in an area effecting digital teaching and learning including policy and practice related arenas.
Candidates must be affiliated with a WCET member institution, organization, or corporation that is in good standing.
Nominations may be submitted by the individual under consideration or by a colleague, supervisor, or other interested party.
2025 Nominations
Nominations for 2025 will be open early April 2025.
Previous Recipients
2024 – Dr. Kylah Torre
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Division of Digital Learning
As the Senior Director of the Division of Digital Learning at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Dr. Kylah Torre has exemplified extraordinary leadership and an unwavering commitment to propelling the Open Education agenda and digital innovation across the State of Texas. Her pioneering efforts have profoundly influenced shared pedagogy, the creation of innovative collaborative tools, and the advancement of scholarly research, yielding significant benefits for the global educational community. Dr. Torre’s work has garnered acclaim at state, national, and international levels.
Dr. Torre’s visionary approach to her work is most evident in her relentless promotion of shared pedagogy. She has successfully cultivated an environment where educators collaboratively design, implement, and refine teaching practices that are freely accessible and adaptable. Her efforts have enabled educators across Texas and beyond to share their expertise and resources, fostering a community of practice that is both innovative and supportive.
Nominated by Michelle Singh, Assistant Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Division of Digital Learning.
2023 – Dr. Felicity Cruz Grandjean
Associate Dean of E-learning Quality, Office of E-learning, Dallas College
Dr. Felicity Cruz Grandjean, Associate Dean of E-learning Quality, Office of E-learning, Dallas College, more than fulfilled the award criteria.
Nominated by Shani Suber, also from Dallas College, Felicity has shown dedication to inclusiveness, accessibility, quality standards, and more, and has brought that dedication to many programs and initiatives such as accessibility and quality checklists and frameworks for staff and instructors and participation and leadership campus wide online learning user groups. Shani mentioned that her leadership in the online teaching and learning industry has been inspirational.
2022– Erika Swain
Assistant Director for Compliance and Authorization at the University of Colorado Boulder and Associate Director of State Authorization at the University of Colorado System
Erika is a leader with WCET’s State Authorization Network as she volunteers regularly and serves on the SAN Advisory Group and leads the SAN Professional Licensure Special Interest Team as well, generously sharing advice, humor, and resources with the WCET community.
Erika Swain holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Ithaca College and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to joining CU Boulder, she worked for many years in regional accreditation, overseeing training and federal compliance programs in her various roles at both the Higher Learning Commission and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Erika has also served as the Registrar at North Country Community College in Saranac Lake, NY.
Erika is always eager to contribute and collaborate and we frequently rely on her expertise and wit to round out our programming. Erika’s contribution is certainly outsized and exceeds her professional rank.
2021 - Dr. Chantae Recasner
Chantae Recasner, Dean of Academic Success at Northeast Lakeview College, is well respected by her colleagues across the Alamo Colleges online team and the WCET Steering Committee. Her leadership skills and dedication on the Equity Steering Committee work group were integral to both the high-quality blog series and facilitated WCET member conversation, the Closer Conversation on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Chantae continues to inspire through her student-centered and people-first leadership approach. About Chantae, her supervisor shares, “Dr. Recasner’s extensive knowledge and background have significantly and positively impacted the ability of Northeast Lakeview College to serve our students through distance Learning. She continues to help us be the best we can be in the distance learning space.”
2019 – Crystal Faulkner, Instructional Technology Support Manager at Austin Peay University
When nominating Crystal Faulkner for the 2019 award, her colleagues noted that she is a thought leader in educational technology who strives to “be a forerunning in the field.” She is an accomplished presenter, and her work has been used as a case study for the implementation of successful educational technologies, and she is active outside of her institution to create educational content for faculty. One of her most impressive projects was working to connect distance education students with services such as research assistance through her institution’s library. This is just one of the many ways her colleagues distinguished Faulkner and how she focuses on elevating the online student experience for her institution and promoting student success.
2018 – Heather Nash, University of Alaska Anchorage
Heather Heather Nash is an accomplished scholar, author, grant writer and director, consultant, and evaluator. She has published numerous book chapter and papers, presented at multiple conferences, and is a respected voice in the educational technology field, with a focus online course quality and program administration and instructional design. Nash is recognized for her work on a statewide initiative in Alaska that created quality support structures for technology-enhanced learning. The program includes participation from all three universities within the University of Alaska system and includes multiple smaller community campuses. Nash’s team recognizes and values her contributions to their group, specifically for her complete redesign of instructional design processes for their institution and her dedication to assisting their faculty and students.
When accepting her award, Nash spoke to the award ceremony attendees about the importance of higher education, stating that “despite the many flaws in higher education today, I still believe, at the core of my being, in the transformational power of higher education. That is what brings me to work every single day.”
2017 – Bucky Dodd, University of Central Oklahoma
Bucky Dodd embodies an unparalleled dedication to the Center for eLearning and Connected Environment (CeCE) department’s mission to “empower course design, teaching, and learning experiences that are learner-centered, high-quality, flexible, and affordable” and has been instrumental in implementing innovative course design and quality assurance initiatives.
Recent indicators of Dodd’s leadership effectiveness and successes include state and international awards recognizing CeCE teams for effective, innovative, replicable, scalable, and sustainable initiatives to foster success in technology-enhanced education, including recognition from Brightspace and the United State Distance Learning Association. Dodd’s leadership and accomplishments are truly remarkable for his rank and the span of his career to date.
2016 – Dale Johnson, Arizona State University
As Adaptive Program Manager, Dale Johnson collaborates with faculty and vendors to develop new courses and educational technologies to help personalize the instructional resources for students. Johnson studied architecture at ASU and public policy at Harvard, a learning path that combined his interests in design, engineering, art, and history.
Nomination materials on behalf of Johnson’s candidacy for this award noted his professionalism and his willingness to share with other institutions and organizations the lessons learned from the multiple personalized courseware deployments he had led at ASU. Those who submitted Johnson’s nomination let us know that:
- Dale has the rare ability to describe complex subjects, such as algorithm-enabled learning systems, in a manner accessible to novice audiences.
- Dale uses our industry’s perennial pursuit of the next great ed tech product as an opportunity to emphasize the critical interdependence of teachers using technology to support learners.
- In the ed-tech community, Dale has become a leader in the effort to analyze how adaptive systems work and explain them to colleagues who also want to use them to help students.
- Three factors make Dale a compelling candidate for this award: project success, best practices, and community. He excels in all three areas.