Sherri Castanzo

With over 23 years of experience in traditional classroom instruction and adult education strategies grounded in instructional design models, Dr. Braxton Castanzo also possesses over 21 years of experience using learning technologies in higher education settings and has extensive working knowledge of numerous learning management systems. She currently serves as the Senior Director for Digital Innovation at Bowdoin College.

By way of partnerships across the college, Dr. Braxton Castanzo lead efforts to identify, prioritize and pursue opportunities for digital innovation that will impact both curricular and co-curricular learning spaces. Her work also extends to developing partnerships and collaborative initiatives with peers at other institutions as well as establishing new consortial relationships to prepare and position Bowdoin for the academic transformation on the horizon in the K-16 education landscape related to alternative credentialing and creating student-centered learning pathways


She previously served as the Senior Director of Instructional Technology at UMBC where she was responsible for leading the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) strategy for end-user support of instructional technologies including online, hybrid, and traditional “face-to-face” technologies. She was the university representative on the University System of Maryland’s Academic Transformation Advisory Council and led the university’s transformation of their online course design initiatives to integrate both national standards and best practices. Dr. Braxton Castanzo also spearheaded UMBC’s digital badging initiatives and currently serves as the working group co-chair for phase II of the IMS Global Consortium’s Digital Credentials Currency Initiative to define Open Badges Extensions for Education (OBEE) while leading the technical specifications task force as part of that initiative.

Before joining UMBC, she served as the Director of Course Redesign at Bowie State University (BSU) for 3 years overseeing its first USM Course Redesign activities and representing BSU on the USM Academic Transformation Advisory Council. Prior to this position, as the Director of Distance Education within the Johns Hopkins University Engineering for Professionals Program, Dr. Braxton Castanzo led the online development team in the design and implementation of courses while continuing to support the existing online programs, partnerships, and traditional classroom faculty engaged in supplementing their traditional courses with an online component. She served as the subject matter expert in the area of distance education and worked with faculty, chairs, and senior management to ensure quality was at the forefront of their online offerings, leading the program through their first Quality Matters course reviews and certifications. Prior to that role, she served as a Senior Instructional Designer to the program. As a Collegiate Associate Professor at the University of Maryland University College in the Computer Information Technology Program, Dr. Braxton Castanzo served as a lead faculty for the Common Exam Initiative, participated in the Common Syllabus Initiative and was actively involved in the Cross-Curricular Initiative, acting as a technology consultant to other disciplines in the university to ensure those disciplines effectively implemented technology-enabled instructional activities.

Dr. Braxton Castanzo has also previously served as a Distance Learning Subject Matter Expert, Program Manager, Training Manager and Principal Consultant within the government sector as a defense contractor overseeing the design, development and execution of traditional/platform-based, web-based, hybrid, mobile and computer-based training and education initiatives including the implementation of formative and summative assessment and certification strategies. Dr. Braxton was tenured as an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Bowie State University in 2003 where she served as the Computer Technology Program Coordinator and led the implementation of the 4 Computer Technology Tracks, developing the Internet Technology Track.

Education

PhD, The George Washington University

MS, North Carolina State University

BS, Wake Forest University

Public Service

Therapeutic & Recreational Riding Center, Other - Glenwood

Howard County Autism Society, Volunteer - Columbia

Publications

Braxton, S. N. (2020). Advancing an Open Educational Resource Initiative through Collaborative Leadership. The International Journal of Open Educational Resources

Presentations

Braxton, S. N. (2020). Synthesizing Outcomes at Scale: Connecting the Dots to Inform Institution-wide Decision Making . AAHLE