Exploring Getting Started with Discipline Specific Projects

Mary Anne Poatsy, Series Editor

Mary Anne is a senior faculty member at Montgomery County Community College, teaching various computer application and concepts courses in face-to-face and online environments. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Education from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. in Finance from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Mary Anne has more than 12 years of educational experience. She is currently adjunct faculty at Gwynedd-Mercy College and Montgomery County Community College. She has also taught at Bucks County Community College and Muhlenberg College, as well as conducted personal training. Before teaching, she was Vice President at Shearson Lehman in the Municipal Bond Investment Banking Department.




Sheila Gionfriddo

Sheila is currently a faculty member at Luzerne County Community College, teaching various computer application courses, office information courses, health information management, and ICD-10 and CPT coding courses. She has been an educator for 16 years at the college, starting as an adjunct and then as a full-time faculty member. She is the coordinator for the Office Information Management program and Administrator for MyITLab at the college. She is Microsoft certified in all Office Applications. Sheila received a B.S. from the University of Connecticut, an A.A.S. degree in Computer Information Systems from Luzerne County Community College, and is a certified medical coder. After working almost twenty years for the American Red Cross, she switched careers. With a strong science background and a love of learning, she pursued degrees in computer and health information technologies. One of her greatest joys is helping students of all ages and backgrounds to learn how to use computer applications and programs to be successful in their chosen field of study.



Lynn Hogan Lynn Hogan teaches at the University of North Alabama, providing instruction in the area of computer applications. With over 30 years of educational experience at the community college and university level, Lynn has taught applications, programming, and concepts courses in both online and classroom environments. She received an M.B.A. from the University of North Alabama and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Lynn is a co-author of Practical Computing and has served on the authoring team of Your Office as well as the Exploring Office 2010 series. She resides in Alabama with her husband and two daughters.



Rebecca Lawson Rebecca Lawson is a professor in the Computer Information Technologies program at Lansing Community College. She coordinates the curriculum, develops the instructional materials, and teaches for the E-Business curriculum. She also serves as the Online Faculty Coordinator at the Center for Teaching Excellence at LCC. In that role, she develops and facilitates online workshops for faculty learning to teach online. Her major areas of interest include online curriculum quality assurance, the review and development of printed and online instructional materials, the assessment of computer and Internet literacy skill levels to facilitate student retention, and the use of social networking tools to support learning in blended and online learning environments.




Dr. Anthony Nowakowski

Dr. Anthony Nowakowski has taught mathematics and computer-related courses spanning more than fifty years to students ranging from 7th grade to graduate-school level. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Computer Information Systems department at Buffalo State College. Although retired, he continues to teach Visual Basic programming courses both face-to-face and online. Anthony holds a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an M.A. degree in Mathematics, and a B.S. degree in Secondary Mathematics Education, both from the State University College at Buffalo.



Dr. Robert T. Grauer, Creator of the Exploring Series

Bob Grauer is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computer Information Systems at the University of Miami, where he is a multiple winner of the Outstanding Teaching Award in the School of Business, most recently in 2009. He has written numerous COBOL texts and is the vision behind the Exploring Office series, with more than three million books in print. His work has been translated into three foreign languages and is used in all aspects of higher education at both national and international levels. Bob Grauer has consulted for several major corporations including IBM and American Express. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research in 1972 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.