Advisory Coaches | Course Developers/Facilitators | Management & Program Directors | Emeritus
Advisory Coaches
Lecturer in Linguistics and TESOL
Course Facilitators
Kim Grewe, PhD
Course Developer, OFAR
Instructional Designer, Northern Virginia Community College
Kim Grewe, PhD is an educator, scholar, online learning enthusiast, community college leader, and champion of open education. Kim serves as an Instructional Designer at Northern Virginia Community College Online (NOVA Online), where she collaborates with peers to create inclusive and equitable online learning experiences for students. Based on solid research, the design work she does employs strategies for increasing student access, engagement, and interaction in online courses. As an advocate for open, her design strategies empower students to participate in their own learning and encourage real-world and authentic applications of the learning. She also serves on the DEI Council at NOVA and is working with a team of English professors on the college’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which seeks to use culturally responsive teaching practices to create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences for students. Outside of work, Kim enjoys yoga, hiking, reading, and birdwatching.
Joy Shoemate
Course Developer, OFAR
Director of Online Learning, College of the Canyons
Joy Shoemate serves as the Director of Online Education at College of the Canyons where she supports instructors’ successful integration of technology and equitable teaching practices to promote student success, persistence, and completion in online courses. She also oversees the development and adoption of Open Educational Resources and implements training on best practices in online teaching and learning. In addition to her role at COC, Joy is a course facilitator for @ONE, and serves as the co-developer and co-facilitator of the Open for Antiracism Program. She is a former member of the Executive Council of CCCOER, and is a current board member of DET/CHE.
Dr. Jamie Thomas (she/they)
Course Facilitator, OFAR
Lecturer in Linguistics and TESOL at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Dr. Jamie Thomas is OFAR Lead Coach and a Lecturer in Linguistics and TESOL at CSU Dominguez Hills. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics, with a focus on African languages, and she has been proud to support OFAR as a coach since 2021. In 2022, Jamie was recognized with the Distance Education Excellence award at Santa Monica College, where she taught linguistics after previous roles at Middlebury College and Swarthmore College. She also completed an Executive Fellowship (2022-2023) with Los Angeles County’s Antiracism, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiative. Thereafter, she joined Cypress College as Dean of Social Sciences through 2025, and has continued to contribute to CVC@ONE professional development as a facilitator and course developer.
Recently, she contributed a chapter on “Decolonization and Language Teaching” to a new 2025 Pressbooks OER textbook, Contemporary Topics in Applied Linguistics for Language Educators, and she has a chapter in the 2024 book, Inclusion in Linguistics, regarding “Community College Linguistics for Educational Justice: Content and Assessment Strategies that Support Antiracist and Inclusive Teaching“.
Living in the Los Angeles area, Jamie enjoys exploring the local foodie scene with friends and looks forward to soon being a first-time mom. Curry, anyone?!
Management & Co-Directors
James Glapa-Grossklag
Co-director
James.glapa-grossklag@canyons.edu
James is Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning at College of the Canyons. He serves as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office for the ZTC Grant Program and co-leads the Open for Antiracism Program with CCCOER. He is past Board President of Open Education Global, CCCOER, and DETCHE. He is currently OER Fellow for the Michelson 20MM Foundation and a faculty member in the AAC&U Institute on OER. He earned tenure as a faculty member in history.
Dr. Laura M. Dunn
Co-director
In addition to co-directing Open for Antiracism, Laura oversees assessment and the academic writing program Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. She is also the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dharma Studies, a scholarly publication focused on Asian and Transcultural Religion, Philosophy, & Ethics. Laura’s current research examines how indigenous knowledge systems intersect with cross cultural contemplative practices as a means to reclaim identity in post- and neo-colonial contexts. She is an award-winning writer with numerous accolades, such as the Chan Writing Award and the Borsch-Rast Dissertation Award. She is a Newhall Fellow, Interreligious Collaborative Research Fellow, and recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Association for Asian Studies Publication Grant. She is an animal advocate, enjoys meditation, fitness, photography, and nature, and lives in the Bay Area.
Liz Yata
Manager of Membership Operations, Open Education Global
Liz has been working for OEGlobal since 2017. She manages, coordinates, and supports the activities of OEGlobal’s regional node for US community colleges, the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER), which includes membership, online events, workshops, webinars, and social media. Liz also provides support for major global events such as the annual Open Education Global Conference and Open Education Week.
After earning her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California Davis, Liz worked at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA as Lab Safety Intern and as a web administrator at College Open Textbooks where she first learned and became interested in open textbooks.
Emeritus
