Meet the Speakers

2026 Speakers

Lisa Young

Dr. Lisa Young brings more than 30 years of higher-education experience to her work in microcredentials and digital badges. As a longtime academic leader at the Maricopa Community Colleges, she helped lead system-wide efforts to recognize learning more openly and affordably, laying the groundwork for scalable microcredential and skills-based initiatives. Today, as a consultant, her work centers on building open, interoperable microcredential frameworks that connect learning across classrooms, workplaces, and communities. She is especially interested in how digital badges can support lifelong learning, workforce alignment, and learner agency at scale..

Kevin Corcoran

Kevin Corcoran is the Assistant Vice Provost of the University of Central Florida’s Center for Distributed Learning. Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the development and support of strategies for the effective use of digital learning tools and content that focuses on quality standards and practices, student engagement, accessibility and affordability. Kevin has supported system, state, and national open education efforts over the past decade, including chairing the statewide Connecticut OER Coordinating Council and the DOERS3 collaborative.

Andrew McKinney

Andrew McKinney is the University Director of Research and Publishing Strategy in the Office of Library Services at the City University of New York (CUNY) Central Office. His primary responsibility in that role is to oversee the CUNY OER Initiative, a $4 million a year program funded by New York State that supports, promotes, and incentivizes the use and creation of Open Educational Resources and Zero Textbook Cost materials at all the undergraduate serving institutions of CUNY. He is also a founding and active member of Driving OER for Sustainable Student Success (DOERS), a collaborative of higher education systems and state/province-wide organizations that supports the use of OER. Andrew holds a PhD in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center and has worked at CUNY in a multitude of roles since 2006.

Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell began her career in education as an ESL teacher in New York City. She then obtained her PhD in Educational Psychology with a minor in Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota where she was trained in educational research. She has published over 60 articles in education research and teaches courses in education research, program evaluation, and psychological foundations of education. Her current research focuses on the psychology of reading comprehension and open education. She is a primary researcher for the open education group, which sponsors a fellowship for early career researchers.

Nicole Lapeyrouse

Dr. Nicole Lapeyrouse is an associate lecturer at the University of Central Florida (UCF). At UCF, her research focuses on chemistry education, with the overarching goal of increasing student retention in STEM. This work includes investigating students’ perceptions of teaching practices and their experiences with innovative multimedia. In addition, her research group examines factors that influence students’ STEM identities. Dr. Lapeyrouse has received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Affordable Instructional Materials High-Impact Individual Award for her use of Open Educational Resources, and the Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year Award.

Liliana Diaz Solodukhin

Liliana Diaz Solodukhin is a Senior Program Officer at Ascendium Education Group. In this role, she works in partnership with the Connect and Align Systems strategy team to advance grantmaking goals through the careful design, management, and review of one or more strategic portfolios. She joined the organization in 2026.  Previously, she served as Senior Director of Student Success and P20 Alignment at the Colorado Department of Higher Education, where she supported student success initiatives and aligned higher education policy with state statutes. She has also worked at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education as a Senior Policy Analyst, broadening the adoption and scaling of Open Educational Resources, founding the OERwest Network to bring together OER leaders and champions together across the west. Liliana serves on the Open Education Association Steering Committee — a newly formed member organization serving Open Education professionals. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of Denver. She also holds a Bachelor of Art in Film Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Nicole Allen

Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC. In this role, she leads SPARC’s work to advance openness and equity in education, which includes a robust state and federal policy program, a broad librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for open education professionals. Nicole joined SPARC in 2013 to develop and launch a program on open education. Under her leadership, SPARC’s open education program has been a driving force behind numerous state and federal policy achievements, which include securing more than $50 million in federal appropriations for open textbook grants and establishing an open licensing policy at the Department of Education. Nicole has numerous projects under her direction, including InclusiveAccess.org, the OER Digest, and the administrative organizing of the Open Education Conference.