Meet the Steering Committee

Meet the Steering Committee behind the Open Education Association Development Project. This group of 10 professionals from across the United States brings a wealth of experience and expertise in open education. Each member engages with open education in unique ways, contributing their insights and perspectives to shape the future of this initiative.

The project is committed to being guided by community input. We encourage you to sign up to help shape the direction of the initiative.

Liliana Diaz Soloduhkin

Senior Director of Student Success and P20 Alignment, Colorado Department of Higher Education

Liliana Diaz Soloduhkin currently serves as senior director of student success and P20 alignment at the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Liliana has served in a variety of roles and capacities within higher education for more than a decade with experience in admissions, financial aid, academic advising, pre-collegiate programs, and civic and community engagement at both two-and four-year institutions. Before joining the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Liliana was senior policy analyst at the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE). In this role, she supported the advancement, adoption, and scaling of Open Educational Resources (OER) across western states and nationally through collaborative projects and initiatives. Liliana currently serves as lead for the Advancing OER for All Working Group for Driving Open Educational Resources for Student Success (DOERS). Liliana earned her master’s and doctorate in higher education from the University of Denver.

Abbey Elder

Statewide Open Education Coordinator & Open Access and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Iowa State University

Abbey Elder is the Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian for Iowa State University, where she uplifts and supports instructors who are interested in open education, open access publishing, and other scholarly communication topics. Over the past decade, Abbey has greatly expanded the support for open education at Iowa State University, developing a cross-campus committee, grant program, website, and annual programming. In addition to her institutional work, Abbey serves as the Statewide Open Education Coordinator for the Iowa Open Education Action Team, where she collaborates with colleges across Iowa to develop and assess programs that support the use of OER.

Carlos Goller

Teaching Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University

Dr. Carlos Goller is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and teaches in the Biotechnology Program (BIT) at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. His research interests include molecular microbiology, metagenomics, epidemiology, the history of diseases, science education, and open educational practices. Dr. Goller is also focused on teaching with technology and the scholarship of teaching and learning. As a reflective teacher and curious scientist, his goal is to learn with and from students and staff at NC State and beyond.

Rebecca Karoff

Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, University of Texas System

Dr. Rebecca Karoff leads systemwide student success initiatives at The University of Texas System as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. She is committed to using the system as a catalyst for educational attainment, equity, innovation, and transformation. Her work addresses the student success continuum, recognizing the remarkable responsibility and opportunity of the University of Texas System to expand opportunity and outcomes for the state's increasingly diverse students. She leads several system-institutional collaborative initiatives, including the Exemplary Student Pathways Project, initiatives on transfer and advising, and the UT System’s momentum-building strategy on Open Educational Resources (OER).

Joy Shoemate

Director, Online Education, College of Canyons

Joy Shoemate is the Director of Online Education at College of the Canyons where she supports instructors’ successful integration of technology into teaching and learning to promote student success, persistence and completion in distance education courses. She also oversees the development and adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER). Joy previously served on the Executive Council of CCCOER and currently serves on the board of the Drivers of Educational Technology California Higher Education (DET/CHE). She also facilitates courses for the Online Network of Educators (@ONE), the leading professional development organization for the California Community College system.

Daniel Williamson

Managing Director, OpenStax

Daniel Williamson is the Managing Director of OpenStax, a leading non-profit educational technology company that provides free, open textbooks and learning resources, saving students over $2 billion in textbook costs since 2012. A two-time Rice University graduate with a background in opera performance and an MBA, he is deeply committed to equity in education. He also serves on the board of Level (learnlevel.org), a non-profit dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals. When he is not busy at work, you can find him spending time with his dog, Endi, and husband Scott.

Aishah Abdullah

Open Education Project Manager, SPARC | Non-Voting Member

Aishah Abdullah works for SPARC as the Open Education Project Manager. In this role, she helps support SPARC's open education work and collaborates closely with the operations behind the national coordination efforts. She began her journey in open education as a student advocate at her community college and continued advocating for textbook affordability at the University of Maryland. Aishah graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy, focusing on Education.

Nicole Allen

Director of Open Education, SPARC | Non-Voting Member

Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC, leading efforts to advance openness and equity in education. She oversees a state and federal policy program, a librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for open education professionals. Nicole has dedicated her career to ensuring global access to knowledge and is an internationally recognized advocate for open education. She has been cited in the media, delivered hundreds of talks in over two dozen countries, and led SPARC’s open education program to significant policy achievements. Nicole holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Puget Sound and lives between Providence, RI, and Washington, DC.

Jeff Gallant

Chair, DOERS & Program Director, Affordable Learning Georgia | Non-Voting Member

Jeff Gallant is the Program Director for Affordable Learning Georgia, an initiative of the University System of Georgia to reduce the cost of textbooks for students system-wide with strategies including grant programs, pilots, training programs, repositories, publishing partnerships, and cross-institution collaborative projects. Jeff often represents Affordable Learning Georgia externally at meetings, conferences, and site visits, and has guided and mentored Affordable Learning Georgia Champions from each state institution in Georgia.

Jenny Parks

VP of Policy and Research, MHEC | Non-Voting Member

Jenny Parks is vice president of Policy and Research at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC). She leads the exploration, development, and implementation of projects that help Midwestern postsecondary institutions improve the way they serve students. Jenny has worked at all levels and in multiple sectors of education, including state and federal compliance, institutional research, accreditation, and policy advocacy. She earned her master’s degree in educational policy and research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her doctorate in higher education administration from Northeastern University in Boston.

Survey Invitation: National Open Education Needs Assessment

Update: Thank you to more than 1,300 open education community members and practitioners who completed the survey. Sign up to receive updates on the findings, which will be shared over the summer.

The Open Education Association Development Project is a new national initiative to strengthen open education in the U.S. through strategic coordination and collaborative action. As one of our first steps, we are conducting a national survey to better understand the current needs, challenges, and priorities of the open education field.

The survey is open to anyone engaged in open education — whether you’re an educator, librarian, administrator, or advocate. Your input will help identify areas where national-level action can make the greatest impact to advance open education efforts in service of learners.

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and will remain open until April 4, 2025. All responses are confidential and will be analyzed in aggregate to inform future strategies and programming.

The survey is administered by Bay View Analytics and is supported by funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. While our primary focus is the U.S. context, people from all countries are welcome to participate.

We want to hear from you! Please take the survey and share the invitation with anyone who may be interested.

Announcing Next Steps on U.S. National Coordination on Open Education

We are excited to announce the Open Education Association Development Project (opened.org), a national initiative to advance open education efforts across the United States for the benefit of learners. Answering a community-developed call to action for greater coordination at the national level, the project will seek to increase recognition of open education nationally, bridge gaps between existing efforts, and foster connections that empower the open education field to have a greater collective impact. 

Supported by a two-year grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Open Education Association Development Project will begin in spring 2025 with a field-wide survey to identify needs and gaps that can be addressed through national-level action. Based on the results, the project will take targeted steps to address strategic priorities, which may include raising the visibility of open education among key audiences, developing resources to support advocacy and fundraising, and creating new ways to recognize outstanding open education work. The project will also work to build collective spaces and structures to better connect members of the field with resources, information, and each other.

The project will be led by a national Steering Committee that is committed to ensuring the project engages transparently with the community, works collaboratively without duplicating efforts, and respects the diverse contexts of existing initiatives. The foundations of this work were shaped through more than a year of conversations facilitated across a variety of community forums by DOERS, SPARC and the regional interstate higher education compacts (MHEC, NEBHE, SREB and WICHE). SPARC will serve as administrator of the grant under the Steering Committee’s oversight.

As articulated in the Proposal for National Coordination on Open Education, the Open Education Association Development Project’s long-term vision is a future where educational resources and practices throughout our education systems are openly shared and reflective of the learners they serve. With an initial focus on U.S. higher education, the project will dedicate itself to serving the open education field as a whole, working to build a shared association where people, organizations and open education efforts can connect and collaborate toward a more sustainable future.

As the work gets underway, everyone who is interested is invited to sign up for updates and opportunities to get involved. Updates will also be posted on opened.org.

Get Involved

Kickoff Webinar: Join us for a webinar on March 10, 2025 to learn more about the project!

Interest Form: Complete the interest form to sign up for updates

Share Comments: Share your thoughts using our comment form or email us at contact@opened.org