Lesley Blicker

Background

About Lesley Blicker

I retired from my full-time position as Director of Academic Technologies at Minnesota State (formerly Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) in late 2019. Since then, I have been an independent consultant, dba DesignWorks, continuing to work on large system/collaborative projects in both higher education and in K-12. Consulting: I am an accomplished retired professional offering 30 years’ experience developing and leading initiatives in the public sector, with 18 years specialty in higher education. I am a trusted system-level leader with extensive experience and track record developing collaborative working relationships within a shared governance environment. My areas of specialty include: Business process redesign and measurement, project management, managing enterprise-level technology applications/implementations, vendor procurement including planning and conducting RFPs (Requests for proposal), requirements development, review and analysis of proposals, contract negotiation, large group facilitation, large system planning, and large system collaborations, and conference and workshop, and training design and planning. Teaching: I have over two decades of teaching Operations Management for the Supply Chain. However, I have taught and can teach courses in Management and Leadership, Quality and Lean Management, Project Management, and Strategic Planning. I am also seasoned in developing, designing, and teaching faculty development opportunities, such as conferences, workshops, summer institutes, online seminars, etc. My areas of specialty here include: course design, active learning strategies, best practices in teaching and learning especially in the online arena, the use of academic technologies to enhance teaching, quality evaluation of courses, and accessibility and universal design. I describe my teaching style as warm, accessible, enthusiastic, and caring. I model best practices in teaching and learning such as interactive online course design, student engagement, and culturally inclusive pedagogy. I have been teaching students from diverse backgrounds for well more than a decade while teaching at Metropolitan State University and other public universities. I have advanced knowledge of the D2L learning management system and can easily adapt to other platforms. Finally, I am committed to ensuring my courses meet the Quality Matters standards as well as accessibility standards and elements of universal design.