Jeff Loats

Jeff Loats, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design. at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He joined MSU Denver in 2008 as an assistant professor of Physics. He has taught courses from across the physics curriculum, including a senior-level course on nuclear and particle physics, as well as general studies courses such as the Physics of Nature and Physics of Music.

Loats became the director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design in 2018. In this role, his areas of expertise include the impact of generative AI in higher education, scholarly teaching, research-based instructional strategies, and active engagement.

Loats has won multiple teaching awards and has presented on teaching and technology to a wide variety of audiences. He was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Teacher-Scholar Forum at MSU Denver and was a featured speaker at the Lilly West Conference on College and University Teaching in March 2012.

Loats earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Oregon State University and his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Fort Lewis College.

Daniel Pittman

Daniel Pittman, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Steve Geinitz

Shaun T. Schafer

Shaun T. Schafer is the associate vice president of curriculum, academic effectiveness and policy development in the Department of Academic Affairs at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Schafer is also professor in the Journalism and Media Production Department. His areas of expertise include media law, media ethics, free press, curriculum policies and artificial intelligence in academic settings.

Mohammad Valipour

Smita Singh

Smita Singh, M.A., is a assistant professor in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches courses in Event Planning, Special Events Production, Talent Leadership, Event planning for the Professionals as well as Human Resource Management. She also serves as a board member for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, which collaborates with other professionals and industry experts for conducting events and exhibitions.

Prior to coming to MSU Denver, Singh worked at Iowa State University in the College of Human Sciences where she developed an experiential learning environment for classrooms by using real world case studies that included hotels, restaurants, events and other hospitality landscapes. In addition, she also served as an adjunct faculty member for the Institute of Professional Studies in India teaching Risk and Tourism Management.

She worked as an event manager for the Jaypee Group where she planned and organized major tradeshows and conferences within and outside India, coordinated pricing and ticketing strategies as well as managed the finical and business aspects to effectively run events with vendors and clients. Smita also organized and participated in national conferences in Western and Eastern India as well as events in Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok and Sharjah. She helped organize the Formula 1 international race in India and developed the communication and marketing strategy for the event.

Smita is passionate about working with events around community involvement. She worked with Sankalp, a student organization and a non‐profit organization to create awareness and help economically struggling people achieve sustainable development, organized charitable events like Daawat, a fundraising dinner to showcase and raise money for various chosen NGO‐supplied project proposals and helped create a fundraising campaign for oxygen concentrators to combat COVID‐19 in India.`

Smita is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for hospitality management at Iowa State University. She received her master’s in business administration in 2009 and bachelor’s in engineering from Jaypee College of Business in India 2007.

Richard C. Mac Namee

Richard Mac Namee is the director of the Cybersecurity Center at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, intelligence operations, covert operations, nuclear security and cybersecurity. He currently teaches Cybersecurity Capstone for senior students.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Mac Namee worked as a British Army officer, whose service included the Household Division’s Scots Guards and being an operator and commander in the United Kingdom’s Special Forces. His service required him to deploy to numerous locations throughout the world commanding operations conducted in the interests of national security, including being seconded to the U.K.’s Security Service (MI5).

Following a recall to military service as a Special Operations commander from 2009 to 2011 as part of the U.S. surge into Afghanistan, Mac Namee was recruited by a Tier One research university in the U.S. and appointed as a professor of the Practice at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. There, he delivered graduate-level classes in Counter-Terrorism, Intelligence Operations and Covert Operations, as well as Technical and Cybersecurity Operations. Mac Namee returned to private practice in September 2018 to deliver Counter-U.A.S. technologies into Thailand as well as Artificial Intelligence Cybersolutions for a large Mexican bank.

Since retiring from the military, Mac Namee has successfully established and led several profitable commercial enterprises in the private sector in the fields of business intelligence, security and risk. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service for his services with Special Operations. He is the author of “The 5W’s of Terrorism,” which was published in the 5th International Symposium and Seminar on Global Nuclear Human Resource Development for Safety, Security and Safeguards in 2016.

Samuel Jay

Samuel Jay, Ph.D., is a professor of Communication Studies and interim executive director of Online Learning at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Steve Beaty

Steve Beaty, Ph.D., serves as a professor of computer science and Interim Dean at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

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