About the Authors

Dave Dillon, Curator, Co-author, and Editor of Blueprint for Success in College: Indispensable Study Skills and Time Management Strategies

Dave Dillon earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in counseling from the University of San Diego. His first career and passion was coaching basketball which he did for seven years at the University of California at San Diego. Following a year of substitute teaching (K-12), four years working in the entertainment department for the San Diego Padres major league baseball organization, and a year as a product analyst in the video game industry, Dave continued to pursue his passion of counseling and teaching at the community college level.

As a tenured professor and counseling faculty at Grossmont College, Dave enjoys connecting with students. He does his best to keep up with the next generation and their use of technology in and out of the classroom. His passion has not ceased from his UCSC commencement speech to presenting at local and national conferences. Dave resides in Carlsbad, California, with his wife, two daughters, and yellow labrador, Lucy.

This OER (Open Educational Resources) project has taken full advantage of the “5 R’s” or permissions of OER, the ability to Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute content for educational purposes. It is with great gratitude that I introduce the authors of the OER texts whose content was retained, reused, revised, and/or remixed in some way and contributed to this final product. In a few instances, I have also included the rationale for their OER text. Links to each of the original OER texts, their licenses, and peer reviews can be found in Appendix A.

Linda (Bruce) Hill, contributing author to College Success

Linda (Bruce) Hill is the director of distance learning at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she works with graduate students and faculty to help them thrive in a global learning environment. Her career in education spans decades of technology growth and change, but is centered on a love of teaching and learning and on the rewards of continuing education. A lifelong learner herself, Linda earned a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film at the University of Maryland College Park, and a master’s in education and human development at the George Washington University in a distance learning program that set standards for higher education offerings. Outside of her full-time work at Goucher, Linda freelances as a writer and instructional designer —pursuits that aligned her with Lumen Learning on the production of their College Success course, built heartily with open education resources and original writing. A favorite quote exemplifying her professional philosophy is from Arthur C. Clarke: “Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.”

Alise Lamoreaux, author of A Different Road To College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-traditional Students

Alise Lamoreaux has a long history of teaching non-traditional students who are preparing for the GED and transitioning to college. She teaches a class called, “Everything You Want to Know About College, Before You Start” along with Hybrid GED courses at Lane Community College, in Eugene, Oregon. Alise is known for her willingness to learn and use new technologies in the classroom, such as digital storytelling, learning management systems, and other online resources. She is an advocate of student success. Throughout the years, she has demonstrated her willingness to teach other professionals how they might also implement innovative technologies in the classroom. This year, she took on the challenge of writing an open source textbook, through a grant she received from openoregon.org, titled, A Different Road To College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-traditional Students. This free resource is designed to engage students in seeing themselves as college students and understanding the complexity of what that means to their lives, as well as helping to unlock the contextual complexities of the culture of college.