Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication, Department of
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2014
Abstract
Janet Poley just retired as CEO and President of the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) an ancillary of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a 501(c)3 incorporated in Nebraska. She has developed collaborative distance education initiatives and conducts research and education programs related to technology access and applications with state and land-grant university members and international affiliates. She was a pioneer in the use of video, satellite and digital technologies to create access to higher education of all types. She has worked in more than 40 countries to develop agricultural education and communication programs and maintains a large network of associations with global distance education leaders. As ADEC President she organizes and plans the program for annual ADEC Board meetings, Program Panel and Annual Conference in various locations throughout the United States. (This past year's conference was held at the University of Maryland, featuring the President of the University of Maryland System as keynote speaker. In her role as CEO and President of ADEC, she has served as Principal Investigator and manager of grants involving member institutions including a $5 million National Science Foundation grant for advanced networking and applications including work on rural broadband as well as distance education and digital libraries in China. She was Co-PI on an NSF start-up program in Human Language Technology, a collaboration between the U.S. and Moroccan institutions. She was awarded and managed domestic and international distance education, digital library and scientific and technical exchange programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture including the multi-year Agricultural Telecommunications Program, Scientific and Technical Exchange Programs in communication and food safety with China and a cooperative agreement with the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and the Universidad de Concepcion (UDEC) in Chile. Other major grant activities have been with the Department of Commerce to develop distance education infrastructure nationally and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Minority Scholars Program and the Strategic Use of Online Learning cooperating with APLUserving as senior review for the final project paper. Other grants have related to use of education and technology for personal, professional and community growth and development. She is currently managing a number of agreements with international institutions and organizations in Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean and China. She served on the APLU committee fostering cooperation in higher education in Africa, including by distance. She is a professor with courtesy appointments in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources: Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication; College of Education and Human Sciences and the College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Poley is currently providing national leadership in distance education policy as a member of the leadership team for the Sloan financed APLU Commission on the Regulations of Distance Education, including State Authorization. She currently represents ADEC on the National eLearning Alliance (NeLA) founded this past year to address current and future policy issues and the research agenda for distance education and prepare for the re-authorization of the Higher Education Authorization Act.