Instructors

Howard Alcosser , has taught all levels of high school mathematics for 31 years. He has taught AP Calculus AB and BC at Diamond Bar High School in Diamond Bar, California for 26 years where he was the architect of the AP Calculus program that was designated "Best in the World" in 2005 and "Best in the Nation" in 2007 by the College Board in their Report to the Nation and California's Best by the Siemens Foundation in 2008. Howard was named by the College Board in 2006 as one of 20 Exemplary AP Teachers in the Western Region. Howard has been an AP Calculus Reader for the past 7 years and has presented workshops as a College Board Endorsed Consultant in San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Antonio. He has also presented at the AP Annual Conference in Las Vegas, and for the NCTM and California Mathematics Council in Palm Springs, California.

Douglas Allen, MA, has been teaching AP* Studio Art classes for over 25 years and is currently a Fine Arts Consultant for Jordan School District in Sandy, Utah. He has been working with the College Board, both as an exam reader and consultant for the past six years and has lead one-day workshops and five-day institutes nationally. Besides from being an educator, Mr. Allen is also an accomplished artist and has many commissions for his paintings.

Norma E. Arroyo, MA, teaches at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is an endorsed AP* Consultant, an AP* Spanish reader, and has taught AP* Spanish classes for 11 years. Ms. Arroyo has been a high school Spanish teacher and a Methods instructor for seventeen years. The College Board awarded Ms. Arroyo a scholarship to attend the College Board Equity Colloquium in Houston, TX and the AP* National Conference in Los Angeles. She has presented “Pre-AP* Strategies” at the AATSP Conference in San Diego in 2007, and most recently, “Teaching the 5 C’s” at the RMLA in Calgary, Canada in the Fall 2007. Ms. Arroyo has been the recipient of the AATSP Excellence in Teaching Award of the Colorado Chapter in 2007, Excellence in Teaching Award of the University of Northern Colorado in 2006 and was named 2006 Fort Collins, February Rotary Teacher of the Month. Currently, she is President-Elect of the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers.

Christophe Barquissau, MA, MS, was born and raised in Paris, France. He earned his first American master's degree from the University of Arizona in French literature and a second one in pedagogy (SLAT). He is currently teaching AP* French Language and Literature for a college preparatory school for gifted students at University High School in Tucson, AZ. Mr. Barquissau has been teaching French since 1994 both for high school and university level. He was appointed as a reader and consultant for the College Board in 1996, and has conducted one and five day curriculum all over the nation.

Michael Basham, MA, is the Science Department co-chair at El Dorado High School and has been teaching Biology and AP* Biology for the past 21 years. He has been a College Board consultant for the last 15 years, and has served as an exam reader and table leader. He is a past member of the AP* Biology Test Development Committee. Sigma Xi recognized him as an Outstanding Science Teacher in the greater Sacramento area, and he has also been awarded the Access Excellence Fellow, NABT Outstanding Biology Teacher, and has been a Siemens award winner.

Barbra Brooks-Barker, MA, has been an active participant in the education of our youth for the past 30 years. She has served as an outstanding English Literature and Composition teacher, a table leader and reader of AP* English Literature exams, and is one of the authors for The Vertical Teams Guide for English. She has served as a pre-AP* coordinator for the Elk Grove School District and currently serves the educational community as a National Consultant for the College Board as well as for her own private consulting company.

Sherrie Carinci, MBA, Ed.D., is a scholar/researcher in the field of gender and multicultural patterns in the area of education, business and society. She is an associate professor for the College of Education and graduate coordinator for the Master of Arts Education, Gender Equity Studies emphasis at Sacramento State.

Cathy L. Daly is an instructor in the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento.

Rocky Dunne, M.A., has worked in all areas of adult learning disabilities (LD).She is currently the coordinator of learning disabilities at American River College in a program of more than 650 LD students.

Matthew Ellington has taught AP* U.S. History for the last 13 years. He has been an AP* exam reader since 2000. He is an endorsed AP* and Pre-AP* workshop consultant and has presented numerous one day workshops for the College Board and has presented week long summer programs at Bellevue, Vancouver, Riverside, Salt Lake, and Long Beach.

Dr. Lani Fraizer serves as Founder and Executive Director of Synergies in Sync, LLC. Traveling across the globe, Lani's passion for education and workforce development has brought her to places like Seoul, Shanghai, Quebec and London. She also serves as senior strategy consultant to organizations in advancing employability and digital literacy efforts in North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Fraizer has a doctoral degree from Pepperdine University and a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She is also actively involved in entrepreneurship and service learning endeavors related to ICT and youth leadership.

Patricia Gaggiani, MA, has been a teacher in Denver Public Schools since 1970. She created the district’s Advanced Placement English Language and Composition course in 1985 and taught it full time until 2001. Mrs. Gaggiani is now the director of the Writing Center at George Washington High School. She read the Language and Composition test from 2001 to 2007.

Susan Gerard, MA, is the history department chairperson at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, WA. She has been teaching AP* European History for 23 years. She has been reading AP* exams since 1996 and has been a table leader since 2000 and has also taught AP* workshops and institutes since this time. She is the recipient of several teaching awards: VFW Teacher of the Year; Stratford Foundation for Educational Leadership in History; Spokane Public Schools Distinguished Teacher Award; and in 2001 she received a Gates Foundation Teacher Leadership Grant. In 2007, she earned a National Board Professional Teaching Certification in adolescent and young adult history/social studies.

Katheryn Hedges, MEd, has over 15 years experience teaching AP* American Government and Politics at Deer Valley High School in Glendale, Arizona. She has also served as a mentor and instructional coach to fellow teachers, and taught at the community college level. Ms. Hedges is currently an adjunct faculty member at Glendale Community College.

Jes Hernandez, MS, has been teaching Physics and AP* Physics at Lawrence Hill High School - Math, Science, and Technology School in Massachusetts for the past eight years. He has been an adjunct professor of Physics at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, MA. He currently is a reader for the AP* Physics exam and has been a College Board consultant, teaching one and five-day workshops thoughout the country.

Larry Hockenberry taught AP Chemistry at Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto, California for eight years. He has also served as a reader for the AP Chemistry exam for the past nine years and has worked as a consultant with the College Board conducting workshops for AP Chemistry teachers. For the past five years, he has been an adjunct instructor in chemistry at Modesto Junior College.

Inactive lecturer as of 2085 term.

Dr. Monica Lam is a professor of Management Information Sciences (MIS) at California State University, Sacramento. She holds a Certificate of Management Accounting (CMA) and is the coauthor of two books on accounting technology.

David Lang is an associate professor in the College of Business Administration at Sacramento State.

Michael Mayfield, MS, has been an instructor of life sciences at Indiana Academy of Sciences, Mathematics and Humanities, Teachers College, Ball State University. He has been a College Board consultant and has conducted one and five-day workshops since 2000. He has received the Distinguished High School Teacher Award from the University of Chicago and the Distinguished Teacher Award from Kenyon University.

Francis McMann, PhD, teaches AP* Micro and Macro Economics and Philosophy at George Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he also serves as the Chair of the History and Social Sciences Department and Chair of Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction. Since 1991 he has served as a faculty consultant for AP* Economics and is currently a consultant for the Midwest Region. In addition to facilitating many AP* conferences and institutes, he has contributed to publications concerning economic curriculum and teaching to the College Board. He is a former member of the College Board's National Academic Advisory Group for History and Social Sciences.

David Platt, PhD, has been a fulltime mathematics faculty member at Front Range Community College since August, 2000. He has served as an AP* Exam Reader from 1991 – 1998, and from 2000 – 2006; and as a Table Leader from 2007 to the present. He has taught AP* Summer Institutes for the College Board from 1992 – 1996, and from 2003 to the present. He has also presented AP* Professional Development Workshops for the College Board from 1991 – 1998, and from 2002 to the present. His publications include a module in a pre-calculus mathematics reform textbook and an introductory computer programming textbook.

Joseph Richards is an assistant professor in the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento.

Lee Scott is a talented practitioner and educator of leadership. He leverages 15 years of leading diverse teams to deliver customer focused, innovative solutions in swiftly changing markets. As a trainer and coach, he has inspired over 3,300 private and public sector professionals. Current consulting engagements include Project Management, Strategic Planning, IT Procurement, High Performing Teams, and Executive Coaching for public and private sector clients. Current training programs include several multi-day Leadership and Management Training programs for California public agencies, Project Management and Business Analysis Certificates, Integrity and Innovation seminars, guest MBA lectures, and Green Business Operations Certificate. He regularly speaks at conferences on Innovation, Partnership and Agility. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the Jepson School of Leadership at the University of Richmond, a biology and economics student at Sacramento State, a Certified Scrum Master, ITIL Certified and an American Mensan.

Gary Slavit, P.M.P., is a founder of Chambray Advisors which provides training, human resources, technology, and general business consulting that specializes in helping very small businesses, startups, and non-profit organizations. The company also provides project management services to all size businesses. He has over 25 years of experience in business, consulting, information technology, and project management.

Michael Smith has been teaching AP* U.S. History since 1992 at San Gorgonio High School in San Bernardino, CA. He also teaches AP* American Government and Politics. He has been a reader for the U.S. History exam since 2001 and has presented U.S. History and Social Studies Vertical Team Workshops at summer institutes in Vancouver, San Marcos, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Long Beach.

Jacquelyn Southward is a human resource consultant focused primarily on organizational culture and development. She has been an instructor with the College of Continuing Education for more than nine years.

José I. Suárez, PhD, is currently professor of Hispanic studies at the University of Northern Colorado. From 2000 to 2004, he was a member of the Advanced Placement Spanish Test Development Committee, and has been a reader of these tests for the last sixteen years. Also, he is a College Board endorsed consultant in the area of AP Spanish Language and Literature. In addition to the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Suárez has taught for over thirty years at Michigan State University, the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and St. Leo College.

Kristin Van Gassbeck is an associate professor in the College of Business Administration at Sacramento State.

Bill Vicars is the president of Lifeprint Institute, a consultation business focusing on sign language communication and assistive technology. He has an Ed.D. in deaf studies/deaf education and over 15 years of university-level ASL teaching experience. He currently teaches in the ASL program at California State University, Sacramento.

Martha (Marty) Wilson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the College of Business at Sacramento State University

Kathryn "Gussie" Wyndham, MA, was one of the first 50 teachers to be trained in AP* World History. She has served as a speaker for the Western Division, the International Division, and the National AP* Conference. Ms. Wyndham has presented AP* World History to colleagues in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada as well. Ms. Wyndham has been an AP* exam reader for five years. She has been a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and William Coe Scholarship, as well as the East Asian Institute. Ms. Wyndham has been a classroom teacher for 28 years.