Associate Professor Nicola Marae Allain has been named interim associate dean, Division of Arts and Humanities.

Allain joined SUNY Empire State College in 2002 as director of curriculum and instructional design in the former Center for Distance Learning. From 2010 to 2016, she was a faculty mentor and academic area coordinator in humanities/digital media and a core faculty member for the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies (MALET). Most recently, she was online curriculum coordinator for digital media and an associate professor in the Department of Arts and Media.

Allain will report to Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Nikki Shrimpton. “I am very pleased that Nicola has agreed to take on this role at this point in time,” Shrimpton said. “Nicola brings significant administrative, as well as faculty experiences at the college, and I look forward to working with her in this new capacity.”

Allain serves on the steering committee of the Open SUNY Innovative Instruction Research Council and the editorial board of the Online Learning Journal. She is often an invited speaker in the fields of online and distance learning, digital arts and emerging media/technologies.

Allain holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communication from European Graduate School (Switzerland); a Master of Arts in Dramatic Art, with a concentration in dance, from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Ottawa.