Spring 2020 Professional Development Week: Opening Session

  • Breakfast
  • Welcome – Dr. Judith Gay 
  • Greetings from the Board of Trustees –  Jeremiah J. White, Jr.
  • Address to the College Community – Dr. Guy Generals
  • Break
  • Panel Discussion: Job Skills of the Future – Michael Hackett, Paul Geissinger, Linda Powell, Laureen Tavolaro-Ryley

 

Paul Geissinger, Associate Professor/Music Department Head/Spring Garden Records Director

Paul J. Geissinger is a Philadelphia-based producer, composer and artist.  He is an Associate Professor at the Community College of Philadelphia, and current chair of the Music Department.  Paul is also the director of the College’s record label, Spring Garden Records.  The majority of Paul’s production work has been released for the past decade under the moniker, Starkey, releasing on labels such as Ninja Tune, Planet Mu, Decca, Alpha Pup, Civil Music, Eat the Bomb, Smog and Keysound amongst others.  Some performance highlights include being the only American producer selected for the “Generation Bass” BBC Radio 1 special on Mary Anne Hobbs’ show in 2008, as well as one of the first DJ’s to host a residency on Mistajam’s BBC 1Xtra “Daily Dose” mix.  In 2012 he released his critically acclaimed album “Orbits”, which Pitchfork gave an 8/10 and called it “classic synth grandeur”.  His 2015 album, “The Transponder Orchestra” was Bleep’s album-of-the-week saying “his style has become grander and more ambitious in scope”.

Paul’s 2016 releases, Odyssey Five and Charting Stardust (Original Soundtrack), built upon the acoustic-analogue sound he’s been cultivating with his NOREMIXES imprint, while still retaining the core elements of his revered heavy bass meets syncopated synthesized sounds.  In 2019, he released, as Starkey, New Theia: Today and New Theia: Tomorrow on Eat the Bomb.  With features in Complex, the Untz, and Noiseporn, the New Theia series found the producer expanding his use of modular synthesizers to further his hybrid grime/electronic sound.  The releases featured International vocal collaborations with Eligh (Living Legends / US), Miss Eaves (US), Mad Hed City (Trinidad & Tobago), and UK heavyweights Buggsy, Manchester Hypes, XP & Redders

Paul’s music has been featured in ads for British Airways, Adidas, GoPro and Temple University, appeared in shows including Sense 8 (Netflix), Football Focus & Waterloo Road (BBC1), Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (CNN), 20/20 (ABC), Dateline (CBS), Skins (MTV), and video games, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Dirt 3 & Crackdown 2.  Paul also scored two films from director Josh Cohen (Adult Swim/Comedy Central) recognized in the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film category as well as the award-winning, room-sized VR experience, Vestige, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019.  Paul has produced and remixed artists across the musical spectrum from classical Decca recording artists Ludovico Einaudi, Erik Satie and Laura Wright, to dance music acts including Erol Alkan, Armand Van Helden and Zomby, to rock and hiphop artists including The Foals and Gorilla Zoe.

Paul is co-owner of the Internationally distributed Seclusiasis and NOREMIXES record labels: the former celebrating its 15thanniversary in 2016.

 

Michael Hackett, Instructor/Program Coordinator, Computer Science

Prior to joining the Computer Technologies faculty in 2017, Michael Hackett was employed in a number of aerospace software engineering capacities at corporations that included General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. His work was in support of the Federal Aviation Administration's NextGen Air Transportation System, an ongoing effort to modernize the nation's air traffic control infrastructure and technologies. This included air traffic control software development, air traffic simulation and analysis, software assessment, laboratory automation, and test automation. Michael is currently serving as the program coordinator for the Computer Science degree program, the Computer Programming I and II certificates, and co-coordinator for the Computer Information Systems-IT degree program.  

Laureen Tavolaro-Ryley, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC, Independence Foundation Chair in Nursing 

Laureen Tavolaro-Ryley RN, BSN, MSN is a psychiatric nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from York College of Pennsylvania: a Master of Science degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a post master’s certification as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner from Drexel University and is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Case Western Reserve University. As an Associate Professor of Nursing at Community College of Philadelphia, her clinical work with students has been focused on the community experience, supervising a service learning collaboration between the nursing students and the local community, with a special interest in integrating mental health and substance use disorder support. She has been involved with grants fostering geriatrics in nursing curriculums as well as bridging opportunities for minority nursing students to pursue graduate education.

Laureen has been appointed the Independence Foundation Chair in Nursing at Community College of Philadelphia. She was a lead presenter in the Advancing Care and Excellence for Seniors (ACES) grant, and was essential in developing material for the grant including teaching strategies, webinars, and other online resources.  She was a speaker and developed materials for the Met Life Grant Foundation Grant Focused on Enhancing Care for Alzheimer’s Patients and their Care Givers as well as the Independence Blue Cross Foundation funded grant, Building Collaborative Partnerships between Nursing Faculty and Staff Using ACES. She was featured on the American Journal of Nursing’s “How to Try This” Series video on the Geriatric Depression Scale. She maintains a clinical practice in geriatric psychiatry. She served as the Project Director for Nursing Workforce Diversity grant funded by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which offered numerous resources and activities to all students in the nursing program at CCP, but focused intensively on a cohort of student leaders with the goal of academic progression. After several years of serving as the lead faculty in the 19130 Zip Code Project, funded by the Independence Foundation, Laureen became the Project Director in 2014.  The Zip Code Project serves as the community rotation for the nursing students enrolled in their second year of nursing at CCP and provides direct health promotion services to the community as a “Healthcare Center without Walls” Under Laureen’s leadership, mental health contacts have increased year over year as have services provided to the homeless population and individuals with substance use disorder.

Linda Powell, MD, Professor and Department Head of Biology

Dr. Linda Powell, MD is Professor and Department Head of Biology at the Community College of Philadelphia [CCP]. Dr. Powell has served as Department Head of Biology for 19 years guiding instruction and Biology offerings to thousands of students. She was the CCP 2006 recipient of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. 

She is the CCP Co- Principal Investigator for the Greater Philadelphia Region Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Grant, funded by the National Science Foundation. She has worked on this initiative for 25 years. CCP works with eight tri-state Colleges and Universities to increase the number of African-American, Latino and Native –American students receiving baccalaureate degrees in the areas of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics [STEM]. Dr. Powell received a Citation from the Philadelphia City Council in June of 2015 for her years of STEM student support on the AMP grant and the RISE/MSEIP grant funded by the US Department of Education. 

Dr. Powell has been on the Board of Directors for the Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc., a group of federally qualified health centers serving the City of Philadelphia, for 16 years and has served as 1st Vice Chair of the board for 13 years. In 2015, Dr. Powell received Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc. Service Leadership Award for outstanding service to the organization.