Part I: The Chair

Twenty Years

This year I will have been a faculty member at Champlain College for 20 years. It's a cliche but 20 years does go by awfully quickly.

The College recognizes employees of 20 years with a beautiful chair. For many reasons this chair means a lot to me but perhaps the most amusing reason is that twice in my career at Champlain I had no furniture. The first time was when I received the College's first ever endowed chair, the Dr. Roger Perry Endowed Chair named for our ground breaking past President and created to support innovation. With it I created the Emergent Media Center and moved my office into Skiff Hall - and you guessed it - had no furniture for about two weeks. Everything was done at first sitting on the floor with my laptop. The second time, was when upon receiving the UN grant for creating BREAKAWAY, we moved from cramped quarters at Skiff out to the Winooski Mill - again a time with no furniture! Those were wonderful, creative, inspiring days.

The Chair

A few weeks ago, I received my chair and my Dean Paula Willoquet-Maricondi gave this lovely commemoration of my service. It brought me to tears in part due to the reflections of those I've worked alongside. Their words captured so much of what I value in leadership, work, and being a colleague and mentor.

So here is what Paula and my colleagues shared:

Tribute to Ann DeMarle for her 20 years of service at Champlain College Friday, May 3, 2019

Ann’s accomplishments and contributions to Champlain College over the last 20 years have been numerous and transformative. From creating the multimedia and graphic design degree, the degrees that today comprise the Game Studio, the MFA and MS degree in Emergent Media, to founding the Emergent Media Center and providing the vision and leadership for its many projects, Ann has been a committed and tireless educator, innovator, creator, and change agent.

In recognition of her forward thinking and expansive spirit, in 2006 Ann was the recipient of the first Roger H. Perry Endowed Chair, and in 2014 of the College’s first DARE Award.

Ann’s reach and recognition as an educator and innovator goes beyond Champlain College. In 2002, she founded the Governor's Institute of Vermont in Information Technology program for high schoolers; In 2006 she received the Apple Distinguished Educator award; and in 2008 and 2011 she received the IBM Faculty award. She served two (three) terms on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society, and as a Trustee for Images and Voices of Hope, and for the Vermont Arts Council where she chaired the Education and Executive Committees.

I was first introduced to Ann when I came to campus to interview for my current position. Well, I didn’t actually, physically, meet Ann on that occasion, as she was on Sabbatical at the time and away from campus. But I got to meet with the impressive EMC team Ann helped build, and through them I gained a great deal of insight about Ann as a leader, a mentor, and a collaborator.

So I turn once again to her colleagues and the EMC Team to ask the question, “Who, really, is Ann DeMarle?”

I want to share with you some of what her colleagues had to say. Here are their words:

Ann is a changemaker, an innovator, a futurist, a trusted mentor, and a supportive friend.
Ann leads with love, always hopeful and energized by the possibilities our students have to impact our world for the better. 

Ann is a dedicated educator who has created an educational environment that allows students to grow and experience new things. She gave students a sense of purpose and instilled in them a drive to learn and be curious.

Ann is the starting seed for the pursuit of creative technology at Champlain, which now fuels a great deal of our institutional success.

Ann believes in the innate creativity and goodness of young people and supports and amplifies their work on a local and global stage. 

Ann truly empowered us in our efforts to leverage strong partnerships in far-reaching locations from El Salvador to Cape Town. 

I will forever be grateful for the honor, pride and joy I felt traveling with Ann and EMC students to share powerful lessons of the BREAKAWAY game. The experiences left a lasting impression on so many people. 

I owe my career at Champlain College to Ann DeMarle. It was her vision, and her tenacity to pursue that vision that made it possible to create what is today the Game Studio 

Ann has been a wonderful mentor. She has given me great counsel and encouragement. 

Ann is a great mentor and loyal friend. 

Ann has been a mentor, confidant, and collaborator. She has allowed me to flourish and I feel confident in my work. Her support has helped me continue to thrive. 

What I appreciate most about Ann is her uncanny ability to create a true team environment - one where each member knows their role, knows how it fits into the team, and is greatly respected and appreciated for their role and efforts. 

I have watched Ann create opportunity after opportunity for hundreds of people to move ever closer to that best version of themselves. For me, she has made possible a career in education, one filled with curiosity, consideration, and creativity that she has nurtured. 

Put simply, Ann is the cat’s pajamas.

Ann, on behalf of all your colleagues at Champlain College, I want to say congratulations and thank you deeply for your impactful 20 years of service.

You are an inspiration to us all.

With other long term employees, I'm grateful to be part of such a wonderful community