D2L Connection: Victoria

Jeremy Auger

Jeremy drives D2L’s strategy, public affairs, strategic communications, D2L Labs, new ventures, IP strategy, and philanthropy.

Jeremy has been actively involved in starting and running transformative tech companies for over 20 years and was part of the founding team at D2L. Since D2L’s founding, he has served as the COO and CTO, and continues to take a leadership role in driving the organization’s success as its chief strategy officer.

Beyond the tech sector, Jeremy has helped advise policymakers in a variety of ways—most recently as a member of the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Council, where he advised on a national strategy on the future of skills, work, and learning. He is also an advisor on ISTE’s Education Industry Advisory Council and is a national board member for TECHNATION—Canada’s Technology Industry Association. He is a past chair of the Economic Development Advisory Board for the city of Kitchener, Canada, and a former board member for the IMS Global Learning Consortium.

Dawid Naude

Dawid, founder and CEO of Pathfindr.ai, Australia’s leading AI Innovation Studio, and former head of Generative AI Technology for Accenture in Australia and New Zealand, has forged a transformative career in technology across diverse sectors including startups, industry and major consulting firms.

He has spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives in analytics, AI, data, and digital domains for Australia’s leading companies. These initiatives have enhanced customer, employee, supplier and community experiences.

Known for his collaborative style, performance speaking, relentless energy, and knack for making technology accessible and enjoyable, Dawid has been a continuing pioneer of the tech industry in Australia.

Professor Mitch Parsell

Professor Mitch Parsell is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education at the University of Tasmania. His research covers three domains: the scholarship of learning and teaching, applied ethics and cognitive science. Mitch is an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) National Teaching Fellow and an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Citation winner. He is joint editor, with Professor Judyth Sachs, of Peer Review of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: International Perspectives. Mitch’s research has appeared in Studies in Higher Education; Ethics and Information Technology; Housing, Theory and Society; Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences; Biology & Philosophy; Philosophical Psychology; The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics and Cognitive Processing.

Surekha Rao

Surekha Rao is a seasoned Senior Manager, Product Management at D2L. She has been in the technology industry for over 20 years. She has a deep passion for education and technology and has devoted much of her career to educational technology.

Throughout her career, Surekha has demonstrated exceptional leadership and expertise in driving the development and launch of innovative productions. Her extensive experience in ed tech has equipped her with a profound understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the education sector. Her inclusive and customer-focused leadership style creates an environment that encourages innovation, problem-solving and continuous improvement.

She always stays abreast of emerging technologies and market trends in the ed tech industry. Recognizing the transformative potential of AI, she is proactively exploring opportunities to integrate AI technologies, such as natural language processing, machine learning, and predictive analytics, into her products to deliver engaging learning experiences.

Kassie Haskell

Kassie Haskell is a Manager of Instructional Design at D2L, where she leads a team of passionate instructional designers. With over seven years of experience in the field, Kassie has demonstrated exceptional skills in creating engaging and effective learning experiences.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology accompanied by a Bachelor of Education. During her time at D2L, Kassie has successfully led her team through numerous course creations, ensuring high-quality instructional design that meets diverse learning needs.

Outside of work, Kassie enjoys gardening, being creative, and spending time with her Golden Mountain dog, Griffin.

Helen Liang

Helen the Senior Coordinator of Assessments in the Student Results and Assessment Group within the Division of Student Services at Deakin University. She joined the Deakin Assessment team in 2010 and was part of the Deakin Online Exam Project from 2019 to 2022.

Stephen Graham

Stephen Graham is the Strategic Design Director and Founder of STCK, a design agency that specialises in guiding organisations through complex challenges with innovative, people-centric solutions. With over two decades of experience, Stephen has become a trusted advisor to leaders, helping them reimagine their organisations and create impactful change.

Stephen firmly believes that design is a tool to make organisations better, not just prettier and his unique approach blends systems thinking, human-centered design, and cutting-edge innovation practices. His work spans various sectors, from global corporations to nimble startups, all united by a common goal: to enhance experiences for employees, customers, and partners. Through his strategic vision and collaborative style, Stephen has successfully led transformative projects that drive growth, efficiency, and engagement.

Cate Maguire

Cate Maguire is the Adoption and Alignment Lead at STCK, a design agency dedicated to helping organisations solve complex problems through people.

Over nearly two decades, Cate has designed change and communication experiences in complex digital, product, organizational design and culture change initiatives for some of Australia’s largest enterprises.

As Adoption and Alignment Lead, Cate brings human-centred design practices to organizational change, with a focus on helping clients achieve their initiatives’ ROI by aligning stakeholders and co-creating change that people want to adopt. She’s passionate about deeply understanding what drives the people involved in change and creating strategies that help them bring their voice and advocacy to the challenges clients face.

Sucharita Patra

Dr Sam Rastegari

Dr. Sam Rastegari is the Manager of Analytics and Innovation with the Learning Design team at Deakin University. She currently leads the learning analytics program and the development of the learning analytics strategy for Deakin University.

Chintan Bharwada

Debra Cherry

Debra is part of the Education, Strategy and Design team at Leo Cussen Centre for Law – an education organisation that provides high quality education, practical training and professional development for entry-level lawyers through to senior legal practitioners throughout Australia.

She has prime responsibility for designing and implementing online learning content and management of the online learning management system and E-Learning team. This role involves drafting and creating content, designing online learning pathways, building the course within Brightspace, providing training to teaching staff.  In addition, Debra continues to provide legal skills training to graduate lawyers and is Practice Group Leader for the Wills and Estates practice area.

Before Leo Cussen, she worked in legal practice primarily in family law, civil litigation and wills and deceased estates and also had roles as in-house legal counsel.

Meaghan Crawford

Meaghan joined the Assessment team at Deakin in 2010 and, for many years, oversaw the Burwood/Geelong campus exam rooms, coordinating paper-based exam processes for Deakin’s external venues.

In 2021 she moved into the Coordinator Examinations role and have been involved in online exams since then.

Lee Webster

Lee has a diverse and extensive career in ICT across government, industry, and education sectors. Currently, she serves as the Director of Learning Technology Innovation and Services for TAFE Queensland. In this role, Lee oversees the educational technology ecosystem, the production of online learning, teaching, and assessment materials, and the implementation of the TAFE Queensland Immersive Technology Strategy.

With over 30 years of experience, Lee has led numerous teams and projects that have significantly transformed educational delivery practices.

Mike Bryant

Mike has almost three decades’ experience in teaching, leadership and executive roles in post-compulsory education settings. He has led major changes to the student experience including strategic learning and teaching enhancement, curriculum transformation, learning management system renewal, and university-wide eAssessment at Charles Sturt University, where he currently works as Director, Projects and Monash University, where he led Monash’s Education Innovation team. Mike is the education lead for Charles Sturt’s transition to D2L Brightspace in 2024.

Mike was Vice Principal of Long Road College, Cambridge in the UK VET sector between 2007 and 2014, where he served as institutional quality nominee. His research focuses on pedagogic expertise development in digital environments.

Dr Vincenzo Repaci

Vince specialises in delivering complex projects in higher education. Before joining Charles Sturt University, he delivered educational projects in 5 countries and trained project managers in over 1,000 organisations. At Charles Sturt University, Vince oversees a brilliant technical and analytical team and has a strong focus on projects as a service and continuous team development.

With over 20 years of teaching experience and over a decade managing large, complex projects, Vince is passionate about bridging the gap between industry, academia, and technology to deliver effective and powerful educational outcomes.

Aakash Pujare

Ali Angkawinata

Ali is an experienced full-stack .NET software developer who transitioned to the eLearning sector. At Victoria University, he was instrumental in migrating the learning management system from Blackboard to D2L, contributing to design, implementation, and integration.

Ali is passionate about new technologies and has a keen interest in understanding systems. Outside of work, he pursues landscape and portrait photography.

Dan Stachlewski

Rebecca Early

Rebecca Early, the National Leader of Learning at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu in New Zealand, is a dedicated and visionary educator renowned for driving transformative change across diverse educational settings to improve outcomes for at-risk students.

With her extensive leadership and curriculum expertise, Rebecca has been contracted to design curricula and lead strategic change initiatives at senior levels within schools and for government agencies.

Currently pursuing her doctoral studies, Rebecca’s research focuses on gaining deeper insights into the experiences of teachers and students in online learning environments, with the goal of better supporting students with complex needs.

Tom Krcho

As a Learning Design Lead, I focus on co-designing authentic assessments and job-ready curricula that equip students with the skills needed for success in the workforce. I am passionate about creating engaging, real-world learning experiences that emphasise student employment outcomes.

At Victoria University I am also a Subject Matter Expert and Sessional Educator for two units in the Graduate Certificate in Digital Learning and Teaching. In this program I guide students in developing job-ready portfolios, ensuring that their education is closely aligned with industry needs.

Dan McFadyen

For the past 25+ years, Dan has focused on enabling innovation in education powered by educational technology and long-term partnerships with educational institutions. This passion fuelled varied roles from a start-up developing the CODiE award-winning EQUELLA software to global educational powerhouses Blackboard and Pearson.

Since 2016 Dan has served as the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Edalex, tackling skills- and employability-related challenges by supporting the definition, development and recognition of skills through education.

On a personal level, as a dual American-Australian citizen, he struggles daily with the conflict between raising his two children on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or vegemite.

Nicholas Robert Alderdice

Co-founder and CEO of Learning Vault, a prominent global provider of exceptional digital education content, digital credentials, and talent pool technologies.

I am a staunch believer in lifelong learning and have therefore designed Learning Vault with this principle in mind. I’m passionate about the evolution of our workforce towards a skills-based economy, continuously finding ways to give people the opportunity to educate, upskill and trade their skills using digital credentials.

Prior to Learning Vault, I ran a vocational training college, embracing education and upskilling needs, built on the mission to make knowledge more accessible, portable, and applicable across education and employment for all people.