Mr. Lemire has more than ten years experience in adult education. He is currently a Senior Instructor in the Healthcare Management Program at Cambridge College. He has also been an adjunct faculty member in the Health Services Administration program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and in the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He previously was the Program Director of the undergraduate Health Care Management program at Rivier College in Nashua, NH.

Mr. Lemire has served on committees for the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the National Business Coalition on Health. He has served on regional committees for The New England Consortium and the Non Profit Alliance. He has also been active on local boards of organizations that address the need for improved community behavioral health services.

Mr. Lemire has two degrees in Health Care Administration from the University of Lowell (MA) where he was presented with the 1985 Clinical Service Award. He is interested in nonprofit management and has written several articles about the development of professional membership associations.

His research expertise is in the areas of homogenization, fluid mechanics, porous media and composite materials. Vernescu has had more than 35 peer-reviewed scientific papers published, and is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences and professional meetings. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics. Vernescu has also held visiting positions at MIT and in France at the University of Metz, University of Nancy and University of Savoie.

Vernescu earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Institute of Mathematics in Bucharest, Romania, and his B.S. and M.S. degrees in applied mathematics from the University of Bucharest in Bucharest, Romania.

CONVENER

Elizabeth Friedman, one of the founding members of the National Professional Science Master’s Association (NPSMA), currently serves as the Convener for the NPSMA Board of Directors. She has been involved with PSM programs since 2003 and serves on various NPSMA committees including the educational metrics committee, best practices committee, alumni committee, and oversight committee. Dr. Friedman is the Program Manager for the professional science master’s degree programs at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). IIT’s four PSM programs: analytical chemistry, materials and chemical synthesis, biology, and health physics, are all offered online, providing graduate education to working professionals across the nation.

Dr. Friedman earned her PhD and MA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, and her BA in anthropology from the University of Virginia. Her interests in the ancient Near East as well as South and Central America have taken her to field projects in Turkey, Israel, and Peru. Her dissertation on the relationship between ceramic and metal technology in early Anatolia steered her towards the laboratory to analyze the composition and manufacturing processes of artifacts as representations of ancient technologies. She continues to conduct research on archaeological material at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory and is a member of the Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation at IIT.

Jung Choi, Associate Chair, School of Biology and Director, Professional MS Bioinformatics Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

I have been the director of Georgia Tech's bioinformatics PSM program since 2000. I am also an Associate Chair for the School of Biology, which hosts the bioinformatics PSM program. I have been a member of the PSM Steering Committee since inception, and a founding member of the NPSMA Board of Directors. I also served on the Council of Graduate Schools PSM Advisory Board, and the National Research Council study committee on Enhancing the Masters Degree in the Natural Sciences.

By training I am a molecular geneticist, with a PhD in Biology from UC San Diego and postdoctoral training in the Department of Genetics at UC Berkeley. Computational tools became essential to my research, starting with DNA sequence analysis and going on to BLAST searches and protein function prediction. I strongly believe that the future of biomedical sciences will increasingly rely on computational tools and models, and that bioinformatics and computational biology PSM programs will play important roles in staffing the nation's biomedical research programs.

David Bieber, PhD

Director, Programs in Natural Sciences
University of Pennsylvania – College of General Studies

Founding Executive Director
National Professional Science Masters Association

Lisbeth Borbye, PhD

Assistant Dean of Professional Education,
PSM/MMB Director
The Graduate School
North Carolina State University

Founding Board Member
National Professional Science Master's Association

Dr. Durgin received the Sc.B. (1964) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees in mechanical engineering from Brown University and the M.S. (1966) degree from the University of Rhode Island.  He is well known for research in the fluid mechanics area and has made substantial contributions to engineering education through his work on project-based learning.  He received the ASME Curriculum Innovation Award, the ASME Service Award, and a NASA Significant Achievement Award.  He presently serves as chair of the Committee on Honors of the ASME.

Dr. Durgin led numerous accreditation efforts under ABET outcomes assessment and methodology.  Dr. Durgin served on the Engineering in Mass Collaborative, identifying and implementing best practices in K-12 STEM education in support of the Massachusetts Frameworks.  He served on the Central Mass Biomedical Initiative board, the Manufacturing Assistance Center board, the Massachusetts Extension Partnership board, and is a proponent of economic development through strengthening of the high technology base.  He has succeeded in bringing engineering, science, and management resources together to form the Bioengineering Institute that was successfully launched in 2004.  He currently serves on the P-16 Council in San Luis Obispo.

Dr. Durgin has held many positions in professional societies and in organizations supporting engineering education at the national and state levels.  He is a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Tau Beta Pi.  A professional engineer, Dr. Durgin is registered in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Florida.  He has served on boards, study groups, and editorial boards for NASA, ASME and other organizations.  He is the author of more than seventy journal articles, edited and contributed to several books, and holds two patents. Dr. Durgin has served as a member of the Executive Committee on the Engineering Deans Council, and served as a member of the ASEE Public Policy Committee.

Kirk E. Jordan, PhD

Emerging Solutions Executive
IBM Corporation

Alaina G. Levine

Director Special Projects
College of Science
The University of Arizona

Founding Board Member
National Professional Science Master's Association

Jonathan A. Neville, PSM

Assistant Project Director
Critical Path Institute