“Teach the mind, inspire the soul” is the motto that has guided Dr. Cynthia Blodgett-Griffin for the past 26 years as a leader in adult education, open and distributed learning, distance education, online teaching and instructional design, since the time of mail and satellite delivery, through early transition into web-based secondary and higher education instructional design, teacher training and graduate level course development. She holds a Master of Arts in adult education, and a PhD in education and human sciences, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since 1994, she has been involved in numerous e-learning instructional design initiatives, teacher training, educational leadership and research.
Dr. Blodgett-Griffin primarily teaches research methods online for a Master of Education program with a prestigious Canadian open distance education university. She supervises numerous masters and doctoral students through their thesis and dissertation research. She also leads teaching and training projects in Canada and the United States, including as an invited research consultant for the Institute for Strategic International Studies, and was an instructional design specialist and researcher on a multi-year e-learning high school curriculum project. Contributions to scholarship include journal editorial review, online course evaluator, thesis and dissertation auditor, grant writer and researcher.
Dr. Blodgett-Griffin’s current academic interests include disability and e-learning, student support, the mature learner, instructional design, distance education, self regulation, critical thinking, community of inquiry, and research methods. Crossing into public service, she is in demand to provide religious education the “old fashioned” way by mail for inmates who have restricted access to the internet, and also for educational development in communications, transformational and servant leadership, and group dynamics for clergy.
In her academic career, Dr. Blodgett-Griffin has come to value her role as a teacher and mentor for adult mid-life graduate students. Her priority is to provide support and learning tools necessary for students to both succeed and thrive through the struggle to complete their graduate degrees. Feedback from her students, both directly and on course evaluations, speaks of her being not only reachable, but approachable. A student wrote, “You excel in motivation to keep people who have all but given up. You pick up the drifters and work with them until they get what they need to finish their courses. Not only are you making a difference, but you genuinely care and that isn’t present in a lot of instructors.” She holds to the belief that it is the responsibility of the educator to clear the path to learning success.
Dr. Blodgett-Griffin has contributed to myriad publications in her field, was named Professional Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women, honored as Woman of Outstanding Leadership by the IWLA, and, as president of her education consultancy, for Outstanding Professionalism as a Top Female Executive.
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