Chandler-Gilbert Community College

Instructional Design Fellows

The Instructional Design Fellows program expands instructional design capacity at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) through a scalable, faculty-driven peer-mentoring model. Instead of relying solely on expensive, centralized instructional design support, the program trains faculty across divisions to become certified reviewers and mentors in partnership with the Office of Online Learning. Fellows use a research-based checklist to conduct collaborative online course reviews focused on best practices, regular and substantive interaction (RSI), and accessibility. This work also produced CGCC’s RSI Assurance Process, a key element of reaccreditation. The model is low-cost and replicable, with training funded through faculty professional growth resources and stipends supported by tuition-differential revenue. Since launching in spring 2023, fellows have completed 125 reviews and improved RSI, accessibility, faculty satisfaction, and student experience across online courses.

Innovators

• Kim Chuppa-Cornell, Faculty, Library
• Lesley Cryderman, Coordinator, Online Learning
• Kim Greer, Faculty, Biology
• Barbara Howe, Faculty, Library
• Julie McCarty, Coordinator, Course Production
• Buzzy Sullivan, Faculty, Photography
• Karen Villalobos, Economic Faculty
• Andrea Villarreal, Faculty, Dietary Sciences

District Office

Workforce 2 You

Workforce 2 You brings high-quality, industry-recognized training directly to rural communities in Maricopa County by delivering programs in local libraries and community centers. This mobile community-based model removes transportation barriers and aligns each training offering with local workforce needs in non-clinical healthcare, manufacturing, and business. Through a partnership between the Maricopa Community Colleges and the Maricopa County Workforce Development Division, participants gain in-demand skills, earn industry credentials, and receive career support from the county. The program has expanded across multiple colleges and communities, demonstrating a scalable and responsive approach to workforce development. Workforce 2 You is innovative because it reimagines access to education by bringing training to residents where they live, creating new pathways to employment for rural learners.

Innovators

• Brent Boardman, Project Manager, Training Delivery and Innovation
• Alex Kouumdjieva, District Director, Marketing Operations and Digital Strategies
• Dana Macke-Redford, Senior Project Manager, Corporate Engagement
• Emma Martinez, Project Manager, Training Delivery and Innovation
• Tran Mendez, Program Analyst, Instructional Design
• Jason Weinstein, Chief Officer, Corporate Engagement

Estrella Mountain Community College

Just Culture

This quality improvement project implemented a Just Culture-based safety reporting system within Estrella Mountain Community College’s nursing simulation and clinical courses. Faculty created an anonymous Google Forms tool and educated students on reporting errors and near misses without fear of punishment. Over the past three years, students identified that most errors occurred during medication administration and were often due to knowledge gaps, communication issues, or inadequate preparation. Reporting increased transparency, strengthened clinical judgment, and promoted a culture of shared accountability. Findings enabled faculty to target common errors, improve teaching strategies, and model professional safety practices. The project fostered psychological safety, open dialogue, and continuous learning, which empowered students to recognize, report, and prevent errors to support safer future nursing practice.

Innovators

• Louise Comer, Faculty, Nursing
• Carrie Hayter, Adjunct Faculty, Nursing
• Amanda Hundley, Faculty, Nursing

GateWay Community College

Program Review Intelligence & Systems Model

This initiative leverages an n8n-built automated AI agent workflow. Program Review Intelligence & Systems Model (PRISM) was created to transform the program review process from a manual, time-intensive task into a fast, collaborative, AI-supported system. The workflow retrieves documents, analyzes key metrics, and generates structured summaries using AI, allowing faculty and administrators to serve as editors rather than performing repetitive data gathering and interpretation. By automating routine steps, the project significantly reduces human labor hours and documents trends, gaps, and repeated issues across datasets. This allows for standardized review quality across programs. PRISM becomes a true digital collaborator by automating the labor-intensive steps of data gathering, document analysis, and summary writing while faculty and staff devote their expertise to refining the results and focusing on student-centered work.

Innovator

• Tabatha Hatfield, Residential Faculty, Medical Imaging

Glendale Community College

Focused Futures: GCC/CGCC Collaborative Photography Portfolio Reviews

Over the past three years, the Glendale Community College (GCC)/Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) Advisory Board meeting has grown into a shared, collaborative portfolio review. Participation increased by more than 40 percent, expanding from a small GCC classroom event to a joint review now hosted at the Phoenix Art Museum. This innovation creates an accessible, workforce-oriented experience that mirrors national reviews like Filter Photo Festival and MOP Denver, where sessions typically cost $40-$70, plus travel. Our free, community-embedded model brings together both fine art and commercial photographers, allows students to choose reviewers aligned with their goals, and strengthens career readiness while reducing duplicated advisory efforts across campuses. This is Maricopa Community Colleges’ first cross-college portfolio review, and one of the only national models to integrate fine art and commercial photography in a no-cost, workforce-aligned format.

Innovators

• Stephanie Burchett, Residential Faculty, Photography
• Brendan Regan, Residential Faculty, Photography
• Buzzy Sullivan, Residential Faculty, Photography

Mesa Community College

Mindfully Informed Civic Engagement Classroom Toolkit

The Mindfully Informed Civic Engagement Classroom Toolkit is an innovative model that strengthens civic learning at Mesa Community College (MCC) by combining a staff-facing handbook with a mindfully informed student presentation. The handbook provides Center for Community & Civic Engagement staff with a complete system to oversee, train, and mentor the student presenters who deliver nonpartisan civic presentations in classrooms—ensuring quality, consistency, and accurate information each semester. The student presentation integrates well-being practices, political stress reduction, and real-life relevance to help students connect civic engagement to their daily lives. This innovation improves teaching quality, increases efficiency, and creates a replicable structure that supports student leadership development and faculty partnerships. By blending mindfulness, student voice, and structured staff training, the toolkit enhances campus civic engagement and advances MCC’s commitment to student success and community connection.

Innovator

• Alejandra Maya, Program Coordinator, Civic Engagement

Paradise Valley Community College

Momentum to Completion: A Student Progress Tracking Dashboard

The Student Progress in Academic Programs dashboard is an innovative tool that transforms how a college monitors student momentum toward completion. By integrating course sequence pathways with student enrollment and transfer credit data, the dashboard converts disconnected information into a visual, program-level progress map. Advisors, faculty, and program managers can instantly identify students who are on track, off sequence, or approaching completion, enabling proactive outreach and timely enrollment guidance. Developed using existing institutional data systems and open-source tools, the dashboard demonstrates how colleges can build scalable, data-informed solutions internally to advance student success without additional cost.

Innovators

• Adam Cherrington, Student Services Specialist Senior, Business 
• Gina Cinali, Associate Vice President, Strategic Planning, Institutional Effectiveness, and Analytics
• Lynn Clark, Faculty Chair, Business
• Jay Franzen, Student Services Analyst, Academic Achievement
• Xiaojie Li, Planning and Research Analyst Senior, Institutional Effectiveness 
• Josh Moss, Program Manager, Puma Esports
• Michael Tyler, Director, Planning and Research, Institutional Effectiveness

Phoenix College

Addressing Arizona Health Challenges Through Faculty-Student STEAM Partnerships

The Awareness of Health Challenges in STEAM Education (AHCSE) program transforms how students learn about health challenges by positioning them as cocreators rather than passive recipients of knowledge. This innovative initiative pairs faculty with student partners to collaboratively design STEAM-based assignments addressing Arizona's health challenges.
The program's innovation lies in three key areas: (1) It elevates students as pedagogical partners in curriculum design, bringing their lived experiences, digital fluency, and diverse perspectives to create relevant, engaging learning experiences. (2) It applies the research-based 3x3 Framework of 21st-century knowledge to ensure that assignments develop foundational, meta, and humanistic competencies. (3) It creates sustainable, openly licensed educational resources that are easy to replicate across institutions. The program has produced 23 openly licensed assignments across 23 courses at nine colleges, impacting approximately 575 students.

Innovators

• Debbie Baker, Co-PI, AHCSE Grant, and Coordinator, OER, District Office
• Stephanie Green, Co-PI, AHCSE Grant, and Liaison, Open Maricopa, Phoenix College
• Kali Van Nimwegen, Librarian, Instruction and OER, Phoenix College
• Janelle Yoder, Librarian, OER, Estrella Mountain Community College

Rio Salado College

Rio Virtual Proctoring: Scaling Flexible, Secure, and Cost-Effective Online Assessment

Rio Virtual Proctoring (RVP) is an institutional innovation that delivers flexible, high-quality virtual assessment managed in-house. Building on Rio Salado College’s strong in-person proctoring standards, it brings the same secure, student-focused experience into a virtual environment, giving online learners a reliable and convenient way to complete exams. Driven by cross-college collaboration, RVP modernizes a service once available only in-person by reimagining it into a virtual format that matches what students expect from contemporary online learning. The project uses internal expertise and existing technologies to remove geographic barriers, expand assessment options, and maximize academic integrity while ensuring a smooth, student-centered experience. Student feedback affirms its impact, with the process described as simple and reassuring. More than a testing option, RVP positions the college for the future with a scalable, cohesive, and adaptable model for online assessment.

Innovators

• Alejandra Alvarado, Student Services Analyst 
• Rachel Lievrouw, Supervisor, Testing
• Diana Pinon, Director, Testing
• Arianna Rivera, Student Services Specialist Senior
• Melissa Schrand, Project Manager, Rio Virtual Proctoring
• Donna Tannehill, Faculty Chair, Mathematics

South Mountain Community College

STEM PREP Academy

The STEM Prepare, Retain, Excel, and Progress (PREP) Academy is a collaborative initiative involving South Mountain Community College educators, researchers, and students. The program is different than a traditional workshop due to its hybrid approach, merging project-based learning (PBL) and undergraduate research to help students acquire basic skills needed to complete STEM degrees. It has four goals. (1) Prepare: Develop a series of skills-based STEM workshops for students. (2) Retain: Engage students in undergraduate research to further develop their skills and increase student retention. (3) Excel: Help students to excel at PBL and undergraduate research projects. (4) Progress: Mentor students to finalize their career pathways.

Innovators

• Bechir Amdouni, Faculty, Mathematics
• Sudipta Biswas, Faculty, Biology
• Yvette Espinosa, Faculty, Biology
• Chelsea McIntosh, Faculty, Chemistry
• Ted Ransome, Supervisor, Biology Lab
• Carl Whitesel, Faculty, Engineering