Richard Parent, Ph.D.

Dr. Richard Parent is the Director of Assessment, Accreditation, and Academic Policy for the University of New England's online College of Graduate and Professional Studies (CGPS).  He is responsible for developing and overseeing the college’s comprehensive assessment program for measuring student learning outcomes, for providing strategic leadership to CGPS and its programs on all aspects of accreditation, and for developing academic policies and procedures that facilitate continuous improvement and innovation in the academic management of CGPS online programs.  He is an award-winning teacher of undergraduate and graduate students, and brings to UNE considerable expertise with pedagogical theories and their application to faculty development and teaching online.

Dr. Parent holds a BA in English from the University of North Texas, an MA in English from Mills College, and a Ph.D. in English: Cultural and Critical Studies, specializing in Pedagogy, Literacy, Rhetoric, and Composition from the University of Pittsburgh.  Before coming to UNE, Dr. Parent was faculty at the University of Vermont, where he was responsible for his department's new graduate teaching fellow training and development program. At UVM, he conducted research and taught courses on the ways computers and online environments affect the materials we read and write, the ways we read and write, and the cognitive demands and effects of this online reading and writing. He led numerous workshops and professional development events on teaching effectiveness and teaching with technology, designed the university's computer lab and classroom for digital composing, and created and taught the university's first writing with technology curriculum.