UMassOnline Team

Mark A. Schlesinger, Ph.D., was named Interim Chief Executive Officer of UMassOnline in February, 2009. Dr. Schlesinger, with more than 40 years experience in higher education, three decades of which have been devoted to the University of Massachusetts system, came to his new role following a four-year period as Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and International Relations at the University of Massachusetts Central Office.

From 1977 to 2005, Dr. Schlesinger held a series of increasingly prominent positions at UMass. He began his career as an Instructor, Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the Department of Analysis and Communication in the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Subsequently he served for three years as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Management and was named in 1991 as Assistant Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston. After a stint as Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Maine at Machias, Dr. Schlesinger returned to UMass Boston. He assumed the Directorship of the Interdisciplinary Communication Studies Program, a position he held from 1996 until 2004.

Dr. Schlesinger earned his A.B. cum laude in 1967 from Columbia College, Columbia University, and his M.A. with Honors in Student Personnel Administration in 1969 from Colgate University. In 1979 he received his Ph.D. from the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan. Since then he has completed advanced studies in Information Systems and Management Information Systems through the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business at the University of Baltimore and the University of Minnesota.

A prolific writer, editor, project collaborator, teacher and lecturer throughout his career, Dr. Schlesinger in 2002 received the "Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology" award at the Twelfth Annual Conference on Teaching and Learning. In 2001, his 1984 article entitled "The Road to Teaching Thinking…" was selected as "Best of Issue" in the Journal of General Education's 20-year commemorative issue. As a teacher, in 1998, he offered the first fully interactive seminar across University of Massachusetts Lowell and Boston campuses using ITV and the Internet. Other major courses taught include undergraduate courses on Problem Solving and Critical Thinking, Cyberspace and Human Communication, Information Systems Introduction and Systems Analysis.

Included in the 14 major publications and books with which Dr. Schlesinger has been involved as an author, co-author, contributor or editor, is his 2004 contribution entitled Educational Philosophy in the Faculty Guidebook: A Comprehensive Tool for Improving Faculty Performance. He was also a contributing editor to the 2002 Teaching and Learning Online: Communication, Community, and Assessment - A Handbook for UMass Faculty. He has also participated in more than 40 reports and monographs, proceedings, conference papers, workshops and presentations, the most recent of which was a March 2008 Northeast Regional Computing Program where he co-presented "Integrating Faculty Development and Instructional Technology."

And, in 2007, he organized and moderated a panel presentation for the New England Educational Assessment Network entitled "Integrating Learning, Teaching, and Assessment through Electronic Portfolios: The UMass Boston and UMass Dartmouth Initiatives." He resides in Hingham with his wife, Frances, with whom he has raised a son and a daughter. For recreation, he especially enjoys kayaking.