2 promoted to new roles in TrineOnline

Trine University has promoted two staff members to support the growth of its online and graduate programs.

Brittni Heiden will now serve the university as senior director of graduate programs. In that role, she will have responsibility and accountability for academic quality and operations of the graduate programs offered through TrineOnline.

Her responsibilities will include providing one-on-one advising and registration for graduate students; coordinating, developing and improving curriculum for graduate programs; developing new academic graduate programs and redeveloping current graduate programs; and hiring, training and supervising faculty, advisors and other graduate program staff.

Heiden, who has been at Trine since 2014, most recently served as director of graduate programs. She earned her Master of Science in leadership from Trine in 2016 and also holds a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice and corrections from Saginaw Valley State University.

Trine also has promoted Kodi Buell to senior director of online learning. In her new role, Buell will ensure the university’s online learning environment adheres to the academic policies, procedures and philosophy of Trine University by providing oversight of online class design. 

Her responsibilities will include creating policies and procedures as well as implementing new academic programs; collaborating with other staff and external stakeholders to meet the online course needs of learners outside of TrineOnline; providing oversight of the online course development process; and researching, implementing and providing training in best practices for online pedagogy and instructional technologies.

Buell has been at Trine since 2011 and had served as director of online learning since 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering technology from Purdue University and a Master of Science in distance education and e-learning from the University of Maryland Global Campus.

“We’re excited to see what Brittni and Kodi will accomplish in their new roles,” said Keirsten Eberts, assistant vice president and dean of academics for TrineOnline. “Their experience with online education at Trine University and their expertise in graduate and online learning will support our continued efforts to develop quality online programs for an increasing number of students.”