Five TAA members have been elected to the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Laura Frost has been elected Vice President/President-Elect, Juli Saitz has been elected Treasurer, and Claudia Sanchez has been elected to a second term as Secretary. Robert Christopherson and Dave Dillion have been elected to Council positions. This will be Christopherson’s third term.

Dr. Laura Frost directs the Whitaker Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education and is Professor of Chemistry at Florida Gulf Coast University. She co-authors, General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 3/e (Pearson) and regularly publishes academic articles. She serves on the review board for two journals, The International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and FGCU’s student journal, Aquila. Dr. Frost is principal investigator on two National Science Foundation STEM Education Awards. She joined TAA in 2011 and serves on the TAA Council since 2014.

Juli Saitz, CPA is a Senior Managing Director at Ankura Consulting Group. She leads the royalty compliance practice and has extensive experience serving clients including textbook and trade authors. Ms. Saitz has helped authors and corporate clients recover millions of dollars in asserting their audit rights related to licensed copyrights, trademarks and patents. She is focused on the shift in the publishing industry to electronic content delivery methods and adaptive learning platforms. In addition, Ms. Saitz has served as a damages expert in matters involving royalty disputes in the publishing industry. She has a degree in Accounting from New York University.

Claudia Sanchez is Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Texas Woman’s University. She graduated from Texas A&M-College Station with an M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. As an academic author, her research interests include second language teaching methodologies, Spanish language literacy, multicultural teacher competency, and parental involvement in K-12 education. She has also authored and directed three federal grants totaling over 4 million dollars. The focus of these grants is the preparation of teachers in critical need areas for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Robert Christopherson was Professor of Geography at American River College for three decades, receiving many teaching awards. He earned B.A., California State University, Chico, and M.A., Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 2012, California State University awarded him their Distinguished Alumni Award. He is the author of leading texts, Geosystems, 10/e, Elemental Geosystems, 8/e, Geosystems Core 1/e, Geosystems Canadian, 4/e, among others, published by Pearson. Robert and his wife, Bobbe’, direct travels toward gathering text research and photos, completing 15 science expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions since 2003, in addition, two expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean.

Dave Dillon is counseling faculty and an associate professor at Grossmont College. He authored a College Success textbook titled Blueprint for Success in College, published in 2014 and is working on a second edition. He is involved in California Community College committees at a local, district, and statewide level. He is currently Co-Chairing a California statewide Educational Planning Initiative Student Services Portal Steering Committee. He is passionate about student success, textbook quality, access, and design.

Thank you to all members who participated in the election process. As a member-driven organization, TAA relies on members’ willingness to get involved in governance and other activities of the association. Learn more about the TAA Council.