OTAN News

Thank You, Penny!

We'd like to take a moment to say special thanks to Penny Pearson, who is retiring from OTAN after 15 years with our organization.

Penny started at OTAN as a Project Specialist II in 2007 after working at the Winterstein Adult Education Center in Sacramento where she taught vocational classes, created staff development workshops on technology topics, and implemented "Tech Talk Daze," an early version of office hours where teachers could drop in and learn new technology skills. Before starting her work at OTAN, she had been a participant and then mentor in OTAN's Technology Integration Mentor Academy or TIMAC, a previous one-year academy for adult educators from around the state.

A few years later, Penny became the Coordinator of Distance Learning Projects, the position from which she is retiring. As Coordinator, Penny has had a hand in so many activities, starting with training on a wide variety of topics and OTAN video production. She has been one of the state leaders on developing distance learning courses, curriculum pilots, and data collection and reporting. She has helped coordinate TIMAC and OTAC (the previous Online Teaching Academy) as well as our latest academy, DLAC (the Digital Leadership Academy). Some of Penny's other passions have been open educational resources, accessibility, and copyright and licensing. She has been training all of us at OTAN as well as the field on these topics. Outside of work, Penny is a woman of many talents and craftiness, and we expect to see Penny in the future each time with a delicious treat or creation in hand from time spent working on a long list of fun activities.

We thought we'd leave the last word to Penny:

William James once said, "The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it." I feel that we have done extraordinary work at OTAN, and we have helped others live their best lives through education. I'm proud of what we have accomplished together, and I want to thank you all for letting me be a part of your team.

Penny

From all of us at OTAN and in adult education, thank you Penny!