Office and People Directory

Olivia Vittitow

Biography

Olivia Vittitow is a Champlain Professional Writing alum, who upon graduation, pursed a career in copywriting and non-profit fundraising. When she was offered the opportunity to return to the Champlain community alongside a team she had worked with as a student employee, she was overjoyed. Champlain has always felt like a home away from home for her, a transplant from Louisville, Kentucky.

Among her many hobbies are reading, traveling, fermenting, amateur film-buffing, and playing piano. Managing the InSight Program is her way of giving back to a program that she was a product of and champion for. Helping students find their confidence in key life skills, and graduate with competencies for personal and professional success is the most rewarding thing of all.

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Keith Wade

Biography

Dr. Keith Wade is an accomplished professional with over 18 years of business and finance experience, having worked with renowned Fortune 500 companies such as Ford Motor Company and Pitney Bowes. During his tenure, he played a crucial role in developing yearly plant budgets for Powertrain, amounting to more than $80 million. His responsibilities included ensuring the overall compliance of income statements across multiple companies and creating strategic roadmaps for future growth and income at Ford Motor Company.

In addition to his impressive corporate background, Dr. Wade boasts extensive academic expertise. He has successfully facilitated online classes covering various subjects, including finance, business, supply chain, project management, and organizational behavior. His ability to effectively impart knowledge in these areas has made him a valuable asset in the educational field.

Dr. Wade holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where he laid the foundation for his career. He later pursued and obtained an MBA in Business from the University of Detroit-Mercy in Detroit, Michigan, further enhancing his skills and knowledge. Committed to advancing his education, he went on to complete a Doctorate in Business from Argosy University, solidifying his expertise in the field.

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Michelle Wakefield

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Leandre Waldo

Biography

Leandre is currently serving as the interm vice president of Enrollment Management.

In her role as Chief of Staff, Leandre leads of the College’s institutional communications and public relations activities. As Secretary of the Corporation, she also helps ensure the Board of Trustees is supported, informed and engaged.

Leandre previously served as Chief of Staff to the President at St. Michael’s College and the Director of Client & Media Relations at Champlain. She holds an MBA from Brandeis University and a BA from Hamilton College.

Leandre has lived on both coasts and several states in between but is happy to call Burlington, VT her permanent home. When not herding cats, Leandre spends her time running, cycling, hiking, snowboarding and dreaming about her next SCUBA trip. She lives with her partner and two teen-aged children.

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Jeff Walton

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John Ware

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Susan Waryck

Biography

Susan joined the Champlain College team in 2019. She’s worked in higher education and in Student Affairs for her entire 30+ year career. Her experiences range from small, private liberal arts colleges to mid-sized, public universities in the south and mid-west. Susan enjoys serving as the Dean of Students supporting students in their college experience. In her role, Susan supervises the Director of Housing and Residential Life, the Director of Community Standards, and the Director of the Office of International Student Services. Connecting students to these dedicated and committed team members is an important part of Susan’s role. She looks forward to supporting all students as they navigate Champlain College.

What are your hobbies?

I love to quilt (making t-shirt quilts, specifically); I enjoy riding my bike with my husband; I love to kayak

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Joseph Weagraff

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Timothy Wedge

Biography

Currently an Associate Professor of Practice at Defiance College and adjunct faculty at Champlain College, Tim Wedge has been working in the field of information technology for more than 30 years, and has been in the field of computer forensics / high tech crime for more than 20 years. His non-fiction articles and papers have been published in “The Informant,” “DFI News,” and “The Journal of Digital Forensic Science and Law.” His poems and short stories have been published in “Progeny,” “Nascence: The 2014 Word Branch Publishing Science Fiction Anthology” and “Moments, Moods, and Memories.” He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (summa cum laude) and a Master’s in Criminal Justice.

After retiring from the U.S. Navy in 2001, he was a computer crime specialist at the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) for more than 8 years, during which he developed and delivered more than a dozen basic, intermediate and advanced courses in computer forensics and online investigation, and taught more than three thousand law enforcement officers. Through NW3C’s partnership with Purdue University, he was also visiting faculty at Purdue University from 2005 to 2009, teaching several computer forensics courses, and collaborating with Purdue faculty on several computer forensic research projects. He also conducted computer forensic examinations for U.S. Military Intelligence, where he encountered instances of human trafficking. This resulted in a profound shift in his career goals to direct his talents to the fight against human trafficking. He has been invited to present on the subject in a variety of forums in such diverse places as Fairmont, West Virginia, and Doha, Qatar. He currently teaches Digital Forensic Science at Defiance College, in Ohio, where he is the program manager for the DCs DFS program, and online courses in Digital Forensic Science for Champlain College, and University of California, Irvine. When not actually teaching, or pursuing research opportunities to develop new methods for detecting and investigating human trafficking cases, he is working on short stories, and his upcoming novel, “Marti Martinez and the Fishbowl Girls.”

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Stephen Wehmeyer

Biography

Steve Wehmeyer has been teaching in the Core Division at Champlain since 2008. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA in Folklore and Mythology, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Wehmeyer’s research and teaching interests are diverse and wide ranging – with particular specialization in the ethnographic study of vernacular religion, the material and ritual arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, Western Esotericism, and Indigenous American narrative traditions. His academic work has been published in several anthologies and museum catalogs, as well as a number of academic journals including “Western Folklore”, “New York Folklore”, “Southern Quarterly”, “Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft” and “Gnosis: The Journal of Gnostic Studies”. Outside of his academic work, Wehmeyer is a professional Celtic musician and songwriter, with credits that include motion picture and television soundtracks, and 13 albums to date (11 of which have reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts for World Music). With a passion for globally engaged, experiential learning, Dr. Wehmeyer teaches or co-teaches a variety of courses across the Core Curriculum, including several involving travel to and service learning in places like Zanzibar and India.

Publications & Abstracts

PUBLICATIONS & ABSTRACTS

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

American Academy of Religion

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Favorite Quote

“In the beginning was noise. And noise begat rhythm. And rhythm begat everything else. This is the kind of cosmology a drummer can live with.”

—Mickey Hart

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Michael Weinberg

Biography

Mike started teaching at Champlain about 1980 while he was also a middle school teacher. He has a Bachelors degree in mathematics and a Masters degree in Education. He really enjoys teaching mathematics and being with students. He also loves to go geocaching and has been doing that for about 10 years. He was a volunteer Advanced EMT with Essex Rescue for 34 years.

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Janet Weinstein

Biography

Janet Weinstein is an Adjunct Professor for Champlain College’s Broadcast Department. She comes with more than a decade’s worth of experiences working as a journalist for companies such as ABC News in Washington, DC and the Associated Press in London, UK. She is passionate about teaching students how to become stronger video producers, especially in an ever-evolving media landscape.

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

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Grady Welch

Biography

Grady’s interest in filmmaking began as a young child when he ran crying from the theater during Ernest Scared Stupid when the trolls come up out of the ground. He then attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and majored in Cinematography. He lived in Los Angeles for over a decade, where he worked as a cameraman on feature films, tv shows, mayonnaise commercials, and video games. Grady’s also a lifelong performer, having acted in a bunch of very serious plays and was a committed member of the LA improv and sketch community. He’s also a professional Dungeon Master, and sings in heavy metal bands. He moved to Vermont in the spring of 2022, and could not be happier to have left Mordor for The Shire.

Distinctions & Awards

“The Sweetest Show” at the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson

Favorite Quote

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. —Wayne Gretzky
—Michael Scott.”

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James Wemette

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Marianne Werner

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