m-Outreach for Engineering Continuing Education: A Model for University-Company Collaboration

Gale Tenen Spak is Associate Vice President of Continuing and Distance Education at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey. She has extensive experience in the area of professional workforce development and continuing education programs and writes and broadly presents on these subjects. Her experience includes managing, developing, marketing, proposal writing, evaluating and implementing programs for professionals who require new education and training to keep their skill at the cutting edge. The programs she designs involve collaborations among academe, industry, and government; and utilize, as appropriate, online instruction. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science and Master of Science from Yale University, and her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, phi beta kappa, in Political Science from Brooklyn College of City University of New York. Before joining NJIT, Dr. Spak was Dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Education at New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York, and, during America’s first energy crisis, served as the Director of the Center for Energy Policy and Research. In the later capacity, she managed federally-funded energy information and technology transfer programs in the United States and abroad; and wrote various reports distributed by the U.S. Department of Energy to every Governor and State energy official to facilitate energy efficiency information outreach activities. She also developed a Masters Degree Program in Energy Management and a combined Bachelors/Masters Degree Program in Architectural Technology and Energy Management which emphasized ”green” education. Her recent experiences include providing expert testimony to the NJ State Legislature regarding the capacity of NJ’s four-year colleges to rapidly retool professionals for new positions in the 21st century during an economic downturn. Other experiences include serving as a key strategy lead for the U.S. Department of Labor’s $5.1M grant to North Jersey under the Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative.