Shewbridge, Penn Named Employees of the Quarter

The Department of Human Resources congratulates Bill Shewbridge, manager of the Office of Information Technology’s New Media Studio, and Josephine (Josie) Penn, program management specialist for the English Language Center (ELC), for being named the Employees of the Quarter.
Non-exempt Employee of the Quarter Josephine Penn joined UMBC’s ELC in July 2000 as an administrative assistant.
“Penn’s outstanding work performance, particularly her detailed attention to each student, has contributed to the Center’s success, which witnessed a significant increase in non-credit enrollment over the past six years,” said Paul Taylor, the Center’s academic director.
As a result of Penn’s central role among students, faculty and staff from around the world, she has prioritized developing cross cultural communication skills, and took multiple credit and non-credit courses and workshops to support her efforts. Serving as the primary liaison with various offices such as Residential Life, Food Service, University Health, Campus Card, Parking, Bursar and Police, Penn works closely with these offices to coordinate new student orientation and to ensure ELC students receive excellent student services in order to feel comfortable in their new surroundings.
Penn is currently earning a bachelors in psychology with a concentration in personnel and industrial psychology. She is also a popular part-time aerobic instructor for UMBC.
Shewbridge, the exempt Employee of the Quarter Award recipient, has served as manager of UMBC’s New Media Studio since its inception in 2001. He previously worked as a video and multimedia producer and has more than 20 years of experience at UMBC providing educational media support and expertise.
“Shewbridge’s work is distinguished by his patient persistence. He listens well and knows how to ‘cut to the chase’ of a problem and propose an effective solution,” says John Fritz, director of Instructional Technology & New Media. “He is extremely creative and well-versed in all kinds of new media technology (e.g., Web, multimedia, podcasting and video production/streaming). He is also very responsible, doing whatever it takes to complete a project on time to the client’s satisfaction.”
By working with campus leaders and historians, Shewbridge and his staff produced UMBC’s 40th anniversary oral history video and its interactive timeline. With his leadership, the Studio annually produces over 100 projects with limited number of staff.
He sits on the advisory board of the New Media Consortium’s 2007 Horizon Report, which looks at new and emerging technologies over the next one to five years. He also served on the advisory board’s 2005 Horizon Report.
Finally, Shewbridge helped serve as a liaison for Retirement Living TV’s (RLTV) temporary relocation in the UMBC TV Studio in ACIV, and served as an advocate for faculty affected by the move. He also led the development of several “Digital Storytelling” projects involving residents at Charlestown Retirement Community, which may likely appear on RLTV as pilots.
Shewbridge holds a B.A in history from UMBC, a M.S. in Instructional Design from Towson University, a certificate in environmental studies from Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Communications Design from the University of Baltimore.