Solar Curriculum VITAE September

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Solar Curriculum VITAE September 2015 1

VITAE

ERNEST SOLAR, Ph.D.

Mount St. Mary’s University

School of Education and Human Development 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road

Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727 301.447.5371 [email protected]

EDUCATION

8/08 - 12/13 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Doctor of Philosophy – Education Minor – Special Education Leadership

Dissertation: The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Adolescents with High-Incidence Disabilities

8/06 - 8/08 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Master’s in Education – Special Education

Graduate Certificate – Emotional Disturbance/Learning Disabilities 8/92 - 12/96 East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

Bachelor of Science in Exercise Sport Science Concentration - Health and Fitness

Minor – Business Administration

CURRENT APPOINTMENT

08/14 - present Mount St. Mary's University - Emmitsburg, Maryland Assistant Professor for the Department of Education

 Responsible for teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses related to special education

 Courses taught:

o SPED 415 – Methods & Management for Inclusive Settings o MSPED 511 – Methods & Management for Inclusive

Settings

o SPED 470 – Current Trends & Issues in Special Education o EDUC 495 – Professional Seminar

o EDUC 427/MEDUC 527 – Reading in the Secondary Content Area II

o MEDUC 514 – Secondary Educational Assessment  Service:

o Member of the University Library Committee o Member of the Compensation Analysis Committee o Member of the Search Committee for an Assistant

Professor of Education o Honors Project Advisor

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PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

03/14 – 06/14 George Mason University - Fairfax, Virginia

Adjunct Professor for the College of Education and Human Development  Develop lesson plans and assessments, and lead instruction for a 3-credit

Master's level course titled Learning Strategies for Secondary Students with Disabilities.

8/08 – 06/14 Loudoun County Public Schools - Ashburn, Virginia Special Education Teacher - Emotional Disability

 Special Education Teacher managing students with Emotional Disabilities in a secondary self-contained setting.

 Manage the School-Within-A-School (SWS) program at Freedom High School – A self-contained classroom within the high school for students with an emotional disability.

 Manage a case load of 10 to 15 secondary students receiving special education services for a variety of disabilities – which involves writing and managing their Individual Education Plans, Functional Behavior Assessments, Behavior Intervention Plans, quarterly goal reports, and weekly feedback to the clinical team and parents.

 Develop and implement learning and behavior strategies for students in the SWS program to help them achieve academic and soc-emotional success in their inclusion or self-contained classes.

 Work with the Transition teacher in developing transition plans for

graduating students going to college, military, or the work force. At times these plans include additional services and training offered by county and state government agencies.

 Work with the Special Education Department Chair and the Middle School to transition rising 8th_{grade students to 9}th_grade.

 Participate in grading portfolio assessments for the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program (VAAP) for the entire Loudoun County Public School system.

 Lead and team-teach Algebra 1 inclusion and self-contained classes, and self-contained Basic Skills/Resource classes.

 Highly qualified to teach Algebra 1, English 9, 10, 11, and 12 on the secondary level.

07/10 – 09/10 Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland Intern

 Intern to Dr. Erica Sibinga in the Department of Pediatrics at JHU; assisted her with a Mindfulness study with middle school students in an urban school setting.

 Collected, organized, and cleaned data related to the teacher observation dependent measure of the mindfulness study.

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 Used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), analyzed and compared data from the Teacher Observation Classroom Adaptation-Checklist dependent measure to determine if there was a statistical difference in student behavior related to the mindfulness intervention. 9/08 – 5/10 George Mason University - Fairfax, Virginia

Graduate Research Assistant

 Graduate Research Assistant to Dr. Margaret King-Sears in the College of Education and Human Development.

 Collected, organized, and cleaned data with the use of SPSS for Dr. King-Sear's research studies related to co-teaching, teacher motivation,

Universal Design for Learning, and math interventions.

 Modified and created manipulative activities and workbooks to be used in survey and math intervention studies.

 Conducted literature reviews related to co-teaching, teacher motivation, Universal Design for Learning, and math interventions.

 Created PowerPoint presentations for dissemination of findings related to Dr. King-Sears's studies on co-teaching and teacher motivation.

7/05 - 8/08 Inova Kellar School - Fairfax, Virginia

Special Education Teacher & Camp Director

 Managed a case load of 8 secondary students receiving special education services for a variety of disabilities – which involved writing and

managing their Individual Education Plans, Functional Behavior

Assessments, and Behavior Intervention Plans, quarterly goal reports, and weekly feedback to the clinical team and parents.

 Planned and implemented daily lesson plans and therapeutic teaching strategies consistent with IEP goals and objectives and the Virginia

Standards of Learning (SOLs) for the subjects of Biology, Algebra I, Earth Science, Career Planning, Character Education, and meditation.

 Developed transition plans for graduating students going to college, military, or the work force. These plans included teaching students how to manage their money, get an apartment, and shop for food.

 Respond to emergency situations by assisting clinical staff in the de-escalation and stabilization of students in crisis.

 Camp Director for a therapeutic camp during the summer months for children between 6 and 12 years old with Autism, ADHD, and Emotional Disabilities. Managed all aspects of the camp, including; a staff of 4 professionals, 20 participants, and adhering to the Standards of License Day Care Facilities as outlined by the Virginia Department of Social Services.

11/04 - 11/06 World Instructor Training Schools - Virginia Beach, Virginia Instructor

 Taught two semester long personal training certificate college-level courses at local community colleges in Maryland.

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 Each course consisted of planning, implementing, and teaching three-hour long lectures and three-hour long practical labs for the duration of the course.

 Written and practical exams were administered and scored at the completion of each course.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

4/03 – 11/05 Inova HealthSource - Falls Church, Virginia Program Manager and Health Educator

 Editor of a quarterly newsletter, which was distributed to over 500,000 homes.

 Program Manager of a Cardiac Wellness Program – a smoking cessation program with over 750 cardiac patients that utilizes bedside and telephone counseling to couch patients to a healthier lifestyle.

 Created a detailed specifications document to develop a database for the Cardiac Wellness Program.

 Presented and developed health education lectures to adult populations on various topics including: starting an exercise program, motivation to exercise, current trends in exercise, stress management, time management, health system compliance.

 Participated in health fairs as the company lead, providing cholesterol results, body composition, muscular strength and endurance tests, vision screenings, and blood pressure screenings.

10/01 – 12/02 Northern Virginia Community Hospital - Falls Church, Virginia Marketing Assistant

 Managed the development and implementation of the hospital’s marketing strategy and budget from a business and clinical perspectives.

 Managed internal and external communications with collateral materials, including media kits, patient handbooks, brochures, and created a logo and branding materials.

 Coordinated the relationships of three marketing companies who assisted in the copyediting, writing, and printing of direct mail campaigns and media advertisement.

 Acted as physician liaison to maintain communication channels between the physicians and administration.

 Developed and implemented a fee-based health education program for the community and employees.

 Handled public relation activities in all media formats to increase awareness within the community.

 Designed and managed the overall web page features for the hospital. 08/00 – 12/00 Impact Innovations Group - Columbia, Maryland

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 Served as the energy industry expert for the emerging energy vertical within the company.

 Wrote five proposals for utility industry RFPs and RFIs, proposal results yielded 80% success rate.

10/99 – 06/00 PowerTrust.com - Reston, Virginia Billing & Interface Manager

 Created and managed the customer service department that included 12 out-bound and in-bound customer service representatives (CSR) to support the billing department.

 Managed data processing and development staff (5 developers, 5 project coordinators).

 Created the policy and procedures for issuing refunds and credits for the 15,000 customers serviced on a monthly basis.

 Managed the cash receivables of credit cards and checks of over $1M dollars per month in utility bills.

 Managed the payment of over $1M dollars to business partners on a monthly basis.

10/98 – 10/99 ICF Consulting Corporation - Fairfax, Virginia Senior Product Consultant

 Implemented and installed Energy Settlement software product onsite for clients and developed client specification documents.

 Oversaw and managed each client’s $500,000 dollar budget for each project.

08/96 – 05/98 GTE Service Corporation - Stamford, Connecticut Health & Fitness Specialist

 Managed the accounting procedures for the department’s $600K budget.  Purchased equipment and supplies for the facility’s operations.

 Designed and implemented a database for 400 members to streamline billing procedures and to generate monthly usage reports for budgets and planning.

 Implemented and supported the internal web page which was used as a marketing tool for the center.

 Coordinated and implemented adult health education classes, incentive programs, and personal training program.

AWARDS

November 2008: 4-year Special Education Leadership Fellowship in conjunction with the GMU Ph.D. in Education Program

May 2008: College of Education and Human Development Academic Award for Special Education (ED/LD)

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February 2008: Recipient of the Virginia Teachers of Promise Institute

September 2007: Outstanding Achievement Award from the Inova Kellar Center

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Solar, E. (2013). An alternative approach to behavior interventions: Mindfulness-based stress reduction. Beyond Behavior, 22(2), 44-48.

Solar, E. (2011). Prove them wrong: Be there for students with emotional or behavioral disabilities. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(1), 40-45.

Book

Solar, E. (2015). Two Moons Rising. Spokan, WA: Zharmae Publishing.

GRANTS

King-Sears, M. E. & Solar, E. Teaching adolescents with emotional or behavioral disorders to meditate as self-management. Research grant submitted APRIL 2009 to George Mason University Center for Consciousness and Transformation ($29,000). Grant unfunded.

NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL PRESENTATIONS

Solar, E. (2014, October). The Use of Mindfulness to Transition Students with Disabilities into College. Paper presented at The 6th Annual Conference of the Association for

Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, Seattle, Washington.

Brawand, A.E., Solar, E., & King-Sears, M.E. (2012, February). Do secondary co-teachers share equal responsibilities? Paper presented at the 2012 Celebrating Effective Teaching symposium of the Virginia Council for Learning Disabilities, Harrisonburg, Virginia. Solar, E. (2011, November). Prove them wrong: Be there for secondary students with emotional

disabilities. Paper presented at the 34th Annual Conference of Teacher Educator Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, Austin, Texas.

Solar, E. (2011, September). Prove them wrong: Be there for secondary students with emotional disabilities. Paper presented at the 9th Biennial International Conference on Children and Youth with Behavior Disorders, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Solar, E. (2011, September). Dialogue thinking: Developing the school of tomorrow. Paper presented at the 9th Biennial International Conference on Children and Youth with Behavior Disorders, New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Solar, E. (2010, October). Prove them wrong: Be there for the student with emotional or behavioral disabilities. Poster session presented at the 32nd International Conference on Learning Disabilities, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Solar, E. (2008, June). Keynote address for the graduating class of 2008. The Kellar School, Inova Kellar Center, Fairfax, Virginia.

EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARDS

Reviewer for The Learner Collection – July 2015 to Present

Guest Reviewer with Dr. King-Sears for Manuscript Submitted for Publication, Intervention in School and Clinic – January 2010

CONFERENCES AND TRAININGS

Broderick, T., & Reibel, D. (June, 2015). Learning to BREATHE: Mindfulness – For You and For Youth, 2-day training.

Center for Consciousness and Transformation, GMU (August, 2010). Mindful Education Focus Group.

Center for Consciousness and Transformation, GMU (August, 2010). Contemplative Educator Summit.

Council of Administrators of Special Education (July, 2010). Summer Educational Leadership Seminar, 4-day training.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 8-week class (May to June, 2010).

Biegel, G. (January, 2010). Intro to Mindfulness for the Adolescent for Professionals, 4-hour online training session.

CERTIFICATIONS

Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Education, certified as a K-12 as a Special Education teacher with an endorsement in Emotional Disturbances and Learning Disabilities

Certified in The Mandt System – Level 1 (August 2008 to August 2014) Certified in The Mandt System – Level 2 (January 2010 to August 2014) Second Degree Certificate in Usui Reiki (2003 to present)

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MEMBERSHIPS in PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

Service to the University

Member of the University Library Committee (2014 to Present) Member of the Compensation Analysis Committee (2015 to Present) Service to the School of Education and Human Services

Member of the Search Committee for an Assistant Professor of Education (Spring 2015 Semester)

Honors Project Advisor (2015 to Present) Service to the Profession

President-Elect and Member of the Council for Exceptional Children Maryland Chapter (2015 to present)

American Educational Research Association (2010 to present)

Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (2010 to present) Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) (2009 to present)

Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders Division for Research

Teacher Education Division

VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES

Camp WAMAVA (Christian-based Camp) - Volunteer Kitchen Staff (July ‘12, ’13, ’14, & ‘15) Camp WAMAVA (Christian-based Camp) - Development of a Special Needs Camp for the 2014 Season