Meet the Team

Associate Vice President for Faculty Development and Chief Academic Technologies Officer

Bradford Owen, Ph.D.

Email: bowen@csusb.edu

Phone: (909) 537-7379

Dr. Bradford Owen joined CSUSB as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication & Media in 2007, was tenured in 2013, and was promoted to Professor in 2018. He served as the Interim Chair of the department from 2017 to 2019. In August 2019, Brad was appointed Interim Director of Academic Technologies & Innovation and Chief Academic Technologies Officer, and then permanent Director in May 2021. During his tenure, Brad raised the profile of the ATI department in the service and support of our faculty community, most notably during CSUSB's pivot to remote instruction for the 2020 pandemic. In August 2022, Brad was promoted to oversee both ATI and faculty development through the FCE, and in August 2023 the instructional design staff and Brad moved formally to the Division Academic Affairs, so all CSUSB faculty development, instructional design, and higher level academic technologies support is under the FCE. 

Teaching Resource Center Director

Mihaela Popescu, Ph.D.

Email: popescum@csusb.edu

Phone: (909) 537-2597

Dr. Popescu is a Professor of Media Studies with nearly two decades of experience at CSUSB and a strong record of leadership in faculty professional development at both the campus and CSU system levels. She currently serves as Interim Chair of Communication & Media and as Faculty Director of the Extended Reality for Learning (xREAL) Lab. Over the course of her career, she has designed, led, or organized more than a hundred faculty development initiatives, supported course redesign and online quality efforts, managed instructional design teams, and helped secure external funding for teaching innovation.

She brings particular expertise in emerging technologies and pedagogy, including extended reality, generative AI, and multimodal course design, along with a strong grounding in equity-minded teaching, universal design for learning, and authentic assessment. Her leadership of the xREAL Lab and CSU-wide collaborations has positioned CSUSB as a leader in innovative, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning.

Dr. Popescu has also been actively engaged in advancing conversations around AI in teaching and learning, with a research-informed perspective on both its opportunities and risks for students’ academic work. She has demonstrated a consistent commitment to supporting faculty across career stages and to advancing inclusive, forward-looking approaches to teaching and learning.
 

Faculty Mentoring Program Director

Ece Algan, Ph.D. 

Email: ealgan@csusb.edu

Phone: (909) 537-7469

Dr. Algan's scholarly interests range widely, from globalization and digital media, international communication, local and community media, to national/cultural/youth identities, modernity, media ethnography and audiences even though they are all rooted in my training in media and cultural studies.

Her research focuses on the role of local and community media in cultural politics –especially ethnic and religious—as articulated within and against today’s global, digital and transmedia environment. I am particularly interested in Kurdish and Islamist media formations in Turkey. I also study the impact of the commercialized and privatized national mediascape on Turkish national/cultural identity and the public sphere. Women’s access to and use of information technologies in the Middle East is another area of inquiry for me.

Administrative Support Coordinator

Marcy Iniguez 

Marcy Iniguez began her career at CSUSB as a student assistant in 2018 and was promoted to staff administrative support assistant the next year. During this time, Marcy received two Bachelor of Art degrees in Psychology and Human Development from CSUSB. In 2024, she joined the Faculty Center for Excellence department as administrative support coordinator. Marcy enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.