The Texas Digital Learning Association is proud to announce the 2026 award recipients, honoring individuals and organizations who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to advancing digital learning across the state. These leaders represent the best of our community—innovators, advocates, and practitioners who are making digital learning more accessible, effective, and equitable for all learners.
Award presentations will take place during the TxDLA 2026 Conference in Galveston on March 24 and 25.
Hall of Fame Inductees
The TxDLA Hall of Fame recognizes individuals whose sustained leadership, innovation, and advocacy have fundamentally shaped digital learning in Texas and beyond.
Dr. Sunay Palsole
Dr. Sunay Palsole has dedicated over 23 years to advancing digital learning across three major Texas institutions—the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Texas A&M University. His transformative leadership has expanded access to online education for hundreds of thousands of students while establishing Texas as a national leader in digital learning excellence.
At UTEP, Dr. Palsole grew online offerings from 22 courses to over 230 courses and six fully online graduate programs, generating more than 45,000 student credit hours annually. At UTSA, he increased online and hybrid course offerings by 60% and enrollments by 72%, while developing innovative financial models and the university’s first MOOC on EdX.
Since 2016 at Texas A&M University, Dr. Palsole has served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Engineering Remote Education, where he has achieved his most visible success. Under his leadership, Texas A&M Engineering has maintained the #1 ranking for online engineering programs in Texas and consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally for six consecutive years.
Throughout his career, Dr. Palsole has trained over 1,000 faculty members in evidence-based online pedagogies, secured more than $6 million in external funding, and pioneered innovations in AI integration, competency-based education, gamification, and learning analytics. His frameworks and models have been adopted by 13 institutions nationally and internationally, extending his impact far beyond his home institutions.
Dr. Palsole has served the broader digital learning community through leadership roles with UPCEA, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Learning Technology Advisory Council, and numerous advisory boards. His research has been featured in Forbes magazine three times, published by Harvard University’s AI Pedagogy Project, and recognized through invitations to the White House AI Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education and OpenAI’s inaugural Higher Education Forum.
“I believe in the power of technologies and online learning in particular as a way to equalize education and access gaps,” Dr. Palsole has stated, reflecting a values-driven commitment that goes beyond professional accomplishment to social impact.
Raymond M. Rose, M.Ed.
Raymond M. Rose, M.Ed. has championed digital learning for over five decades, helping shape the foundational standards for online pedagogy, course design, and facilitation that continue to influence the field today.
As a pioneer of early online education initiatives, Ray served as Vice President at The Concord Consortium, where he directed multi-million-dollar federally funded projects including the Virtual High School and Seeing Math. These groundbreaking programs prepared thousands of educators to design and deliver high-quality online courses, establishing models for teacher training, online facilitation, and quality assurance that continue to inform digital learning initiatives across the nation.
Ray co-authored some of the earliest standards for online pedagogy, course design, facilitation, and evaluation, giving the emerging field a shared foundation and professional identity. At a time when online learning was largely experimental, these standards provided institutions with the confidence and structure needed to invest in digital learning programs and recognize online teaching as a specialized area of expertise.
His career-long advocacy for equity, civil rights, and accessibility has ensured that digital learning expansion is grounded not only in innovation but in inclusion. Long before accessibility became a widespread priority, Ray championed the integration of civil rights principles into digital learning design, helping shift the field toward proactive, systemic accessibility practices that are now considered best practice.
Through his leadership with the Texas Digital Learning Association—including service as Public Policy Chair and as a core member of the Digital Accessibility Certificate design and delivery team—Ray continues to strengthen statewide professional learning programs that benefit Texas educators and students. The Digital Accessibility Certificate Course, which Ray helped design, was the first course specifically focused on digital accessibility in Texas.
Ray has provided expert testimony to federal policymakers, served on numerous national advisory boards including the Executive Committee for the Digital Learning Collaborative and Advisory Board for SxSW.edu, and consistently advanced policies that center equity and accessibility in online and blended learning.
His work has shaped how digital learning is designed, taught, evaluated, and governed, leaving a legacy that continues to benefit educators and learners in Texas and around the nation.
Bennie Tschoerner Award for Outstanding Commitment to TxDLA by an Individual
Ashley Harden, TxDLA Conference Program Chair
The Bennie Tschoerner Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional service and commitment to the Texas Digital Learning Association. Ashley has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to TxDLA through her service as Conference Program Chair for the 2025 and 2026 annual conferences. She led the comprehensive review and selection of over 100 session proposals, coordinating with dozens of presenters to build a cohesive, high-quality program. Her collaborative approach ensured representation across institution types, career stages, and geographic regions while maintaining rigorous standards for session quality and relevance.
Award for Outstanding Commitment to Excellent and Innovation in Digital Learning by an Individual
This award recognizes practitioners who have demonstrated exceptional innovation and commitment to advancing digital learning within their institutions and sectors.
4-Year Institution: Austin Haynes, Sr. Instructional Design Consultant, University of North Texas
Austin pioneered UNT’s “Accessibility First” course design framework, proactively integrating Universal Design for Learning principles and WCAG compliance into course development. As a key contributor to UNT’s AI Committee, he has created over 112 Copilot agents to streamline course creation, including tools that transform instructor audio into structured Canvas pages and generate student-friendly course introduction pages from syllabi.
2-Year Institution: Heather Medley, M.Ed., Instructional Designer, South Plains College
Heather is a recognized leader in LMS-native OER course design, developing complete, standards-aligned courses directly inside Blackboard Ultra for technical and allied health programs including Welding, Respiratory Care, and Cosmetology. She led multiple THECB OER grant projects that eliminate textbook costs while increasing instructional quality, and designed faculty professional development cohorts that move instructors from curiosity to confident adoption of digital learning tools.
K-12: Monique Miles, Educational Technology Specialist, Goose Creek CISD
Monique leads the intentional integration of Technology Applications TEKS into K-5 instruction across Goose Creek CISD. She designs professional learning experiences that help teachers move beyond tool usage toward purposeful alignment with standards and measurable student outcomes. Her doctoral research examines how educator understanding and intentionality influence effective technology integration, and she has redefined digital integration through structured frameworks that embed technology directly into core instruction.
Award for Outstanding Commitment to Excellent and Innovation in Digital Learning by an Organization
Department of Educational Development in the Division of Academic Innovation, UNT Health Fort Worth
The Department of Educational Development provides comprehensive partnership for faculty across six colleges through a multidisciplinary team offering expertise in instructional design, technology integration, and accessibility. All instructional designers are TxDLA-certified for digital accessibility, and nearly all hold Quality Matters Peer Reviewer certification. The department developed the Digital Accessibility Matrix, operationalizing P.O.U.R. principles alongside UDL guidelines to systematically evaluate and remediate digital content—work that has been shared through conference presentations and published in the OER textbook Advancing Accessibility.
Award for Outstanding Commitment to Excellent and Innovation in Digital Learning by a Corporation
D2L
D2L has demonstrated exceptional commitment to advancing digital learning in Texas through its Brightspace platform, which prioritizes accessibility, user experience, and pedagogical effectiveness. The company’s proactive approach to WCAG compliance has positioned Texas institutions to meet federal accessibility requirements. D2L’s Creator+ grants program has provided substantial funding to Texas faculty developing innovative digital learning projects, and their partnership approach provides ongoing professional development and implementation support that enables institutions to maximize their learning technology investments. As a Diamond partner for TxDLA 2026, D2L continues to invest in the Texas digital learning community.
Don Foshee Outstanding TxDLA Leadership Award
Francisco Garcia
The Don Foshee Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership within the Texas Digital Learning Association. Francisco has provided steady, inclusive, and visionary leadership within TxDLA. His leadership style emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and genuine service to the TxDLA community. He actively seeks input from members across institution types and geographic regions, ensures diverse voices are represented in organizational decision-making, and works to make TxDLA more inclusive and accessible to professionals at all career stages. Francisco Garcia has served as President-Elect and current President of TxDLA, providing visionary leadership.
John A. Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in K-12 Digital Learning
Renee Lopez, Spanish Virtual Teacher, Aldine ISD
The John A. Baker Memorial Award honors K-12 educators who exemplify excellence in digital learning. Renee serves students across multiple Aldine ISD campuses as a Spanish virtual teacher, ensuring access to world language instruction for students who might otherwise lack it due to scheduling constraints or teacher shortages. She tailors instruction to meet individual student needs, from those learning Spanish for the first time to native speakers, using adaptive learning software that automatically adjusts content difficulty based on student performance. She creates and shares repositories of successful digital lessons with fellow teachers and serves on district committees to help select and implement new educational technologies.
Join us in Celebrating
Award presentations will take place at the TxDLA 2026 Conference in Galveston on March 24 and 25. We invite the entire TxDLA community to join us in celebrating these exceptional individuals and organizations who represent the best of digital learning in Texas.
The Texas Digital Learning Association is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to advancing digital learning across Texas through professional development, advocacy, research, and community building.
