Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw (zap-q) serves as a Professor and Doctoral Program Coordinator for the learning design and technology program at the University of Memphis. Her educational journey is inclusive of a B.A. in Elementary Education (2002), an M.A. in Counseling (2004), an Ed.D. in Distance Education (2009), and a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision (2018). Before entering Higher Education, she served as a counselor. Thus, she holds licensure as a Professional Counselor and  School Counselor. 

She now has over fifteen years of experience in higher education, serving both as a faculty and administrator. For innovative technology integration in courses, she has won several awards, including a Presidents’ Award for Teaching Excellence.  She has built systems for online doctoral student-faculty collaboration and received national and international recognition, including a featured Microsoft case study and a Campus Technology Innovators award. 

Her scholarship provides evidence of her commitment to student success, diversity, inclusion, as well as an appreciation for the wedding of theory and practice (e.g., applied research). She has published over a 100 peer reviewed publications and conference proceedings, and she has secured over 5 million dollars in funding as a PI or Co-PI from the National Science Foundation. Her scholarship has broadly explored how systems (e.g., technology, web-based, family, and institutional ) can be leveraged to help all students thrive psychosocially, socially, academically, and vocationally (e.g., self-efficacy, deep learning, sense of community, persistence). Her three broad research areas have included: 1) doctoral education and persistence, 2) distance education and technological systems, and 3) gender and racial equity in science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM).  

Her co-edited book, Navigating the Doctoral Journey: A Handbook of Strategies for Success was recognized as one of the first doctoral handbooks to discuss online programs, psychosocial factors and mental health, and family systems, receiving a 2015 American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Doctoral Education across the Disciplines  Outstanding Publication Award for its significant contribution to the graduate education. And, she  received the 2020 AERA Mentorship and Mentoring Practices SIG Distinguished Research Paper Award for a co-authored article on peer mentorship. And more recently, she published my co-edited book, Navigating the Peer Mentoring Relationship: A Handbook for Women and Other Underrepresented Populations in STEM. Finally, she has been a Fulbright scholar, serving on  a project in Timor-Leste, partnering with the U.S. embassy and the National Commission for UNESCO, a semi-government institution under the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Culture (MHESC), to carry out a needs assessment and training initiative for five Timorese higher education institutions to systematically design their STEM programs.