Gerry Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org) which are free and open digital libraries of academic and workforce development teaching, learning, and training resources administered at California State University Long Beach. At CSULB, Gerry is also the Director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility and Professor Emeritus of Psychology; he teaches Human Factors, conducts research, and leads projects for industry, education, and government agencies.

In 2020, Gerry was inducted into the United States Distance Learning Association’s Hall of Fame and in 2015, he was awarded the Frank Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education. Gerry’s previous positions included Assistant Vice Chancellor & Senior Director for Academic Technology Services at the CSU Office of the Chancellor (2000-2019) where he created the Affordable Learning Solutions programs and scaled Cal State Online to over 200 online degree and certificate programs. His earlier positions included the director of faculty development, and director of strategy planning at the CSU Long Beach campus (1993-2000) where he began his academic career in 1984. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Experimental/Cognitive Psychology.