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Director of Instructional Design
Dr. Jeanine A. DeFalco is the Director of Instructional Design at Transfr, leveraging VR to upskill vocational workforce domains.
Prior to working for Transfr, Dr. DeFalco was a Research Psychologist at the Army Futures Command - Combat Capabilities Development Command Simulation and Training Technology Center assigned to Orlando, FL. Her research focused on supporting moral and ethical decision making mediated by human virtual agents, and accelerating learning/creative reasoning in medical education by way of the adaptive tutoring system, GIFT.
Dr. DeFalco sits on the executive committee of the International Society for AI in Education (2020). She is also the Chair for the group on Ethics and AIS under the IEEE Adaptive Instructional Systems (C/LT/AIS) P2247 Working Group.
In 2020 at I/ITSEC, Dr. DeFalco—with co-presenter Dr. Robert Sottilare— was awarded best tutorial for “Fundamentals of Adaptive Instructional Systems (AISs).” In 2019, Dr. DeFalco was recognized with the NTSA Modeling and Simulation Award, Education/Human Performance – Team Award, for Outstanding Achievement in Modeling and Simulation for her contributions on the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT).
A former full-time clinical faculty member from the School of Education at Pace University, Westchester Campus, Dr. DeFalco continues to serve as an adjunct at Pace teaching assessments. She has also taught Neuroscience and Instructional Design at the University of Central Florida, and worked as a dissertation coach at the University of Pennsylvania's CLO program.
In a former life, Dr. DeFalco was a professional theatre director and member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers union. She completed her year long directing internship under Jon Jory of the Actors Theatre of Louisville. She continues to work as a script doctor and dramaturge for new plays and films.
Dr. DeFalco received her PhD in Psychology from Columbia University (2017), specializing in Human Development/Cognitive Studies in Education with a concentration in Intelligent Technologies, advised under Dr. Ryan Baker. She also holds an MPhil from Columbia in Psychology, an MA in Education (Colleges and Communities) from New York University, an MDS in Drama Studies from The Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in History and Theatre from CW Post, Long Island University.