About
Organization
The National Center for Competency-Based Learning (NCCBL) is a New Hampshire based 501(c) (3) not-for-profit charitable organization founded in 2013.
Vision
"The World as the Classroom."
Mission
"To institutionalize real world, hands on, learning opportunities for our students by serving as the prime catalyst in harnessing mentors at the local, state, and national levels."
Board Members
Wildolfo Arvelo, Ed.D.
Wildolfo (Will) Arvelo is Executive Director of Cross Roads House (CRH) in Portsmouth, NH. CRH is a low-barrier emergency shelter and transitional housing organization serving the Seacoast of New Hampshire. Our residents come from throughout New Hampshire, Southern Maine and Massachusetts.
Prior to CRH, Dr. Arvelo served as Director of the Division of Economic Development for New Hampshire. In this role he worked on state-wide issues related to economic development and strategy; business recruitment, expansion and retention; and workforce training and development.
Dr. Arvelo served 33 years in leadership positions within higher education at public and private colleges in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York. From 2007-2017, Dr. Arvelo served as president of Great Bay Community College where he transformed the college to be outwardly focused and developed programs to meet the needs of business and industry.
Dr. Arvelo has served on numerous regional and state-wide education, business development and non-profit boards. In 2012, the City of Portsmouth Business Chamber selected him the Citizen of the Year, citing his strong support of business and education, and in 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Granite State College for his work in partnerships in the areas of education and workforce and economic development. Dr. Arvelo is also Founder and Chair of the Business Alliance for People of Color and is engaged diversity, equity and inclusion activities in New Hampshire.
Rajesh Nair
Rajesh Nair is the Founder of EnCube Labs. He served as the Professor of Practice in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Asia School of Business, a school started by MIT-Sloan and the Central bank of Malaysia, and as Visiting Scholar at MIT.
He is an engineer, designer, serial entrepreneur, and an educator who founded four companies in the USA.
He holds 13 US patents. He received Masters degrees in Engineering and Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Manufacturing Engineering (UMass, Amherst) and Electronic Product Design (IISc, Bangalore). His Bachelor degree is in Electronics & Communications from Indian Institute of Science.
His research for ten years at MIT and ASB has been in creating young innovators and entrepreneurs to transform communities. He created the Zero2Entrepreneur program to build innovation and entrepreneurship skill-set and mindset in school and university students in Malaysia, India, the US, and East Timor. His personal mission is to create one million entrepreneurs in ten years.
Dr.h.c. Fred Bramante
Fred Bramante is a former middle school science teacher and longest-serving member of the New Hampshire State Board of Education in state history. During his tenure as Board Chair (2003-05), Mr. Bramante led the first statewide school redesign effort since 1919, resulting in N.H. becoming the first state to move to a competency-based system. Fred holds a Masters’ Degree in Educational Leadership. In 2020, he was named one of the State’s Top Innovators for his education redesign efforts.
Dr. Nischal Chandra
Nischal has over 25 years of industry experience in Healthcare, Finance, Insurance, IT, and Telecommunications sectors. His expertise has been in delivering multimillion-dollar technology solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) at the global scale to solve complex problems for millions of users. He has challenged conventional project management methodologies such as Waterfall and Agile and developed a new one called Team Configuration 1 where AI creates ultra-high-performing teams that deliver significantly more efficiency.
In addition to serving as a board member (Technology Chair) at NCCBL, he has worked for several multinational companies, such as Teradyne, IBM, and Oracle. He is currently serving as a Director of Software Engineering at Oracle Health & AI business unit developing innovative solutions.
While pursuing his career in technology, Nischal has simultaneously been pursuing his passion in the education industry. He started out with developing and teaching his first course in Electrical Engineering over 30 years ago at the Educational Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Later, he progressed to teaching IT courses for several colleges and founded/managed a state-licensed professional school offering over 300 online courses in business and technology for nearly 10 years.
In the education domain, Nischal is currently serving as the Chairman of the IT Department, Vice President of Professional Training, and Chief AI Officer at Apollos University. He has created IT certificate programs, Bachelor of Science in IT degree, and AI/IT concentrations for the Doctor of Business Administration degree.
Nischal holds a Doctor of Business Administration, a Master of Science in Quality Assurance, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.
Jacqueline Guillette
Jacqui is a retired school superintendent. During a public education career which spanned 44 years, Jacqui served students as a teacher, an assistant principal, a principal, an assistant superintendent, and finally for 14 years as a superintendent. As well, she became an educational consultant through her own company, Capstone Consulting LLC, in 2011. For 8 years she consulted on behalf of and through the support of Whelen Engineering Company, INC in Charlestown, NH and Chester, CT. Whelen Engineering paid Jacqui to develop partnerships between educational systems and advanced manufacturers throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Jacqui brought the parties together and facilitated their collaboration to help students and their families understand the amazing career opportunities that advanced manufacturing offers for both the non-college bound and the college-bound young people today. Her consulting continues today through participation at the state level in various groups and grants working on future career pathways.
Jacqui has an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College, a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from the University of Vermont, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Educational Administration from the University of New Hampshire.
Nathan Harris
Nathan Harris is a retired Medical Executive. Nathan has 34 years of operations, marketing, sales, and executive management experience in the medical device & military avionics industry. Nathan has held multiple V.P. of Sales and Marketing positions with various medical device companies, including Advanced Circulatory LightLab Imaging, CAS Medical, and Salient Surgical Inc. He spent 13 years with Medtronic Inc. At Medtronic, Before Medtronic, he worked for Guidant Inc. and Honeywell Avionics Division in various leadership and engineering operational capacities.
He earned an Engineering degree from the College of New Jersey, attended the Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, and earned a Masters of Business Administration from St. Thomas University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at the University of New Hampshire. He has served on multiple boards - Variety Club Heart Hospital, Advanced Circulatory, and now Enova Inc. and National Center for Competency-Based Learning.
Dr. Dan Miner
Dr. Dan Miner is a graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School and has been a radiologist for 30 years. He is currently practicing at the Exeter Hospital, Exeter, NH. He is a board member on the Hurricane Island, Maine Outward Bound. Experiential Learning is in Dan’s DNA as his dad, Josh Miner, started Outward Bound in the United States. Dan is an avid skier and award-winning guitar player.
Joel Olbricht
In addition to serving as the Treasurer of NCCBL, Joel Olbricht is a finance / management leader with 35+ years of experience. As the President & CEO of OSGroup, his professional interests are many and varied. They include leadership, income and estate tax planning, business management and decision-making, strategic planning, building wealth, marketing, and technology planning.
Mary Ford
Mary Ford has extensive experience creating and implementing innovative educator preparation
programs to prepare educators to deliver competency-based and personalized education
programs and currently serves as a Consultant for the National Collaborative for Digital Equity.
With over 40 years of experience working within the education profession, Mary has worked for
Southern New Hampshire University, where she developed undergraduate and graduate paid
residency educator preparation programs focused on competency-based education and
improved K-12 learning outcomes. She also established seamless transfer agreements with the
Community College System of NH to create high quality, affordable 2+2 programs. Additionally,
she worked extensively with City Year New Hampshire to recognize and document City Year
experiences to be applied toward educator preparation program requirements.
Mary also managed educational programs at Granite State College to provide
competency-based educator preparation programs at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate
and graduate levels, available state-wide through online and blended delivery of courses in
seventeen areas of certification. She worked as the NH State Director of Special Education,
and as Associate Director of the NH State Improvement Grant for systems-change throughout
New Hampshire, collaborating with all constituents for improved learning for all students,
including students with disabilities.
She spent 13 years teaching in public and private college and university levels, six
years in tenure-track positions, three as co-chair of Department of Education, and eight years of
teaching at the K-12 level, teaching reading and special education in
public and private schools.
Her extensive experience, along with her guidance and oversight to educator preparation
programs addressing regulatory compliance and competency-based learning supports the
pivotal role she plays as a Board Member of NCCBL.
Mary is currently on a leave of absence.
Dr. Robert McLaughlin
In addition to serving as the Chair of NCCBL's board, Bob is co-founder of the National Collaborative for Digital Equity, bringing to this work several decades of experience in education, STEM educational reform, educational policy analysis and innovation, and designing and leading large-scale technical assistance initiatives. He has chaired the Association of Teacher Educators’ National Commission for Technology and the Future of Teacher Education, administered the evaluation and approval of New Hampshire’s educator preparation programs, and for nearly a dozen years conceived and led a nine-state consortium of state and local educational leaders undertaking systemic STEM educational reform and education technology integration at the school and preparation program levels.
Mentor Connect
Free for Individuals
Mentor Connect is an innovative mentorship engagement platform accessible worldwide. Anyone 18+ of age can sign-up for free and start connecting with relevant individuals for:
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Sign Up / Sign In
Enterprise Edition
For commercial and not-for-profit organizations:
- Dedicated Hosting
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- Unique Workflow
- Administrator Portal
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- Tiered pricing structure
- Non-profit pricing available to 501(c) (3) non-profit organizations, along with assistance with fundraising
Academic Edition
For academic institutions of all levels, the Academic Edition provides:
- All the features of Enterprise Edition
- Oversight for Minors
- Career Credentialing Opportunities for School Credit
Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs)
NHELO Program Design Handbook
The NHELO Program Design Handbook was created, in part, as a resource for the NCCBL.
ELOs/Internships
How are ELOs and Internships getting NH students ready for college and careers?