Dr. Monica Bess has 15+ years of experience teaching online at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, she has experience with online course development and competency-based education. Prior to academia, she held various leadership roles in Insurance organizations in Ohio, including a Business Change Director at Anthem BCBS where she was in charge of overseeing large-scale projects. Dr. Bess' research interests are in the areas of student retention in an online environment and the importance of real-time interaction within the online classroom.