Richard T. Hezel is president of Hezel Associates, a distance-learning consultancy in Syracuse, NY, which focuses on planning, research, and evaluation.  In that role, he applies more than 35 years of education experience to the consulting and research needs of clients in corporate, government, K-12, and higher education distance learning.

Through strategic and business planning, Dr. Hezel provides actionable intelligence in the development of distance learning programs in the USA, and worldwide.  He was the seminal consultant in the development of JesuitNet, a 27 university online distance learning service; Habitat University, a project of Habitat for Humanity International; West Virginia University's distance learning initiatives; and the Center for Disease Control's Public Health Training Network.  In Maryland, a Hezel policy report for the Higher Education Commission guided higher education networking and programmatic policy since.  In addition, under Hezel's leadership, the company has helped many institutions build stronger distance learning programs.

With the understanding that sound research is the cornerstone of good distance learning plans, Hezel focuses on bringing the best information, wisdom, and practices to bear on development of distance learning programs.  From 1987 to 1999, Dr. Hezel published Educational Telecommunications and Distance Learning: The State-By-State Analysis, a national perspective on the latest developments in educational telecommunications in the United States for educators, government administrators, and telecommunications providers.  For 2005, Hezel Associates published the Global E-Learning Opportunity for U.S. Higher Education: a 42-country market analysis.  The firm is actively engaged in the development of an online benchmarking tool to help colleges and universities assess the quality of their distance learning initiatives.  

Incisive evaluation leads to distance learning project improvement, and Hezel and his staff have evaluated numerous projects, including SERC, the Distance Learning Resource Network (DLRN), both Star Schools projects.  Under the US Department of Education, Hezel has also developed a model for cost effectiveness evaluation of distance learning programs.

Prior to founding his company in 1987, Dr. Hezel was an Associate Professor of Telecommunications and Director of the Public Communications Program at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.  Earlier he was an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Houston.  He has also produced and directed for public television stations.  He has a doctorate in mass communication from Indiana University, a master's degree in Television-Radio from Syracuse University, and a bachelor's degree in history from Fordham University.