Over the last seven years he has developed over fifty classes at the college in order to create three separate associates degree programs in digital music, game design, and design & animation. The 2012 Carnegie Foundation’s New York professor of the year, Shad and his colleague Catherine Cannon are the Principle Investigators in the NSF/ATE grant Designing Futures With Games which involves a multi-disciplinary initiative to engage students with math and science by introducing the subjects through compelling game play and design.  He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Skidmore College, an M.S. in Technical Communication from RPI (with certificates in graphic design and usability studies), and an MFA in design and technology from Parsons The New School for Design.