Dr. Dirr has worked for 40 years in the education and telecommunications fields. He has taught communications courses at a public university (State University of New York College at Buffalo) for six years; and at a private university (Manhattanville College) for three years. In addition, Dr. Dirr worked for two years as Manager of Utilization and Interim Director of School Services at the largest Public Television station in the United States (WNET, New York). He also worked for three years at the Central Administration of the State University of New York, where he established a statewide educational recordings library. Dr. Dirr was also Director of Research at Cable in the Classroom and founder and Director of the Professional Development Institute. Through its computer centers in the Washington DC area and traveling laptop computer labs, the Institute trained more than 60,000 teachers in effective use of video and Internet resources in their classes.  Dr. Dirr also served as President of the Public Service Telecommunications Corporation, helping schools, universities, and non-profit groups use technology in their missions.

The longest span of Dr. Dirr's professional career (16 years) was spent at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), where he was a founding staff member and Deputy Director of the Annenberg/CPB Project. Dr. Dirr also served as the President of the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA), where he committed three years of his professional life to helping the Catholic Church make effective uses of telecommunications technologies. He also served as Executive Director of Fairfax Cable Access Corporation, the public access television, radio, and Internet facilities for Fairfax, Virginia.

In the 1970s, Dr. Dirr was involved in research and development in effective uses of media in special education and he conducted pioneering research in mainstreaming handicapped children into regular classes. He also conducted the first studies of the extent to which television, radio, and computers were used in elementary and secondary schools and postsecondary classes in the U.S.

As Deputy Director of the Annenberg/CPB Project, Dr. Dirr established a reputation as a leader in distance education in the United States. He developed and managed the Project's research and evaluation program. He has written extensively in the field and traveled widely to share his experiences with educators and broadcasters in other countries. Dr. Dirr served as the first Vice President (U.S.A.) and Board Member of the Consorcio Red de Educacion A Distancia (CREAD) from 1993 to 1995. He also served six years (1992-1998) as a member of the Council (Board of Directors) of the Open University of Hong Kong, where he remains a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Research In Distance and Adult Learning. Dr. Dirr speaks Spanish and has lectured on distance education and educational uses of communications technologies at universities in fourteen countries.

Dr. Dirr has served as external evaluator for several federally funded distance education projects. He also serves on the editorial board of the electronic Journal of Instructional Science and Technology and the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.

Dr. Dirr holds a Ph.D. in Communications in Higher Education (New York University), a Masters degree in Guidance and Counseling (Fairfield University), and a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy (St. Joseph's Seminary and College).

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