Contributors

Karin deJonge-Kannan is Emeritus Principal Lecturer of Linguistics in the Department of World Languages & Cultures at Utah State University, where she also served as co-director of the Master of Second Language Teaching program and on the faculty committee of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence. Karin has worked with schoolteachers and university instructors in Chile, China, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in addition to designing and organizing professional development programs at Utah State University for teachers from around the world, with funding from the US Department of State. She is a two-time Fulbright award recipient and an English Language Specialist, has presented regionally and internationally on a wide range of teaching-related topics, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Dr. Thurston is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President at Utah State University. Travis earned his Master of Educational Technology degree from Boise State University, and earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with focus on Instructional Leadership from Utah State University. His teaching and scholarship center on digital-age teaching and instructional design approaches, and creating autonomy-supportive learning environments. He publishes interdisciplinary studies on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and is the production editor for the Empower Teaching Open Access Series.

Amanda Deliman is an assistant professor in early childhood and elementary literacy education at Utah State University-Salt Lake. Her scholarly pursuits focus on the intersections of teacher learning and teacher education, curriculum integration and the use of children’s literature, and social-emotional learning. Amanda is deeply committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment for both her students and her colleagues. She is also dedicated to guiding future educators in developing their professional identities, achieving their goals, and navigating the challenges of the teaching profession.

Amanda Morris is the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Brescia University. Amanda blends career experience in academia and social work practice as she has held leadership roles and served in the teaching faculty at Brescia University for over a decade. She has been actively involved in professional development and conference presentations. Her dedication to education and social work is evident in her numerous contributions to the development of academic programs, grant writing, and the implementation of new initiatives. Most recently, her work focuses on the implementation of academic programs funded to expand the healthcare workforce in western Kentucky. She holds a Doctor of Social Work with a concentration in Administration and Leadership from the University of Kentucky and a M.S. degree in Social Work from the University of Louisville.

Anna M. Kuthy is Director of Assessment at Longwood University. At the time of writing, she served as Director of the Ursuline Center for Teaching and Learning at Brescia University. With nearly two decades of experience in higher education, she has led faculty development initiatives, institutional assessment strategies, and pedagogical innovation grounded in liberal arts values. She was instrumental in Brescia’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) on critical thinking, designing assessment frameworks and facilitating its integration across the curriculum. Anna also directed a Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) Grant and has supported accreditation efforts through SACSCOC. Her faculty observation and mentoring programs emphasize inclusive, student-centered teaching and learning, and sustained professional growth. She holds a Ph.D. in International Studies from Old Dominion University and M.A. degrees in Political Science and German Studies from Bowling Green State University. She continues to teach in the areas of political science.

Anne Cook is a Professor in the Learning Sciences Program in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Utah and is the Director of the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence. Her research focuses on cognitive processes in reading comprehension and other complex tasks. She has conducted research and published works on memory reactivation and validation during reading, inferential processes, conceptual components of word processing, and the use eye tracking technology to measure moment-to-moment processing. She has served in several leadership roles in the department and university, including Director of the Learning Sciences Program, Chair of the Interdepartmental Masters in Statistics Program, Associate Chair and Chair of the Educational Psychology Department, and Director of Student and Faculty Affairs in the College of Education.

Beth Buyserie is the Director of Composition and Associate Professor of English at Utah State University. She teaches the graduate composition pedagogy course, which instructs graduate students on how to teach first-year composition; she also teaches undergraduate courses in writing, research, and professional communication. As part of her administrative role, Beth mentors all instructors who teach in USU’s Composition Program through classroom observations, leading monthly dialogical professional development sessions, and organizing the yearly Compositionist Conference. For her scholarship, Beth researches writing program administration, the teaching of composition, critical pedagogies, and professional learning. She particularly enjoys learning with and from both undergraduate and graduate students, and each day learns something new about the teaching of composition from students’ energy, insight, and lived experiences.

Bethany B. Stone is a Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri – Columbia where she teaches primarily undergraduate courses including General Biology, Botany, Genetics, Genetic Diseases, and Infectious Diseases. In addition, she serves as a Faculty Fellow for the MU Teaching for Learning Center. Her scholarship explores ways to support teaching and learning, including research interests in use of socio-scientific issues in active learning and student learning, attitudes, and identity in a biology undergraduate program. Bethany earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri – Columbia with a research focus on plant physiology and molecular biology.

Caroline Wienhold is the Associate Director of Biology Teaching & Learning and Teaching Associate Professor in the General Biology department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Genetics & Genomics from the University of Connecticut. She also completed a postdoctoral experience in biology education research from the Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Caroline enjoys collaborating with faculty, staff, and students on projects to support student learning.

Casandra E. Harper is an associate professor of Higher Education in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis Department at the University of Missouri. Her research is focused on the diversity of the individual student experience, which has included attention to race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and class across the following key experiences and outcomes: multiracial identity development, racial identification, openness to diversity, the influence of student-faculty and student-parent interactions, perceptions of campus climate, and financial aid as it relates to college access and academic success. Casandra received her B.S. in Psychology and her M.A. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change at UCLA.

Christopher D. Kilgore serves as the Director for Scholarly Teaching & Special Initiatives for the office of Teaching & Learning Innovation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he also leads initiatives related to generative artificial intelligence, faculty success, and program evaluation.  He has taught courses in writing and literature and published on faculty professional development, writing instruction and support, and narrative theory.

For over 20 years, Cynthia Korpan has been involved nationally and internationally in learning and teaching in higher education. In her role as Director of Teaching Excellence (up until March 2023) at the University of Victoria, she was responsible for taking the lead on institutional initiatives to enhance instruction to support students’ learning. This included the mentorship of 100s of graduate students and new faculty members. Nationally, through the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), Cynthia has been involved in many different initiatives and currently, she is Secretary and Director for the Board of Directors. In 2017, Cynthia was awarded the Educational Developer Leadership Award. Cynthia holds a PhD from the University of Victoria and her area of research concentrates on early career academics learning how to teach in higher education in the academic workplace.

Elisabeth Schussler is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. She has a B.S. in General Biology from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD in Plant Biology from Louisiana State University. She worked as a museum educator, biology lecturer, and at a nature park and science center before her first faculty appointment at Miami University in 2005. She moved to UT in 2009 to become the Director of Biology Teaching and Learning. In this role, she led the introductory majors’ courses through a curriculum reform and created instructor communities of practice to support those changes. Her research program focuses on the dynamics between instructor practices and student emotional experiences in introductory biology classes, studying how differential anxiety experiences among students may differentially impact perception of instructor support. In her spare time, she maintains her landscaping and seeks the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Ferlin G. McGaskey currently serves as Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Executive Director Teaching and Learning Innovation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has been in the field of instructional development for 15+years. His research interest focuses on the experiences of graduate students of color as well as graduate student professional development. In addition to his expertise in instructional development, he is also a certified facilitator in Collaborative Communications. He has taught an introductory course in Collaborative Communication for the Adult Learning Graduate Program in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences as well as an annual faculty Collaborative Communication seminar.

Gabrielle Stecher Woodward (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is an award-winning educator, author, and creativity advocate advancing faculty development & enhancing students’ literacy skills. She is a Lecturer in the Department of English at Indiana University–Bloomington, where she previously served as Associate Director of Undergraduate Teaching. In this role, she trained and supported graduate student instructors and post-doctoral fellows teaching digital composition and intensive writing courses and preparing for the job market. She works to democratize digital creativity by mobilizing accessible design technologies so that students and teachers can realize their creative potential and narrativize their knowledge, passion, and impact dynamically and intentionally across digital platforms.

Hannah Mae Lewis is an associate professor of professional practice in the mathematics and statistics department at Utah State University Eastern. She joined the faculty at USUE after completing her doctoral degree in 2019. She graduated from Utah Tech University (formerly DSU) with her B.S. in mathematics in 2012. Her master’s degree in Mathematics emphasizing in Lie Algebras and differential geometry and PhD emphasizing in growth mindset assessments for large lectures were both completed at Utah State University in Logan. She has a passion for helping future teachers to love math and increase their growth mindset with the intention of passing that love and mindset onto their future students. She loves to incorporate technology into her lesson plans enabling students to see the many beautiful applications of mathematics. Her professional interests include the development and implementation growth mindset structured assessments, validation of assessments, faculty and graduate student professional development, faculty-to-student mentorship, and the classification of semi-simple Lie algebras.

James Agutter is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Success and Academic Innovation at the University of Utah, where he leads initiatives that enhance teaching, learning, and student success. A recognized expert in human-centered design, Agutter has developed interdisciplinary programs such as the Bachelor of Science in Multi-Disciplinary Design and co-developed the university’s Teaching Excellence Framework. His work spans clinical innovation, data visualization, and educational reform, earning him numerous awards, including the University of Utah’s Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award. In addition to founding multiple research and innovation labs, he has co-led AI-driven projects focused on advising, academic performance, and institutional data integration. James’s work is grounded in a commitment to transforming complex data into actionable insights and fostering inclusive, future-ready learning environments.

Janette Hill is a Professor in Learning, Design, & Technology in the College of Education and Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of Georgia. She has taught in higher education for over 30 years, primarily at the graduate level. Her expertise in online learning, evaluation, and research methods is widely sought by students, colleagues, and other institutions. She is keen to assist others with their teaching and research, and has mentored medical students, graduate students, and faculty to support their teaching and scholarly efforts.

Jeff Spears is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Utah State University. He completed his MSW degree at the University of Kansas in 2011 and PhD in Social Work at the University of Utah in 2018. Jeff teaches social policy and seminar class for the past 6 years. He is a part-time therapist at Pinnacle High School in Price, Utah serving individuals and families. Jeff serves on the Carbon and Emery Opioid Coalition Board and involved with the Hope Squad focused on suicide prevention. His research interests include: community organizing, cryptocurrencies, and undergraduate mentorship. Jeffs currently serves on the steering committee and coordinator for the Faculty-to-Student Mentorship Program at USU.

Jim LaMuth is the Director of Programs at Utah State University Uintah Basin, overseeing the campus’s student, community, recreation, and educational engagement activities.  Additionally, he provides quality assurance, manages the assessment and survey data for Utah State University’s Statewide Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program, and serves as the chair for the program’s mentee subcommittee.  He has worked in student services for nearly a decade for both technical and degree-granting institutions.  He was first introduced to mentoring as an AmeriCorps volunteer, where he coordinated school-based mentoring programs with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Western Upper Peninsula in Michigan.

Jordan Shipley is a public health professional specializing in culturally competent health communication and promotion, particularly in the realm of health misinformation. Jordan obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English, concentrating in Rhetoric, from the University of Tennessee. She later went on to obtain her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Tennessee, with a particular eye toward applying her rhetorical skills to the accurate communication of scientific findings to non-academic laypeople. Jordan currently lives in Modesto with her cat Toothless and spends her off hours reading and knitting.

Karin deJonge-Kannan is Emeritus Principal Lecturer of Linguistics in the Department of World Languages & Cultures at Utah State University, where she also served as co-director of the Master of Second Language Teaching program and on the faculty committee of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence. Karin has worked with schoolteachers and university instructors in Chile, China, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in addition to designing and organizing professional development programs at Utah State University for teachers from around the world, with funding from the US Department of State. She is a two-time Fulbright award recipient and an English Language Specialist, has presented regionally and internationally on a wide range of teaching-related topics, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Associate Professor Kate Tregloan leads the Built Environment Learning + Teaching (BEL+T) group, and is Assoc Dean (Teaching and Learning) at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. The faculty delivers high quality education and research relating to contemporary built environments. The BEL+T group applies creative problem-solving and design-led approaches, evidence-based research methodologies and project-focused consultancy to improve teaching quality and student engagement in built environment disciplines. Tregloan is a registered Architect, and has led cross-faculty and cross-institutional programs as an academic and researcher. Research and academic development projects apply design thinking to complex challenges, and regularly deliver digital tools for practitioners and educators, seeking new ways to look at praxis and production, and to respond to community need. She is most interested in the decisions and values that influence creative work, and how tools can support innovative learning and making in education and in practice.

Kim Hales is a Senior English Faculty Lecturer for Utah State University (USU) at the Roosevelt Utah Campus. She specializes in Rhetorics and Composition and is working towards her Ph.D. in Literature and Culture Studies. Kim is the past editor-in-chief for USU’s Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence (JETE), a USU academic publication that boasts more than 40,000 downloads and is read worldwide. Kim serves as part of the University’s Strategic Enrollment Master Plan committee and, along with the Mentoring Committee, she has helped develop, research, and publish regarding the efficacy of Faculty-to-Student Mentoring. Helping students feel connected to campus, setting and meeting academic goals, and making professional connections are Kim’s mentoring specialties; she is proud of the work she does with her student mentees. She is honored to be a part of the mentoring program at her campus and to help develop the program at the statewide campus level. She has a growing network of community partners who connect with her students in Community Engaged Learning projects that encourage undergraduate research at the earliest stages of a student’s academic journey.

Letizia Guglielmo is Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Kennesaw State University (KSU), where she teaches courses in writing and rhetoric and gender and women’s studies. Her writing and research explore feminist rhetoric and pedagogy, gender and pop culture, and student and faculty professional development. Her book projects include Immigrant Scholars in Rhetoric, Composition, and Communication: Memoirs of a First Generation; Misogyny in American Culture: Causes, Trends, Solutions; Scholarly Publication in a Changing Academic Landscape; Contingent Faculty Publishing in Community: Case Studies for Successful Collaborations; and MTV and Teen Pregnancy: Critical Essays on 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. As a certified professional coach, she has served as Faculty Success Fellow and Coach with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at KSU, facilitating faculty development workshops and offering one-to-one coaching on a variety of topics connected to faculty writing and publishing and career progression.

Melissa E. Ko is an assessment and educational development professional serving the Center for Teaching & Learning at UC Berkeley. Melissa was trained as a computational cancer biologist having received her SB from MIT and her PhD from Stanford University. She pivoted into an education-focused career through several teaching roles at Stanford and other local institutions, before focusing on partnering with instructors to provide effective and equitable learning experiences informed by data. Melissa continues to engage with the scholarship of teaching and learning to better understand the impact of active learning, grading systems, generative AI, and other aspects on student learning experiences.

Michael is a Teaching Professor in the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, where he has taught since 1997. He primarily teaches intensive writing courses in the Kelley School and Indiana University’s interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and Management Program. Michael also served as the Executive Director of the Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET), as editor in chief of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, as editor of Quick Hits for Creativity in the Classroom (publication in 2026) and Quick Hits for Teaching with Digital Humanities (2020), and co-authored Strategic Business Writing 7e (2021). He is committed to learner-centered practices in his teaching, pedagogical innovation, and community as the foundation for widespread teaching excellence and student success. He holds a JD and practiced immigration law.

Miranda Yaggi Rodak (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an award-winning educator and administrative leader with over twenty years of experience designing enterprise-level programs that support undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty development across disciplines. She currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Business Communication Department at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University–Bloomington. She previously directed IU’s system-wide Mosaic Faculty Development Program for active learning and served as Director of Undergraduate Teaching in the College of Arts & Sciences, where she oversaw the campus Writing Studies Program. Her scholarship focuses on innovative pedagogies that promote AI and digital literacies, metacognitive learning, and inclusive, collaborative, high-impact practices. She also advocates for faculty empowerment through strategic teaching and professional development programs.

Peggy Brickman is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in Plant Biology in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Georgia. She has taught over 30,000 introductory biology students over the past 25 years, usually in large sections with over 300 students each. A prolific education researcher as well, Peggy is often called to share her expertise on active learning and assessment at workshops and seminars for both the HHMI-sponsored National Academies’ Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education and BioInteractive. At UGA, she has mentored dozens of undergraduates, graduate students, and STEM faculty with the ultimate goal of embracing inclusive and active learning strategies to support retention and performance for all students.

Raoul Mulder is a Professor of Higher Education and a Professor of Ecology at the University of Melbourne, with over 25 years of experience in research, teaching, and academic leadership. His work in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education focuses on improving teaching and learning in universities, with particular emphasis on curriculum design, assessment, educational technology and academic career development. He is passionate about maximising opportunities for student learning in higher education, and in scientific, evidence-based approaches to university teaching. His work in teaching innovation has been supported by a range of grants and national teaching awards. He is an active contributor to national debates on education policy and practice.

Shannon is the Director for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program and Lead Instructional Consultant in the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University. She holds an M.A. in experimental psychology and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a focus on higher education and has applied this to her work as an academic developer specializing in assessment, SoTL, and curriculum design for 20 years. She most enjoys supporting faculty in their transition from scholarly teacher to SoTL practitioner. As a researcher, she is a pragmatist who navigates toward mixed methods designs. As an instructor, she has taught psychology and education courses at a variety of institutional types (i.e. community college, small private technical, regional) and modalities (i.e. on campus, hybrid, virtual; both synchronously and asynchronously).

Sharon Lyman is a Lecturer at the American Language & Culture Center at Southern Utah University, where she teaches intensive English courses to international students and TESL courses to future English teachers. Sharon supported the professional development of English professors and students at Bokhtar State University as an English Language Fellow in Tajikistan from 2023-2024. In addition to teaching English to speakers of other languages, she was a learning specialist at Utah State University, where she taught Habits of Mind courses and supported faculty teaching first-year students. She is a member of TESOL and regularly conducts workshops and presents at regional, national, and international conferences. She has taught English to international students, immigrants, and refugees in a variety of contexts.

Shihua Brazill is an Assistant Professor of Communications in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Montana Tech. With a PhD in Higher Education and a graduate certificate in College Teaching, Shihua has over 15 years of dedicated experience in higher education instructional design. She has served in various roles, including instructional design leader, lead instructional consultant, and a member of the stakeholder council for CAST on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines 3.0. She specializes in instructional design, UDL, and faculty development programming, positioning her as an expert in promoting teaching excellence, learning, and scholarship. Shihua has led numerous faculty development programs, with an emphasis on instructional design leadership, accessibility, inclusive pedagogy, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), faculty learning communities, and faculty mentoring. She has presented and published extensively on topics including instructional design, leadership, SoTL, faculty development, multicultural education, and social justice.

Stephen A. Klien serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Communication. He teaches courses in introduction to communication, public speaking, argumentation, and political communication. He also has professional experience in faculty development and is a Faculty Fellow for MU’s Teaching for Learning Center (T4LC) specializing in the evaluation of teaching. His present research focuses on how the implementation of career exploration assignments in the Communication curriculum improves career self-efficacy and self-determination in undergraduate students. His current work is also focused on the development of training resources for improving the collection, interpretation and use of student feedback survey data by faculty. Past research involves the criticism of contemporary political rhetoric, with particular attention paid to the constitution of public character and citizen agency in conservative popular media and post-9/11 war films.

T. Adam Halstrom is the Student Course Feedback Program Manager in the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Utah. He oversees all data systems within the center, including the creation, dissemination, storage, and analysis of center data and reports. His work with student course feedback within the center has evolved into innovative projects, such as the creation of TEF-Talk.

Terri Dunbar is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Georgia. She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Dunbar is an accomplished instructor and facilitator with over a decade of experience in the classroom, and her commitment to and leadership in teaching has been recognized nationally by the AAC&U. In her current position, she consults with administrators and departments at institutions across the U.S. to rethink the ways they recognize and reward good teaching by developing more robust and equitable teaching evaluation policies and practices. She also facilitates professional development for faculty on how to gather, assess, and provide actionable feedback on teaching, as well as how to document teaching effectiveness for summative evaluations.

Dr. Thurston is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President at Utah State University. Travis earned his Master of Educational Technology degree from Boise State University, and earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with focus on Instructional Leadership from Utah State University. His teaching and scholarship center on digital-age teaching and instructional design approaches, and creating autonomy-supportive learning environments. He publishes interdisciplinary studies on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and is the production editor for the Empower Teaching Open Access Series.

Victoria Mondelli serves as the Founding Director of the University of Missouri’s Teaching for Learning Center. She is an affiliated faculty member in Adroit Studios Gaming Lab in the College of Education & Human Development and the History Department in the College of Arts and Science. She holds a Ph.D. in early modern European history. Her training as a historian led her to prize writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines pedagogies. From there, she became an expert in coaching faculty and other educators to incorporate the full gamut of evidence-based and creative practices to maximize student engagement and deepen learning.

Vijay R. Kannan is Professor Emeritus in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University. A former Department Head and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, he has served in a variety of leadership roles involving faculty, student, and program development. Professor Kannan has been a Fulbright Scholar at business schools in India and Thailand and taught regularly in China, France, and Vietnam. Vijay is the author of more than forty refereed journal articles and the editor of books on International Business and Strategic Management. He served as editor of the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, one of the leading journals in management education, and as an Associate Editor for Decision Sciences Journal and the Journal of Supply Chain Management. Vijay is a Past President of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), an international academic organization.

Virginia Stormer serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Senior Advisor to the Vice Provost for Student Success at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In this role, she supports the Division of Student Success in addressing emerging trends and challenges in higher education so that we can best support student success and well-being. By spearheading faculty-facing initiatives, she works to ensure alignment between classroom experiences and division programming, often translating complex information between faculty and staff to foster mutual understanding. She holds a PhD from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree from the University of Alabama, and a bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill—all in English literature. Outside of work, Virginia enjoys traveling, attending UT sporting events with her husband, trying to keep up with her two children, and meticulously planning home projects that she may or may not actually complete.