MICHIGAN FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR
May 21-28, 2011

Presenters Biographic Sketches

Dr. Cook has served as Executive Director of CRLT since 1993. She was named Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs in 2006. Prior to becoming the Director of CRLT, Connie was the executive assistant to the president of the University of Michigan and, from 1987-1990, Connie was coordinator of the FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) Comprehensive Program at the U.S. Department of Education. At CRLT, her focus is on institutional transformation (i.e., creating a culture of teaching at a research university), a topic on which she has been writing and lecturing for more than a decade. Her scholarship concerns strategies for pedagogical improvement (e.g., action research, the scholarship of teaching and learning, curricular reform, and multicultural teaching and learning). As Executive Director, Connie coordinates new initiatives at CRLT and represents both CRLT and the broader University community on issues of teaching and learning. She also coordinates professional development programs for international higher education leaders. Connie is Clinical Professor of Higher Education at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, as well as adjunct associate professor of political science.

Dr. Bierwert is CRLT’s Associate Director and Coordinator of Multicultural Teaching and Learning. She provides workshops and consultations for departments and programs, consults with individual faculty members and Graduate Student Instructors, and leads programs to promote diversity and social justice efforts at the University. She also does research on student learning outcomes, supports interdisciplinary teaching, and provides multicultural training. She participates in university wide diversity initiatives, and she is currently chair of the President’s Diversity Council. Before coming to CRLT in 2000, she worked in the Native educational programs of the Coqualeetza Centre (Sardis, B.C.), and taught at the University of Michigan.

Cynthia Finelli Director, CRLT in Engineering Research Associate Professor Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

Dr. Finelli is Director of CRLT in Engineering, which serves the UM College of Engineering. She holds a joint appointment in the College of Engineering and CRLT, and is also research associate professor of engineering education at U-M. Prior to joining CRLT in April 2003, she was the Richard L. Terrell Professor of Excellence in Teaching, founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and associate professor of electrical engineering at Kettering University. She is a strong advocate of active, team-based learning in the classroom and is engaged in several engineering education research projects. She is a past chair of the Educational Research and Methods Division of American Society for Engineering Education.

Chad Hershock Assistant Director and Coordinator of Science Initiatives, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan

Dr. Hershock is an Assistant Director at CRLT. He coordinates CRLT's sciences and health sciences projects and works on instructional technology initiatives, consults with faculty and TAs on teaching and course design, participates in research and evaluation projects, and facilitates customized workshops on teaching methods. He also created and directs the U-M Graduate Teacher Certificate Program and U-M Postdoctoral Short-Course on College Teaching in Science and Engineering. Prior to joining CRLT in 2005, he worked as a Research Scientist and Project Manager at BioMedware, Inc., and as a Lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Biological Station campuses.

Matthew Kaplan Managing Director, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Kaplan is CRLT’s managing director. He focuses on university-wide initiatives (e.g., Provost’s Seminars on Teaching, assessment and re-accreditation, evaluation of teaching) and external projects, such as a Teagle Foundation grant to improve writing and critical thinking. He also co-directs the LSA Teaching Academy and oversees the Thurnau competition, the University’s highest undergraduate teaching award. He worked at Universzity of North Carolina’s Center for Teaching and Learning for three years before joining CRLT in 1994. Matt has published articles on the academic hiring process, the use of interactive theatre as a faculty development tool, and the evaluation of teaching, and he co-edited Advancing the Culture of Teaching on Campus: How a Teaching Center Can Make a Difference (Stylus, 2011). He was a member of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Core Committee from 1998-2001.

Virginia S. Lee has special expertise in faculty/educational development, inquiry-guided learning, course and curriculum development, and the planning and implementation of institution-wide undergraduate education reform efforts, including quality enhancement plans. She is a former President (2007-2010) of the Professional & Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, the largest professional organization for faculty and educational developers in higher education in the world. She was selected as a Fulbright Specialist in 2010 for a term of five years. Previously, Lee served as Associate Director, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, North Carolina State University, and Director, Graduate Student Teaching Programs, and Consultant, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Dr. Meizlish is an Assistant Director at CRLT. She consults with administrators, faculty, and Graduate Student Instructors on course and curricular issues, including assessment; plans university-wide programs on teaching, learning, and academic leadership; and conducts seminars on a wide variety of pedagogical topics. Dr. Meizlish co-directs the LSA Teaching Academy and is co-Principal Investigator on “The Impact of Mega-Cognitive Strategies within Writing in the Disciplines: Experiments to Improve Writing and Critical Thinking,” funded by the Teagle and Spencer Foundations. Her research and writing focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning, academic hiring, preparing future faculty developers, and academic integrity.

Dr. Pinder-Grover joined CRLT in 2005, where she is an Assistant Director responsible for planning teacher training for new engineering Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs), overseeing the Engineering Graduate Student Mentor (EGSM) Program, co directing the Rackham-CRLT Preparing Future Faculty Seminar, coordinating the Rackham CRLT Intercampus Mentorship Program, and developing pedagogical workshops. She also consults with faculty and GSIs on a variety of teaching and learning issues and participates in engineering education research initiatives.

Dr. Schram joined CRLT as an Instructional Consultant in 2010, and prior to this she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at CRLT. Laura oversees the Graduate Teaching Consultant (GTC) program, coordinates the Preparing Future Faculty Conference, consults with faculty and Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) on their teaching, and supports faculty and graduate students in achieving their student learning goals. She also facilitates workshops related to teaching and learning, and conducts midterm student feedback sessions for faculty. Her research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, graduate student professional development, and learner-centered teaching.

Jeffrey Steiger has been working in theatre and with interactive theatre techniques for over twenty years. His career as an actor and director centers on the idea of theatre as a compelling agent for social change. As Artistic Director of the CRLT Theatre Program and an Artist in Residence at CRLT, he creates original scripts, facilitates interactive performances and workshops, collaborates with academic units to apply theatre to their faculty development needs, and consults with faculty and teaching assistants on voice and communication issues. Under his direction, the CRLT Theatre Program has become a national resource, performing at campuses and conferences around the country. In addition to his work with the CRLT Players, Jeffrey writes, directs, and produces original work for the stage. He also has experience in the classroom, having taught courses on performance art, comedy, and acting for non-actors both at UM and in the Ann Arbor community.

Dr. Wright is Assistant Director for Evaluation and an Assistant Research Scientist at CRLT. In this capacity, she works with U-M's faculty and academic units on assessment of student learning, evaluation of educational initiatives, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Her research and teaching interests include teaching cultures, graduate student professional development, undergraduate retention in the sciences, and qualitative research and evaluation methods. Outside CRLT, Mary has served as an external evaluator for several NSF grants, and she is also chair of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education Graduate and Professional Student Development Committee.

Dr. Zhu is an Assistant Director for instructional technology initiatives at CRLT, where she consults with faculty about integrating technology into their teaching and developing courses that incorporate instructional technology. She collaborates with colleagues from U-M technology units to provide services and programs to faculty through the Enriching Scholarship program. She also coordinates the Teaching Innovation Prize and directs the Teaching with Technology Institute. Her research focuses on technology and teaching, scholarship of teaching, and online learning and instruction. Dr. Zhu also coordinates CRLT’s China initiatives.

Dr. Coleman has been the 13th President of the University of Michigan since August 2002. As president, she has unveiled several major initiatives that will have an impact on future generations of students, the intellectual life of the campus, and society at large. These include campus initiatives that examine student residential life, the interdisciplinary richness of the U-M, ethics in our society, the economic vitality of our state and nation, and issues related to health care. Under her leadership, the University launched “The Michigan Difference” campaign for the future of the institution and raised $3.2 billion – the most ever by a public university. She also has led a groundbreaking partnership between the University and Google, which will enable the public to search the text of the University’s seven-million volume library and will open the way to universal access and the preservation of recorded human knowledge. Dr. Coleman was a member of the biochemistry faculty at the University of Kentucky before assuming administrative appointments at the University of North Carolina and University of New Mexico, followed by the presidency of the University of Iowa.

Dr. Duderstadt joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1968 in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Duderstadt became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1981 and Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1986. He was appointed President of the University of Michigan in 1988, and served in this role until July 1996. He currently holds a university-wide faculty appointment as University Professor of Science and Engineering and also directs the University’s program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. Dr. Duderstadt is a member of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

Barry Fishman is an Associate Professor of Learning Technologies in the School of Education and School of Information. His research focuses on video games as model learning environments, the use of technology to support teacher learning, standards-based systemic school reform, and the role of educational leaders in fostering classroom-level reform involving technology.  He is a principal investigator in the “Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education,” and currently serves as an Associate Editor of The Journal of the Learning Sciences. Barry’s current research is an NSF-funded experimental study of teacher learning in face-to-face and online conditions that examines the relationship between professional development modality and changes in teacher knowledge, practice, and student learning.

Dr. Gottfried is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Gottfried designed a studio general chemistry course to integrate the typically separate and unique lecture and laboratory courses. The studio course provides students with a learning community (students have the same Graduate Student Instructor for both lab and discussion) and a total class size of only 100. Students also engage in unique hands-on learning activities. A more traditional emphasis on exams is replaced by a Water Chemistry project where students acquire a realistic research experience. Dr. Gottfried is also in charge of the Chemistry Department’s midterm Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) feedback, in which GSIs receive support to improve aspects of their teaching.

Dr. Gunderson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Statistics. She received the Teaching Innovation Prize in 2011 for her work engaging the 1,500 students who enroll in Statistics 250 each semester with a suite of a half dozen technologies that gives them multiple paths for developing, practicing, and testing their understanding of concepts and relationships. Together, these technologies let students discover new ways to understand the material and receive appropriate guidance both inside and outside the classroom, so that their learning is continuous, not a set of stop-and-go chunks. Her research interests include statistical education, applied statistics, biopharmaceutical applications, and multivariate analysis. She is also Co-Undergraduate Advisor of the Department of Statistics, and received the LS&A Excellence in Concentration Advising Award in 2005 for her dedication to undergraduate student advising.

Dr. Hanlon is the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. He is responsible for sustaining and enhancing the university’s academic excellence in teaching, research and creative endeavors. Dr. Hanlon is the University’s chief academic officer and oversees the activities of U-M’s 19 schools and colleges as well as numerous interdisciplinary institutes and centers. He previously served as Associate Dean for Planning and Finance of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Dr. Hanlon has a distinguished scholarly record in the field of combinatorics. He has received numerous awards for his mathematical research including a Sloan Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Henry J. Russel Award in 1990.

Dr. Huang-Saad is Lecturer in the Biomedical Engineering Department. She has developed and teaches several courses, including the department's first graduate design course. The course takes students through the innovation value chain by working with clinicians to develop innovative solutions to medical challenges. Student teams are responsible for designing and creating prototypes while developing commercialization plans. Dr. Huang-Saad is also the Assistant Director of Academic Programs in the UM College of Engineering Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE), where she is responsible for all CFE academic programs for undergraduates and graduate students and developing new focus areas such as Social Entrepreneurship and a Masters Program in High Tech Entrepreneurship. She has received several teaching awards, including the Thomas M. Sawyer Jr. Teaching Award in 2011 for excellence in instruction and guidance at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and the UM chapter of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Outstanding Professor of the Year award in 2008.

Professor Jackson holds faculty appointments in three units, including The School of Art and Design, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and in the Steven M. Ross School of Business. A highly visible member of North America's industrial Design community, Professor Jackson holds more than 50 patents and has received national and international honors, including the prestigious IDEA award from Business Week. Jackson maintains an active design consultancy, and through his firm he serves clients such as Apple Computer, Dell, Toshiba, General Electric Medical Systems, Herman Miller, Nike, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Harley Davidson, and Patagonia. In 2009, Professor Jackson, along with his colleague Prof. William Lovejoy, was honored with the Provost's Teaching Innovation Prize.

Dr. LaVaque-Manty is Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy. LaVaque-Manty, whose “Introduction to Political Theory” class was noted by President Mary Sue Coleman in her State of the University address, is known for his cutting-edge pedagogy and technological innovation. He received the prestigious Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship award for his outstanding contributions to undergraduate education in 2011. Dr. LaVaque-Manty teaches courses ranging from “Introduction to Political Theory” to advanced graduate seminars. His research areas are modern and contemporary political theory, with a focus on eighteenth-century Continental liberal thinkers, especially Immanuel Kant, and liberal theory in general. He also has research interests in the philosophy of social science, and using metacognition to foster students’ disciplinary writing skills.

Terrence McDonald Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History Ph.D. in History, Stanford University

Dr. McDonald is Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A), and Professor of History. Previously, Dean McDonald was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in LS&A, where he was responsible for management of all aspects of academic personnel activities, including new faculty hiring and orientation, the tenure and promotion process, affirmative action, and leaves and sabbaticals. Dean McDonald has been a leader in promoting the academic value of diversity in teaching and in research.

Dr. Marshall is Assistant Professor of both the School of Art & Design and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Previously he taught 3D design at Leeds College of Art & Design and sculpture at The Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. As an artist, designer and curator he has undertaken collaborations with architects, landscape designers, theatre companies, engineers and other artists. Dr. Marshall is committed to a discipline-agnostic approach to making that recognizes the boundaries of the problem being addressed, not the artificial boundaries of traditionally-defined disciplinary practice. Dr. Marshall will be presenting on “Interdisciplinary/ Transdisciplinary Pedagogies” at the 2011 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Association Teachers Seminar.

Dr. Montgomery is Lecturer and Program Advisor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Her research interests include teaching and learning issues and use of computer technology and multimedia to enhance chemical engineering education. She teaches a wide range of courses in both the Engineering and Chemical Engineering Departments, including the “Introduction to Engineering” course and a graduate course on “Teaching Engineering.” She is a contributor to the development of our Multimedia Education Laboratory project at the University of Michigan, which creates computer based modules for the advancement of Chemical Engineering understanding.

Dr. Munson is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was named an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer and he received an IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000. In 2001, he was named the Robert C. MacClinchie Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. His research interests are in the general area of signal and image processing with current work focused on radar imaging, passive millimeter-wave imaging, lidar imaging, tomography, interferometry, and high-precision GPS.

Dr. Samson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Associate Chair of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Department. His research interests include chemical meteorology; computer simulation of atmospheric transport and chemistry of contaminants, applications of meteorological and air pollution instrumentation; and educational technology. Dr. Samson teaches courses on air pollution meteorology and extreme weather, and he developed LectureTools to facilitate a more engaging and active learning space for his 190-student Extreme Weather class. LectureTools is an interactive student response system and teaching module that utilizes students’ laptops. For his outstanding work with students, Dr. Samson was awarded the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship award in 1995, and more recently the 2010 State Universities of Michigan’s Professor of the Year Award.

Dr. Seifert is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Psychology. As Chair of the Psychology Student Academic Affairs office, Seifert is undertaking a curricular review with the undergraduate committee of the 200-level gateway course and laboratory course for the undergraduate program. She received the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship award in 2011 for her outstanding work with undergraduate students, including her excellent achievements as director of the undergraduate honors research team. Dr. Seifert’s research interests include cognitive modeling (computer models of human thought), intelligence, knowledge representation, memory retrieval, problem solving, case-based reasoning, judgment and decision-making. She teaches a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, including Psychology 111, one of LS&A’s most popular gateway courses.

Dr. Tinkle is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of English. She received the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship award in 1998 for her outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. Dr. Tinkle’s research interests include Medieval English and Latin literature, medieval and early modern Bible reception, gender and religion, manuscript and early print culture, and Christian representations of Islam and Judaism. She teaches a wide range of both undergraduate and graduate courses, from a first-year writing seminar on “World Epic Literature” to graduate courses on pedagogy. Students in Dr. Tinkle’s undergraduate courses are compiling an important archive of current research on Medieval Literature and Material Culture.

Dr. Susan Ashford is Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and the Executive MBA Program, and Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations at the Michigan Ross School of Business. Her current research interests include leadership and managerial effectiveness, issue selling, self-management and organizational change. She has studied this work in the context of interpersonal relations, organizational change, and employee socialization. Dr. Ashford teaches in the areas of organizational behavior, leadership, negotiation, and the management of organizational change.

Dr. Deloria is Professor in the Department of History, the Program in American Culture, and the Native American Studies program and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at the University of Michigan. Deloria was the president of the American Studies Association (May 2008-May 2009) and a member of the governing council of the Organization of American Historians. He is the winner of the John C. Ewers Prize in Ethnohistory, Western History Association, 2006 (for Indians in Unexpected Places). His specific interests in United States cultural history include American Indians, environmental history, and western and Midwestern regionalisms.

Dr. Dunkle is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Wilbur J. Cohen Collegiate Professor of Social Work. Dr. Dunkle's research, teaching, and clinical practice focus on gerontology. Recent research projects include “Mothers of Adult Daughters with a Serious Mental Illness: The Experience of African Americans and Whites” and “An Historical Perspective of Social Service Delivery in Detroit in the Twentieth Century.” Since 1988, Dr. Dunkle has served as a project co-director of the National Institute on Aging training program, “Social Research Training on Applied Issues of Aging,” with Professor Berit Ingersoll-Dayton.

Dr. Gallagher is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies. She studies Chinese politics, law and society, and comparative politics. She is currently working on two projects. The first, funded by a Fulbright Research Award and the National Science Foundation, examines the development of rule of law in China by examining the dynamics of legal mobilization of Chinese workers. The second project examines labor standards and practices in four Chinese regions.

Dr. King is William Warner Bishop Collegiate Professor of Information and Vice Provost for strategy for U-M. In his current position, he is involved directly in the governance of many of U-M's primary information technology operations, including Information Technology Central Services, the IT Commons, and the Digital Media Commons. King oversees a number of key projects developing innovative new applications that use information technology for research, education, and community service. Also in 2005, King was named a fellow of the Association for Information Systems for his contributions to research, teaching, and service in the global information systems community. For the past several years, King has also been a senior scientific advisor on cyberinfrastructure for the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Krajcik works with science teachers and in science classrooms to support student learning of important science ideas and practices by creating learning environments in which students find solutions to important intellectual questions, explore phenomena, collaborate with each other, and use learning tools. He examines the depth of student understanding that develops in these environments, as well as explores and finds solutions to challenges that teachers face in enacting such complex instruction. Dr. Krajcik, through funding from the National Science Foundation, is a principle investigator in a materials development project, IQWST, that aims to design, develop, and test the next generation of middle school curriculum materials to engage students in obtaining deep understandings of science content and practices. Recently he has developed interests in working science educators from other countries to promote scientific literacy on a globally. He is co-editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.

Dr. Krenz is Special Counsel to the President of the University of Michigan. He serves as an advisor to President Mary Sue Coleman and provides administrative support for planning, issue-management, policy development, and presidential projects and initiatives. Dr. Krenz joined the President’s Office in 1996 and has served under four presidents or interim presidents. The presidential initiatives he has been involved with include the Life Sciences Initiative, the President’s Information Revolution Commission, the Ethics in Public Life Initiative, the Michigan Healthy Community Initiative, the China Initiative, and the Africa Initiative. His philosophical interests include metaphysics and ethics in pragmatism, process philosophy and the Continental European traditions of philosophy, as well as the philosophy of higher education.

Dr. Lein is Dean and Katherine Reebel Collegiate Professor of the School of Social Work and Professor of Anthropology. She has served as principal investigator on multiple grants on poverty, family and women's issues, and impoverished populations in Texas. She has served on boards of many organizations, including the United Way of Texas Child Care Working Group and the National Academy of Sciences Research Council Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy. Her work has concentrated on the interface between families in poverty and the institutions that serve them.

Dr. Newman is Clinical Professor Emeritus of Surgery in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Newman retired from active faculty status in 20065, but is still involved in clinical care and resident training on a part-time basis. At the University of Michigan, he completed residencies in ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Surgery and Plastic Surgery. He also received a M.S. degree in Physiological Acoustics from U of M. He served as an assistant professor in ENT and ultimately became clinical professor in Plastic Surgery at the University. He gained national reputation in the areas of pediatric surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery, adult maxillofacial surgery, and aesthetic surgery. He was a revered member of the teaching faculty, recognized by graduating residents as a major influence on their clinical training. His department is establishing an endowment for resident education in Dr. Newman’s name.

Dr. Walsh is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Gerald and Esther Carey Professor of Business Administration, Professor of Management and Organizations, and Professor of Strategy at the Ross School of Business. His research interests include corporate governance, how society figures in the governance of the firm, and issues surrounding outsourcing and offshoring. Dr. Walsh received the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship award for his outstanding undergraduate teaching. He is known as a creative and enthusiastic teacher who engages students through interactive lectures, case studies, in-class simulations and international site visits. For example, his undergraduate class on “The Corporation in Society” took a field trip to China to explore the worldwide differences in health, wealth and well-being resulting from the globalization of factor and product markets.