TRRC Advisory Board

Co-Director

Aditi Pai, Ph.D.
Interim Vice Provost for Faculty
Professor, Biology

“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

“Teaching is not about information. It's about having an honest intellectual relationship with your students." - Paul Lockhart

Co-Director

Karen Brakke, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology

Attiyya Ali
eLearning Instructional Design Specialist, Office of the Vice Provost

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to it’s old dimensions." - Oliver  Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Dorian Brown Crosby, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Director of Cultural Orientation, The Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education

Connecting classroom content with practical application and engaging students in an intellectually challenging learning process are at the core of my teaching philosophy. The educational journey can be sparked and shaped in the classroom, and I see myself as the facilitator of that educational journey. Just as important, is that along that journey, students seek opportunities to grow holistically, while using their knowledge and skills to make the place wherever they find themselves better.

Jimmeka Guillory, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Psychology

As a cognitive psychologist, it is only natural that I align my teaching methods with evidence-based methods of instruction. My background in experimental procedures directly serves as the framework to pursue my primary teaching goal of improving student learning outcomes. Starting with the explanation of each class policy, my courses are designed to promote full accountability for my technique.

Lisa Hibbard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Chemistry

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don't tell you what to see." - Alexandra K. Trenfor

Derrick Hylton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Physics

Kathleen Phillips Lewis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Division Chair for the Humanities

1.The only difference between my students and me is time
2. In my classes, my students will not learn what to think but how to think
3. Every class has its own unique dynamics and I must approach each accordingly
4. I always try to harness my students' intellectual curiosity, engage their critical thinking and creative capacity, and involve them actively in their own education
5. My pedagogical strategies must be as diverse as the learning styles and cultural identities of my students
6. I believe in keeping my teaching fresh by incorporating new content, the most recent sources, theories, methodologies, interpretations, and technologies, and teaching strategies into my classes lest I bore not only my students but myself
7. I try to never lose touch with my humanity nor that of my students
8. I always make it a point of letting my scholarship inform my teaching
9. I try to cater for 15-minute attention spans when structuring my lesson plans
10. In order to be truly successful as a teacher, I know I must make myself increasingly dispensable by redirecting the focus from myself to my students

Kai McCormack, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Vice-Chair, Psychology

"The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go." - Dr. Seuss

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." - Lily Tomlin

Marta Dark McNeese, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Physics

For certain students, neither lectures on physics theories nor student centered activities are effective at engaging her.  It is real-world applications of physics that opens the mind and excites the student about physics.  Presenting real-world applications is especially useful for the student who is not a physics major.  She might see physics as simply a tedious requirement to be met.  Real-world applications increase the interest of non-physics majors, especially if such applications are directly related to the student’s field of interest.  Physics majors are excited to see the connections between their academics and cutting edge research and technology. It is essential to the art of effective physics teaching, to provide the student an engaging environment in which to study and practice physics.

Shay Welch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies

My teaching philosophy is centered on training students in critical reading, writing, and thinking and to promote the values of invigorating rigor, creativity, and intellectual independence.  I include reading and writing under the category of critical skills because thinking cannot happen apart from a secure capacity to engage a text and articulate ideas in writing.  Thus, I regard critical thinking as a direct consequent of critical reading and writing; these processes transform student opinions into intellectual positions.  Methodologically, I practice a dialectical approach to classroom pedagogy, which coheres with the fundamental principles of inquiry-based learning (IBL).  I devote class time to assisting and guiding the students with question articulation and objection formulation regarding the material.  Intellectual independence is a virtue that must be fostered and I have found that a facilitating approach rather than a delivery approach is best suited for a discipline that is grounded in the activity of raising and complicating questions about controversial topics.