Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL)

Jody Greene came to UC Santa Cruz in 1998 and has served as Professor of Literature, Feminist Studies, and the History of Consciousness. Her research interests include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British literature; non-dualist Western philosophy, especially the work of Spivak, Derrida, and Nancy; human rights and international law; queer studies; and the history of literary discourse and literary institutions. Her forthcoming collection, co-edited with Sharif Youssef, is The Hostile Takeover: Human Rights after Corporate Personhood. She is the recipient of the UCSC Humanities Division John Dizikes Teaching Award (2008), the Disability Resource Center Champion of Change Award (2018), and, twice, of the UCSC Academic Senate Excellence in Teaching Award (2001, 2014). In 2016 she was appointed the founding Director of the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) and she now serves as UCSC’s first Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning.

Robin Dunkin is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at UC Santa Cruz and manages the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Robin has been an instructor and collaborator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) active learning initiative in the Physical and Biological Sciences Division for the past three years designing active learning versions of large intro bio courses. She has been recognized with a Disability Resource Center teaching award and an honorable mention for the Excellence in Teaching Award. As a CITL/PBSci Faculty Fellow in 2017–18, Robin focused on modifying and reintroducing activities that were developed for the active learning courses back into the large lecture courses, and on using these activities as active learning training opportunities for graduate students. As a CITL Senior Faculty Fellow in 2019–20 and 2018–19, Robin has focused on enhancing cross-course connections across the introductory science curriculum, building the growing learning assistant program, and training graduate students to integrate evidence-based teaching into discussion sections.

Samara “Sam” Foster has worked at UC Santa Cruz since 2007. She received a joint Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation Methodology and Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice and a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She also holds a BA and MA in Political Science. Her work and scholarship center on equity and social justice in educational policy and practice rooted in feminist epistemologies and collaborative approaches to research. Prior to joining the CITL as Managing Director, Sam was the Managing Director of the Student Success Equity Research Center (SSERC) and served as Assistant Vice Provost in the Division of Student Success at UC Santa Cruz. She was also previously the Assistant Director of the University of California Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California (CCREC) and a Postdoctoral Scholar in the School of Education at UC Davis.

Kendra Dority has been an engaged member of the teaching and learning community at UC Santa Cruz since 2009, serving as a Teaching Fellow and Teaching Assistant in the Literature Department and as a Lecturer at Porter College before joining the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning in 2017. With CITL, she develops programs that build communities of practice, support equity-minded teaching, and promote active learning, and she leads up the Center’s professional development opportunities for graduate students. Both within and outside of the university, she champions public humanities and arts education. As a school museum guide at SFMOMA, she encourages hands-on, inquiry-focused learning for Bay Area students in grades 3–8. She received her Ph.D. in Literature from UCSC, with research on literacy, reading practices, language politics, and ethics in ancient Greek and contemporary U.S. Latinx literatures.

Nandini Bhattacharya received her B.A. in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College, and M.A. in Mathematics and Post-Graduate Certification in Education from UC Santa Cruz. She joined the Academic Excellence (ACE) Program at UCSC when it first started in 1987, and worked there as a Mathematics Coordinator for 20 years. Since 2007, Nandini has been a lecturer in Mathematics, mostly teaching the initial gateway courses College Algebra, Precalculus, and Differential Calculus, where a large number of enrolled students are from underserved or under-represented backgrounds. Compelled to serve these students better, she partnered with the Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Initiatives team to redesign the first two Math gateway courses. She received the UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award in 2012, Excellence in Diversity Award in 2005 and 2013, and the Hero Award from the Educational Opportunity Program in 2016. As a CITL/Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Faculty Fellow in 2017-2018, she designed a training for Math 2 and Math 3 Graduate Teaching Assistants and Instructors that is pedagogically sound and culturally responsive to the current population of the UCSC students, in order to promote equity and educational access.

Jessie Dubreuil received her undergraduate and masters degrees in English from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the UC Santa Cruz community, Jessie was the Director of the First Year Experience (FYE) Program at Colorado College, where she taught literature and humanities courses and focused her research and teaching on experiential, immersive, and community-based learning. There, she spearheaded grants, programs, and partnerships to incorporate Community Based Learning into the first year curriculum, oversaw the FYE Mentor program, and received the Exemplary Achievement in Community Engaged Teaching Award (2015). Jessie has also taught at Rice University, and the University of Virginia. She directs the CITL Undergraduate Fellowship, a program to nurture and support peer-to-peer learning on campus. Jessie is also a faculty member in the Writing Program and at Merrill College, where she serves as College 1 Coordinator and leads the fall seminar for Merrill Course Assistants. She is a Visiting Associate Researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), where she works with the Student Experience of the Research University (SERU) study.

Jenny Quynn focuses on developing student-centered teaching practices across campus by paying attention to student self-efficacy and engagement. In partnership, Jenny supports faculty to create teaching and assessment solutions that increase student sense of belonging, metacognition, and persistence to degree, for all students at UC Santa Cruz. With expertise in measurement and evaluation, she works to promote a culture of formative assessment and feedback FOR learning across campus. Jenny began her career as a secondary math teacher in Botswana and Baltimore City where she discovered the power of formative assessment and socio-cultural learning theory to move students forward in understanding how to learn. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on measurement, statistics, and research design. Conducting research for industry, and as far away as Singapore, Jenny inquires “What are the qualities of feedback that support learning?” To the CITL, Jenny brings great enthusiasm for developing new ways to teach and assess that promote inclusion, engagement, and achievement for all UCSC students.

Hillary Schalit Bennett is an Administrative Assistant in the Division of Academic Affairs spending part of her time doing event and administrative support for CITL, as well as supporting Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and CITL Director Jody Greene. She is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara (BA, Psychology) and has a background working as a small business owner/massage therapist, photojournalist, office manager, and project coordinator. She is very excited to be supporting CITL’s mission.

Christie McCullen is a Lecturer in Sociology and Oakes College, as well as an inclusive teaching workshop developer and facilitator for CITL. Her teaching has been honored through the Chancellor’s Teaching Fellowship (UC Davis), the Excellence in Teaching Award (UCSC), and the Outstanding TA Award (UCSC). As a CITL Faculty Fellow, Christie plans to engage in a participatory action research project with students and organizations on campus to address mental health issues related to systemic oppression and campus climate. She received her Ph.D. from UCSC in Sociology and Feminist Studies where she researched the affective dynamics of conversations about race in sociology, writing, and theater classrooms.

Mecaila Smith is a Ph.D. candidate and Cota-Robles Fellow in Education at UC Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on learning in higher education, with a particular emphasis on metacognition, universal design for learning, and transformative learning. For CITL, she has been a co-facilitator of a course in effective teaching practices, a curriculum designer for workshops, and a mentor for graduate student instructors teaching summer courses. In addition to working with CITL, she has also taught for several quarters in the Writing Program, and collaborated with the Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching on projects related to student experience of teaching (SETs) and measures of teaching effectiveness. Prior to joining the UC Santa Cruz community, she lived in upstate New York where she was a fellowship adviser and managed an undergraduate research program for minorities and women in the STEM fields at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She has a B.A. in writing/Spanish literature (UC San Diego), a secondary school teaching credential in English education (Cal State Long Beach), a Master’s degree in management, technology and entrepreneurship (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and a Master’s degree in educational administration, higher education (University at Albany, SUNY).

Sylvane is a Chicano graduate student in Social Psychology at UC Santa Cruz and is developing a multi-method portfolio of research that addresses educational equity issues from elementary school to college. When he isn’t collaborating with local youth on a participatory action research project, he is researching higher-educational culture, community, and sense of belonging for underrepresented students. Sylvane has been a researcher for three Hispanic Serving Institution initiatives at UCSC, 1) M.A.P.A, 2) Cultivamos Excelencia and 3) S.E.M.I.L.L.A., studying counterspaces, transfer receptive culture, and STEM retention. Currently, he is interested in how elements of a smaller learning community in the College Math Academy can benefit underrepresented students in their early STEM careers. In 2019-20, Sylvane is serving as the CITL/Division of Student Success Graduate Student Researcher in Student Mental Health & Resilience to develop practical strategies for supportive learning environments.

Jessica Calvanico is a Ph.D. candidate in Feminist Studies with emphases in Visual Studies and Anthropology. Her dissertation explores histories of girlhood, carcerality, racialization, and sexuality. She holds an M.A. in Social Sciences with a concentration in linguistic anthropology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in anthropology from the George Washington University. As an educator, she has taught across the humanities, social sciences, and arts at SUNY Stony Brook, the Pratt Institute, Sonoma State University, and California College of the Arts. Over the summer of 2019, she participated in the National Humanities Center’s graduate student residency program, “Objects and Places in an Inquiry-Based Classroom: Teaching, Learning, and Research in the Humanities.” With CITL, she is developing curriculum for in inter-divisional graduate writing pedagogy certificate program.

Robin Dunkin is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at UC Santa Cruz and manages the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Robin has been an instructor and collaborator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) active learning initiative in the Physical and Biological Sciences Division for the past three years designing active learning versions of large intro bio courses. She has been recognized with a Disability Resource Center teaching award and an honorable mention for the Excellence in Teaching Award. As a CITL/PBSci Faculty Fellow in 2017–18, Robin focused on modifying and reintroducing activities that were developed for the active learning courses back into the large lecture courses, and on using these activities as active learning training opportunities for graduate students. As a CITL Senior Faculty Fellow in 2019–20 and 2018–19, Robin has focused on enhancing cross-course connections across the introductory science curriculum, building the growing learning assistant program, and training graduate students to integrate evidence-based teaching into discussion sections.

Suzanne Alonzo is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She was awarded the National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, which is NSF’s “most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research.” While a professor at Yale University, she received the Yale Graduate Mentorship Award and the Yale Postdoctoral Mentorship Prize, in recognition of her commitment to the education and mentorship of young scientists. As a CITL Faculty Fellow, she develops resources and curricula based on the intersection of contemplative pedagogy and active learning approaches in science.

Rebecca Covarrubias is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology who examines how mismatching learning contexts undermine educational, social, and mental health outcomes for marginalized students, and how to reverse these effects through culturally-informed approaches. Dr. Covarrubias has been recognized for her mentoring and teaching, including receiving both the Inspiring Lecturer Award and the Going Above and Beyond Award for the Department of Psychology, and being named a Disability Resource Center ALI Program Accessibility Leader. She also completed the UC Santa Cruz Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program to further strengthen her approaches with diverse students. As a CITL/LSS Faculty Fellow, Dr. Covarrubias examined approaches for improving the cultural transition to college for first-generation college students through reflective conversations with students and research-based training for faculty and staff.

Sylvanna M. Falcón is an Associate Professor in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department. In 2012, she received the American Sociological Association’s Carla B. Howery Teaching Enhancement Grant for a collaborative project titled “Using the Case Method of Teaching to Promote Active Student Learning.” As a CITL Faculty Fellow, she seeks to develop a multi-year and collaborative human rights documentation project with students enrolled in her courses.

Daniel Press is Professor of Environmental Studies and Executive Director of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. His teaching has been recognized with two awards, the campus-wide teaching award in 1996 and the Social Sciences Division’s Golden Apple award in 2008. As a CITL Faculty Fellow, he pursued a project on improving learning in mid-sized lecture class (i.e., 40-80 students).

Abel Rodriguez is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and Associate Dean for Graduate Education at the Baskin School of Engineering (BSOE). During his time as CITL/DSS Faculty Fellow he will be designing a comprehensive training program for Teaching Assistants and Graduate Student Instructors within BSOE.

Chessa Adsit-Morris is a curriculum theorist, and member of the Center for Creative Ecologies and the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure. She comes to the CITL from the University of British Columbia where she coordinated a five-year educational research and teacher professional development program. She is the author of Restorying Environmental Education: Figurations, Fictions, Feral Subjectivities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Visual Studies at UC Santa Cruz. She has worked with universities, NGOs, school boards and municipal authorities across the world to translate complex scientific research into approachable, teachable theory, creating strategies and resources that help to guide policies and practices toward creating a healthy and more sustainable future.

Megan is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology researching how UC Santa Cruz instructors navigate university-wide curricular changes to College 1, a first-year undergraduate course formerly known as “Core.” She also teaches a different first-year course, Writing 2, with a focus on students’ fears of writing, of failure, and of being an “imposter” at the university. Megan has worked with CITL to help evaluate the Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program to better understand the impact of this program on undergraduates’ experiences in TA-led discussion sections.

Ana McTaggart studies computer privacy at UC Santa Cruz, with a focus on protecting activists against repressive regimes. Before coming to UCSC, Ana completed an undergraduate degree at UMass Amherst with a focus in theoretical computer science and math. Ana is an activist in the UC Student-Workers Union, and cares deeply about educational quality for students. Ana’s work at CITL focused on encouraging academic honesty for programmers, and creating a culture of integrity in engineering. This work adopted a holistic approach, taking into account student goals, faculty requirements, and identifying and supporting educational challenges and needs within STEM.

Kristin Miller has served as CITL’s Web Designer and Editor, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology with a Designated Emphasis in Film & Digital Media. She is a contributor to and Web Designer and Editor for the No Place Like Home and Critical Sustainabilities projects at UC Santa Cruz, and previously worked as an Associate Web Editor for the Guggenheim Museum. At UCSC, she has developed a specialization in adapting educational and research projects for the web using the best practices of Digital Humanities. She has a background in journalism and digital media, and an M.A. in Media, Culture, and Communication from NYU. She is currently working on a multimedia project on the role of Silicon Valley in reshaping the Bay Area, and studies cities, environmentalism, and technology, with research interests in science-fiction literature and film. Her work has been published in Boom: A Journal of California, Slate, and Gizmodo, among others.

Nadia Roche is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Sociology Department at UC Santa Cruz who works in the fields of Embodiment, Race, and Visual Culture and investigates the growing industry of cosmetic genital surgery. Nadia believes that the increasing intolerance of women and their bodies paired with global patterns of increasing commodification of the body and sexuality impacts the psychological and physical well being of women. Nadia has garnered Teaching Fellowships and TA-ships, the Chancellor’s Graduate Internship and the Graduate Student Body Presidency. Nadia holds a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies from UC Davis, an M.Sc. in Globalization, Development, and Gender from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an M.A. in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz.

Sheeva Sabati received her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education in the UC Santa Cruz Education Department, with designated emphases in the Feminist Studies Department and the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program. Her research examines the racial-colonial entanglements of higher education in the United States and considers the ethical limits of institutional responses to these contexts. As a former Graduate Student Researcher with CCREC, the Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California, Sheeva also worked on a project to consider how Community-Based Collaborative Research Methodologies trouble the traditional principles and practices of institutionalized research ethics. With CITL, Sheeva developed an online Professional Ethics Course for Teaching Assistants to introduce new TAs to evidence-based principles and practices to support learning and equity in the classroom.

Kirstin Wagner is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Literature’s Creative/Critical Writing Program. Her research concerns inherited trauma in families organizing around domestic violence, and she writes weird poems about bodies, mothers, daughters, and the ocean. Before coming to UC Santa Cruz, she received an M.A. in Communication and Culture from Indiana University and an M.F.A. in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University, where she also served as Manager of the Naropa Writing Center and as a Curriculum Consultant for the Undergraduate Writing Program. She loves teaching in all forms and is thrilled to have developed an archive of resources surrounding faculty, graduate, and undergraduate mentorship at the CITL. She also serves a CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow in the Literature Department and focuses on animating the embodied aspects of teaching and learning.

Talia Waltzer is a Ph.D. candidate in the Psychology department studying cognitive development, ethics, and decision-making. Before coming to UC Santa Cruz, Talia received a B.A. in Psychology and Cognitive Science from Rutgers University. Talia studies how people form beliefs about what is right and wrong and why people sometimes seem to act against their better judgments. In particular, Talia’s project focuses on the psychology behind cheating and academic integrity. Although academic misconduct is a serious concern across multiple departments at UCSC, the conversation surrounding academic integrity is sometimes uninformed by students’ own perspectives on the matter. In collaboration with CITL, Talia’s project aimed to uncover how students think about academic misconduct and why it happens, with the aim of translating these insights into new practices and tools for promoting academic integrity at UCSC and beyond.