Paloma Medina is a scientist and artist based in Santa Cruz, CA. Paloma holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Scripps College and is currently a Ph.D. student in Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Paloma is interested in evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, and creative mediums to explore sex and gender diversity in nature. Paloma is an award recipient of the U.S. Fulbright student research scholarship and the National Institute of Health T32 Training Program. Paloma’s creative projects have been recognized by the Santa Cruz Arts Council, the UCSC Norris Center for Natural History, and the UCSC Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development. Paloma feels deeply committed to education, and is working with feminist theory and science to create spaces for students to learn and grow. As a Lead Mentor, Paloma is excited to develop engineering-specific active learning strategies and learn from pedagogy techniques from other departments. They are excited to foster community among GSIs on campus and within the Summer Mentorship Program.

Yulia Gilichinskaya is a Film & Digital Media Ph.D. student. She is a media artist and theorist whose interests revolve around border studies, critical geography, affect theory as well as surveillance studies and militaristic technology. As an educator, she is dedicated to practicing inclusive teaching as well as collaborative and active learning.

Gillian Bogart is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department. Her current research project examines heterogeneous salt worlds in Indonesia and the intersection of salt ecologies and property regimes. Gillian has an Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) Certificate in Effective College Instruction and looks forward to working collaboratively with Graduate Student Instructors to improve the learning experience of undergraduate students in the Social Sciences.

Brittany Caldwell is a Ph.D. student in the department of Education. Her research interests include early elementary mathematics, teachers and teaching, and professional development. Brittany has teaching experience in both early education settings as well as in the university and plans to continue on to work with both prospective and in-service elementary teachers. Since completing CITL’s Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, Brittany has developed a deeper understanding of her own pedagogical approach to teaching and also gained skills to support others as they grapple with the complexities of teaching. Related to mentorship, Brittany has engaged in both formal and informal mentoring positions working with teachers and teaching assistants.

Jolene Gregory is a Ph.D. student in Education. Her research explores the intersection between teacher education, bilingual education, and the integration of language and mathematics. Jolene holds a Masters in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and taught at the K-12 as well as university level for 15 years in Mexico. At UC Santa Cruz she has held TA and GSI positions in the Education department and also in the Applied Linguistics (Spanish) department. As a mentor, she hopes to walk beside you to support and encourage you as you develop your course.

Daniel Rodríguez Ramírez is a Peruvian Ph.D. student in Social Psychology with a designated emphasis in Latin American and Latino Studies. He holds a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology, as well as teaching certification and experience in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. As a volunteer in the UC Santa Cruz Women’s Center MINT program in 2016, he mentored women-identified students in the process of applying to graduate schools. He also coordinated and redesigned the curriculum of the Graduate Division’s Graduate Student Leadership Certification Program in 2017–18, by incorporating inclusive, participatory, collaborative, and counter-hegemonic leadership styles. He was a 2019 Koret mentor, through which he offered guidence for an undergraduate student to conduct a qualitative research study. He was an instructor on the Global Preparation Program, where he taught a course on Research Skills for incoming international graduate students to satisfy the English proficiency requirement to work as TAs at UCSC. As a 2018 CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, he focused on ways to critically engage students in active learning. As a CITL Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, he has worked with other graduate students in mentoring summer GSIs in the Social Sciences. He uses a horizontal approach in mentorship, looking forward to create learning communities in horizontal and participatory ways. He is inspired by teaching resources fostering inclusivity in the classroom.

Taylor Kirsch is a PhD student in the History Department studying Indigenous History and Early America. She was a History TA for fourteen quarters before teaching her own Summer Session History course, and three quarters of Writing 2 as the instructor of record. Taylor has refined her own teaching through involvement with CITL, the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), and the Writing Program at UC Santa Cruz, and by serving as a member of the History Department Pedagogy Guide Committee. Throughout these experiences she has focused on teaching for transfer, and developing efficient, inclusive, and flexible pedagogy. As a Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, her goal is to support other GSIs in reaching their course goals, and developing their own unique voices and styles as educators.

Ryan Lambe is a doctoral student in cross-cultural musicology and is currently conducting field work in queer open mics in the United States while writing his dissertation on social-textual interpretation and communities of queer activism. His ongoing interest in pedagogy motivated him to earn an undergraduate degree in music education, teach in Idaho and New Jersey public schools, and complete research on the pedagogical issues we face in large lecture teaching situations. Hoping to improve teaching at UC Santa Cruz overall, Ryan is excited both to offer mentorship to his teaching colleagues this summer and to receive mentorship as a teacher himself.

Nora Lang is a Ph.D. candidate in Education. Her research explores efforts to integrate language and content area learning for recent immigrant students at the secondary level and those students’ language practices and experiences in classrooms. Nora has worked as a language teacher in a variety of international contexts and as both a Teaching Assistant and Graduate Student Instructor at UC Santa Cruz. As a peer mentor, she hopes to to engage with fellow instructors in open and supportive conversations about how to expand opportunities for our students through the design of our courses and instructional activities and through reflection on our own practice.

Regina Spranger is a Ph.D. student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. She studies how amphibians will react to our changing climate and if they will acclimate to rising temperatures. As a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, Regina has focused on inclusive teaching and aims to integrate inquiry-based activities into her department’s TA training program.

Cynthia Tibbetts is a doctoral student in the Philosophy department. Her research focuses on the relation between ethical responsibility and sociopolitical obligation. During the 2018 Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, she focused on learning more about teaching methods that are responsive to students as individuals as well as effective with respect to the goals of the contemporary academic institution. As a Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, her goal is to provide support and resources to help instructors accomplish their course goals using engaging and effective pedagogical practices.

Atesh Worthington is a Ph.D. student in Molecular, Cell, & Developmental (MCD) Biology. Her research focuses on blood development from hematopoietic stem cells and the unique capacity of fetal stem cells to generate the immune system. She received her B.S. from UC Santa Cruz and returned for her graduate studies because of the university’s emphasis on teaching. Her teaching interest include introductory biology and stem cell biology. Through the CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, she focused on learning inclusive and equitable teaching practices and on cultivating such practices in introductory MCD classes to better serve incoming students.

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).

Brittany Caldwell is a Ph.D. student in the department of Education. Her research interests include early elementary mathematics, teachers and teaching, and professional development. Brittany has teaching experience in both early education settings as well as in the university and plans to continue on to work with both prospective and in-service elementary teachers. Since completing CITL’s Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, Brittany has developed a deeper understanding of her own pedagogical approach to teaching and also gained skills to support others as they grapple with the complexities of teaching. Related to mentorship, Brittany has engaged in both formal and informal mentoring positions working with teachers and teaching assistants.

Daniel Rodríguez Ramírez is a Peruvian Ph.D. student in Social Psychology with a designated emphasis in Latin American and Latino Studies. He holds a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology, as well as teaching certification and experience in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. As a volunteer in the UC Santa Cruz Women’s Center MINT program in 2016, he mentored women-identified students in the process of applying to graduate schools. He also coordinated and redesigned the curriculum of the Graduate Division’s Graduate Student Leadership Certification Program in 2017–18, by incorporating inclusive, participatory, collaborative, and counter-hegemonic leadership styles. He was a 2019 Koret mentor, through which he offered guidence for an undergraduate student to conduct a qualitative research study. He was an instructor on the Global Preparation Program, where he taught a course on Research Skills for incoming international graduate students to satisfy the English proficiency requirement to work as TAs at UCSC. As a 2018 CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, he focused on ways to critically engage students in active learning. As a CITL Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, he has worked with other graduate students in mentoring summer GSIs in the Social Sciences. He uses a horizontal approach in mentorship, looking forward to create learning communities in horizontal and participatory ways. He is inspired by teaching resources fostering inclusivity in the classroom.

Megan Boivin is a graduate student in the Computer Engineering department with an emphasis in Robotics and Controls. Her research focuses on the modeling, simulation, and analysis of stochastic processes, and the application of optimization algorithms for the control and navigation of medical robotic applications with haptic devices. While participating in the Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, she sought to apply her pedagogical practices toward a more equitable learning environment for students. As a peer mentor, she looks forward to offering support and sharing pedagogical practices with her fellow graduate students through open and collaborative discussions on how presentation of course material can be most effective and engaging for the students.

Ryan Lambe is a doctoral student in cross-cultural musicology and is currently conducting field work in queer open mics in the United States while writing his dissertation on social-textual interpretation and communities of queer activism. His ongoing interest in pedagogy motivated him to earn an undergraduate degree in music education, teach in Idaho and New Jersey public schools, and complete research on the pedagogical issues we face in large lecture teaching situations. Hoping to improve teaching at UC Santa Cruz overall, Ryan is excited both to offer mentorship to his teaching colleagues this summer and to receive mentorship as a teacher himself.

Nora Lang is a Ph.D. candidate in Education. Her research explores efforts to integrate language and content area learning for recent immigrant students at the secondary level and those students’ language practices and experiences in classrooms. Nora has worked as a language teacher in a variety of international contexts and as both a Teaching Assistant and Graduate Student Instructor at UC Santa Cruz. As a peer mentor, she hopes to to engage with fellow instructors in open and supportive conversations about how to expand opportunities for our students through the design of our courses and instructional activities and through reflection on our own practice.

Sean Gasiorek is a Ph.D. candidate in Mathematics. After having passionate and inspiring math teachers in high school, he decided to that he wanted to pursue a career teaching math. He has several years of teaching experience with advanced high school students and undergraduates, and helped start a mentoring program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for Masters students in the mathematics department while he was a graduate student there. Building on his experience as a student, teacher, and mentor, he looks to pass on a genuine excitement for mathematics to future teachers and educators.

Matt Heiner is a Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics & Statistics. His research focuses on building flexible time series models for population dynamics with co-advisors in statistics and ecology. Learning and sharing ways to reach and engage with all students are among Matt’s priorities. He recently launched a Coursera MOOC, Bayesian Statistics: Techniques and Models. He and his wife (also a teacher) especially enjoy going on adventures with their baby girl.

Courtney Kersten is a Ph.D. student in the Literature Department where she studies in the Creative/Critical writing concentration and works on a project that explores spirituality, feminism, and healing in American narratives of grief. At the University of Idaho, she taught Rhetoric and Composition and mentored graduate students in their teaching as a Graduate Teaching Mentor, and she currently teaches Creative Writing at UC Santa Cruz. As a Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, she learned more about active learning, inclusive instruction, and building community. As a Summer Mentor, she is excited to help her fellow graduate students grow in their teaching.

Kristen Laciste is a Visual Studies Ph.D. student in History of Art & Visual Culture. She studies contemporary art from Africa and its diasporas, researching Black dandyism, transatlantic slavery and the slave trade, apartheid in South Africa, and British Victorianism. Her teaching interests include art and visual culture from Africa, and museum studies. After completing CITL’s Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, she is delighted to partner and work with Arts Division graduate students during the summer.

Cynthia Tibbetts is a doctoral student in the Philosophy department. Her research focuses on the relation between ethical responsibility and sociopolitical obligation. During the 2018 Graduate Pedagogy Fellows program, she focused on learning more about teaching methods that are responsive to students as individuals as well as effective with respect to the goals of the contemporary academic institution. As a Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, her goal is to provide support and resources to help instructors accomplish their course goals using engaging and effective pedagogical practices.

Jacob Noone Wade is a Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. He studies fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the solar dynamo. He attributes his educational success to the enthusiastic and encouraging professors he has had over the years, and aims to be this type of influence on his students. As a 2018 Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, he focused on learning creating a positive learning environment in the classroom. As a 2018 Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor, he is excited to provide mentorship support to fellow graduate students by utilizing the experience and knowledge he has gained through tutoring, teaching, and studying pedagogy.