Contact Us

2023-24 Faculty Fellows

Lily Mendoza

S. Lily Mendoza is Filipina, born and raised in the traditional homeland of the Ayta peoples in the Philippines called Pampanga (“by the riverbank”). She is Full Professor of Culture and Communication, co-chairs the OU Academic Sustainability Committee, and spearheads the Campus Alliance for Sustainability and the Environment (CASE-OU). Her intellectual work centers on decolonization and recovery of indigenous and ecologically-rooted worldviews and understandings (typically occluded within the logic and discourse of modern culture and civilization). She is the author of Decolonizing Ecotheology: Indigenous and Subaltern Challenges; Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory; and Between the Homeland and the Diaspora: The Politics of Theorizing Filipino and Filipino American Identities. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the (non-profit) Center for Babaylan Studies (CfBS), a movement for decolonization and indigenization among diasporic Filipinos and is part of the Women Bridging Worlds mentoring circle hosted by the Bioneers Collective Heritage Institute.

 

Rebecca Malatesta

Rebecca Malatesta received her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Wayne State University in 1995. After graduation, she took a tenure track position in I/O Psychology at San Jose State University in California. After the arrival of her first child in 1998, she moved back to Michigan and took a part-time lecturer position at Oakland University. In 2018, Dr. Malatesta was offered a more permanent position as the Psychology Student Success Coordinator, and in 2022 she was awarded a Special Instructor position. Dr. Malatesta is passionate about discovering strategies that address performance gaps and encourage the success of all students. 

 

Valance Washington

Dr. Valance Washington is a dedicated educator specializing in biology. With expertise in immunology, genetics, and cell and molecular biology, Dr. Washington has taught courses such as Scientific Inquiry, Immunology, and Genetics. He has taught a Topics course that resulted in a published article in Monoclonal Antibodies and Immunotherapy. As the instructor for Doctoral Seminar, Dr. Washington focuses on NIH-style grant writing. Additionally, he has taught Fundamentals of Cell and Molecular Biology to medical students and emphasizes retention of minority populations in STEM through topics like scientific identity and active learning strategies. 

 

Rachel Smydra

Rachel Smydra, Ph.D. is an associate professor in English. Her research focuses on incorporating active learning and career readiness experiences into a course, facilitating effective online teaching practices, and finding strategies to strengthen students’ critical thinking and writing skills. Rachel is currently working on a grant-funded research project that dives into women cartographers in the 19th century. She will serve as CETL’s first guest editor for the Teaching Blog.  

 

2022-23 Faculty Fellows

 

Charlene Hayden

Charlene Hayden earned both her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).  She spent 24 years working as an industrial analytical chemist at the GM Research and Development Center in Warren, MI specializing in applications of FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and NMR.  In 2007, Dr. Hayden quit her position at GM to teach chemistry full-time as an Associate Professor at Daytona Beach Community College in Daytona Beach, Florida.  She joined Oakland University in 2010 and has taught large sections of General Chemistry I & II as well as small sections of Analytical Chemistry lecture and lab.  Recognition for her teaching includes receiving the OU Online Teaching Excellence Award in 2021.  In addition to networking with other teaching colleagues, Dr. Hayden is keenly interested in methods to improve student success in high enrollment STEM gateway courses.  Contact Charlene at [email protected]

2021-22 Faculty Fellows

 

Fabia Battistuzzi

Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences

Dr. Battistuzzi earned a PhD in Astrobiology and Evolutionary Biology from the Pennsylvania State University and continued her training as a postdoc in Computational Biology and Evolutionary Medicine at the Arizona State University. She joined Oakland University in 2012 where she established a bioinformatics research group in the Department of Biological Sciences. Since then, she has become an affiliated faculty in the Bioengineering department and has co-founded the Center for Data Science and Big Data Analytics at OU. Her research group consists of multiple undergraduate and graduate students who actively participate in every aspect of research. Dr. Battistuzzi has had an active interest in diversity and inclusion since joining OU as a member of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) and, more recently, as an advisory board member for CETL. She enjoys teaching and mentoring students to help them find their paths to reach their career goals. Contact Fabia at [email protected].

 

Chiaoning Su

Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Journalism and Public Relations

Chiaoning Su is currently an advisor of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) at Oakland University. She received her Ph.D. in media and communication from Temple University in 2015 and joined OU in 2016. Her teaching philosophy centers on high impact learning achieved through playful praxis. She approaches every class with the aim of producing memorable and inclusive experiences that spark constructive joy for her students and simultaneously meld theory and practice. She won the 2020 Honors College Inspiration Award and the 2021 Teaching Excellence Award. Prior to her academic career, Su worked as a communication specialist at Ogilvy Public Relations and for several political campaigns in Taiwan. Contact Chiaoning at [email protected].

2020-21 Faculty Fellows

 

Lynda Poly-Droulard

Adjunct Assistant Professor in Nursing

Dr. Poly-Droulard has been a faculty member in the School of  Nursing since 2002 and is a Certified Nurse Educator through the   National League for Nursing. Her areas of expertise interests include Cardiac and Emergency Department Nursing and   innovative nursing education with the use of simulation as a   teaching/learning methodology. Dr. Poly-Droulard’s research includes a focus on caring science in patient care, and also on the value of holistic admissions at the undergraduate university level. Contact Lynda at [email protected].

2019-2020 Faculty Fellows

 

Roger Chao

Assistant Professor in Writing & Rhetoric

Roger Chao completed his Ph.D. in English with a focus in Language and Rhetoric at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. His research interests include university-community partnerships and the teaching of writing in community-based contexts. He has taught first-year service-learning composition at the University of Washington as well as adult basic education at Literacy Source, a community organization in Seattle. Currently, he is working alongside The Dream Center in Pontiac and the Oakland Literacy Council in Bloomfield Hills to develop literacy and education programs in the Metro Detroit area. Contact Roger at [email protected].

Jonathan Yates

Special Instructor in Biological Sciences

Jonathan Yates received his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Cincinnati, and joined the Biology department at Oakland University in 2009. In 2016, Dr. Yates joined the Oakland University Michigan Gateways to Completion (MIG2C) Initiative, a three-year program tasked with developing mechanisms to help faculty improve student learning and success in selected "gateway" or foundational courses with historically high failure rates. Since that time, Dr. Yates has been the Co-Chair of the Biology 1200 G2C Redesign Committee, developing and utilizing evidence-based, effective teaching methods, along with data collection and analysis, to assist in the redesign of BIO 1200. He has presented findings from this work at local, regional, and national meetings and hopes to continue this campus-wide movement. Contact Jonathan at [email protected].

2018-2019 Faculty Fellows

Adina Schneeweis

Associate Professor in Communication and Journalism

Adina Schneeweis teaches journalism, photo and video production, and diversity in storytelling in the Department of Communication and Journalism, where she encourages active and experiential learning, critical writing, and mindful storytelling. Her research focus is on the representation of race and ethnicity in communication and advocacy, at the intersection of the disciplines of cultural and critical studies, postcolonial studies, and international communication. A native of Romania, Dr. Schneeweis was a documentary writer, reporter, and editor, creating more than 50 documentaries for the national public television station TVR. As a CETL Faculty Fellow, Dr. Schneeweis will facilitate a multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary storytelling project that contributes to OU’s commitment to diversity and unity, will enhance understanding of the needs of our diverse student body, and will increase OU community’s preparedness for living in our increasingly diverse society. Contact Adina at [email protected].

Kieran Mathieson

Associate Professor in Management Information Systems

Kieran Mathieson has taught information systems at OU since 1991. In 2006, Kieran started reading the learning science literature. He redesigned his courses, wrote short custom textbooks, and wrote software to, among other things, make personal formative feedback practical at scale. Since his courses are flipped, Kieran gets to know students, helps them individually, and cheers them on. He is also interested in how redesigning institutional workflow can improve student outcomes, while reducing costs. Contact Kieran at [email protected].

2017-2018 Faculty Fellows

Joanne Lipson Freed

Assistant Professor in English

Joanne Lipson Freed teaches courses on twentieth-century American literature, U.S. ethnic literature, and world literature. Her research explores the ways that literary texts engage with readers from differing cultural backgrounds, and her forthcoming book,  Haunting Encounters: The Ethics of Teaching across Boundaries of Difference, will be published by Cornell University Press in 2017. She has served on the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee, and has been involved in many CETL-sponsored workshops and events, including the annual Instructional Fair, New Faculty Orientation, and the Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning.

Thomas Raffel

Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences

Tom Raffel currently teaches lecture and lab courses in Ecology and Parasitology, both of which involved working closely with teaching assistants. Dr. Raffel has always felt that active, hands-on learning experiences are the cornerstone of an effective science education, and he has embraced the recent movement to incorporate more active learning approaches into lecture classes. In 2011-2012, Dr. Raffel participated in a nationally recognized program designed to train post-doctoral researchers in the implementation of active teaching methods in science education (FIRST IV: Faculty Institutes for the Reform of Science Teaching), and he continues to be involved in a long-term study related to this program. Dr. Raffel makes extensive use of active learning approaches and formative assessment techniques in all his lecture courses, including his moderately large ecology course (~60 students), and he is eager to share his experiences with other faculty and graduate students.

2016-2017 Faculty Fellows

Keith Williams

Keith Williams received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (Biopsychology Program) in 1998. After a post-doctoral fellowship, he became an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Grand Valley State University in 2001. He joined the Psychology Department at Oakland University in 2005. His research interests include the behavioral and biological components that modulate drug reinforcement and craving as well as the contribution of food intake mechanisms in alcohol self-administration. He frequently teaches OU courses in Introduction to Psychology and Physiological Psychology, but has also taught Animal Behavior, a seminar in Psychopharmacology, and a graduate class in Instruction in Psychological Science. Keith recently redesigned his large, lecture-hall Introductory Psychology course to include such approaches as group written assignments, early semester assessments, and an early alert approach.

Amanda Nichols Hess

Amanda Nichols Hess is the eLearning, Instructional Technology, and Education Librarian at OU Libraries. In this role, she works with her colleagues to develop the Libraries’ diverse and user-focused online learning offerings; she is also responsible for delivering professional learning offerings aimed at equipping librarians to integrate instructional design and technology into their teaching. Amanda also serves as the liaison librarian to the School of Education and Human Services. Her research focuses on library instruction, instructional design / technology, and the intersection of these practices in faculty development.

Amanda received her Master’s of Science in Information (the terminal degree for librarians) from the University of Michigan, as well as an Education Specialist in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University. Prior to coming to OU in 2012, she worked as a school librarian and technology integration specialist in K-12 education.

2015-2016 Faculty Fellows

John Corso

Corso obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University, where he also completed and then co-taught a graduate-level course on Writing in the Disciplines. As an associate professor in Art History, John incorporates writing projects in all of his classrooms and subscribes to the "writing to learn" philosophy. He is an art critic whose essays and art reviews have appeared in Hyperallergic, ART21 Magazine, Art in America, Art Papers, BE Magazine and the Huffington Post, as well as in academic journals. His criticism relates contemporary art practice to social, political and global concerns.

Kathleen Spencer

Spencer came to OU to earn her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree after many years in clinical nursing practice in adult health. She earned a Master of Science in Nursing degree at Wayne State University and a Master of Arts in Journalism at Michigan State University. Her clinical interests are nursing care of veterans and care of the homeless. Her research interests relate to the use of imaginative literature in teaching students empathy, ethics, and professionalism. In her teaching as a special instructor in School of Nursing, Kathleen is interested in integration of the humanities into the sciences, technology in the classroom, using the newspaper in the classroom, and professional writing and editing.

2014-2015 Faculty Fellow

Byungwon Woo

Byungwon Woo is Assistant Professor in Political Science at Oakland University. He joined Oakland after completing his Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in 2010. He teaches International Relations, International Political Economy, and International Organizations, and International Relations Capstone Seminar. He is particularly proud of his undergraduate students who have carried out independent research projects, presented them in professional conferences, and published them in academic journals. His main research focuses on international organizations and political economy. His articles have appeared in Economics and Politics, International Interactions, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Science Research and Methods.

2013-2014 Faculty Fellows

Chris Kobus

Chris Kobus is the Director for Outreach and Recruitment for the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Oakland University and Associate Professor. He taught his first class at OU in 1995, and has since taught 16 different courses. Dr Kobus has been very resourceful in obtaining funding for his teaching that includes K-12 Summer STEM Camps that he organizes, to new courses and programs in SECS such as those in alternative energy, to tech demos and others. Dr. Kobus won the Best Overall Paper Award at the 2001 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) North Central Section Annual Conference, the 2013 SECS Outstanding Faculty Award for Service, was recognized on Founder’s Day in 2012 for Teaching and Service, and won the Dr. Wilbert J. McKeachie International Poster Prize for the best poster at the Seventh Annual OU-Windsor Conference on Teaching and Learning in 2013.

Dana Driscoll

Dr. Dana Lynn Driscoll is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, where she teaches courses in peer tutoring, global rhetoric, first-year writing, literacy and technology, and research methods. She has also taught in OU’s Bachelor of Liberal Studies program. Dana’s research focuses on understanding transfer of learning, or students’ ability to take skills and knowledge they’ve learned in university courses and adapt that learning to a wide variety of circumstances.   Using mixed methods, longitudinal, and multi-institutional approaches, she has investigated the role of student attitudes and dispositions, metacognitive awareness, and reflective writing on transfer.  Her secondary research interests are in research methodology, the scholarship of teaching and learning, writing centers, and writing assessment.  All of her research also directly informs her teaching, which emphasizes real-world connections, service learning, and student-centered activities. Her work has been published in  Across the Disciplines,  The Journal of Teaching Writing,  Writing Program Administration,  The Writing Center Journal and she frequently presents at regional, national, and international conferences.  Dana and Sherry Wynn Perdue, OU Writing Center Director, recently won the International Writing Center Association’s 2012 Outstanding Article award, one of the highest honors in writing center scholarship.

2012-2013 Faculty Fellows

Eileen Johnson

Eileen Johnson graduated with her doctorate in educational psychology in 1998 from University of Houston. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership in the School of Education and Human Services.  She has been at Oakland University since 2004 and has taught courses in action research, qualitative research methods, statistics and data analysis, program evaluation, learning theory, and the ethics and philosophy of leadership.  In 2005, Dr. Johnson was a fellow of the University of Delaware Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, and in 2007 was selected to attend the Institute & Conference for Faculty Learning Community Directors, Facilitators, and Participants in Claremont, California with two other Oakland University faculty members.  Prior to coming to Oakland University, Dr. Johnson worked in medical education at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Statewide Campus System of graduate medical education as a faculty development specialist.  In this position, Dr. Johnson worked with resident and attending-level physicians in developing, implementing, and evaluating medical and educational research programs and developing clinical teaching skills.

Barbara Penprase

Barbara Penprase is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She earned a B.S. in Nursing at Oakland University. She received a M.S in Nursing, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology , both from Wayne State University. Her research focus is on clinical practice and outcome/evaluation of nursing practice. Her most recent research centers on empathy and its relationship with compassion fatigue.  Penprase is a recipient of several significant grants and is well published in her research areas. She has received many acknowledgements for her role in teaching and received the Teaching Excellence Award at Oakland University in 2009. Prior to beginning her teaching career at Oakland University, Penprase served in many administrative roles, including Vice President of Clinical and Surgical Services at Providence Hospital.   She has developed numerous programs including Open Heart, Neurotology, Cranialfacial, Chest Pain Center and Gerentology. At Oakland University, Penprase was one of the original faculty to develop and implement a completely on-line RN-BSN program. This was one of the first RN-BSN on-line programs offered in the U.S. and the first totally on-line program offered at Oakland University.   She also developed and implemented the Accelerated Second Degree Program at Oakland University and served as the Program Director for over five years. She presently administratively oversees the Oakland University Riverview Institute located in Detroit where she serves as the Executive Director. This site offers nursing and nursing related programs to underserved populations as well as she works with the surrounding community to improve health behaviors in the population. She has developed many collaborative relationships with key businesses in Detroit to facilitate enhancing the opportunities for underserved populations in the Detroit area.