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Teaching Events

Teaching Commons Conference 2024

Join us for the Teaching Commons Conference 2024 – Cultivating Connection. Friday, May 10.

Registration and more information

TEACH Conference 2023 Plenary Speakers

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Morning Plenary Panel—Multi-institutional Perspectives on IDEAL Engagement, Well-being, and Belonging

Facilitator

Gloriana Trujillo, Director of Academic Teaching Programs at the Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning

Panelists

Mary Wright, Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning, Executive Director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning, and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Sociology at Brown University

In addition to her roles at Brown University, Mary Wright is also a former president (2017–18) of the POD Network in Higher Education. Her second book, Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education, will be published by Johns Hopkins Press in September and is a study of aims, strategies, tactics, organization, and evaluation approaches for 1200+ CTLs. Mary also serves as co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development, the journal of the International Consortium for Educational Development, and served on the Boyer 2030 Commission, which recently published The Equity-Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities

Denise Galarza Sepúlveda, Director, Foundational Course Initiative at the University of Michigan Center for the Research on Learning and Teaching

As Director of U-M's Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), Denise Galarza Sepúlveda provides strategic leadership for this campus-wide initiative that transforms large introductory or early career courses into engaging, equitable, and inclusive learning experiences for all students. Previously, she was a member of the faculty at Lafayette College in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures where she also chaired the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. She was awarded the Excellence in Diversity Education Award and the Woman of Distinction Award by the Association of Black Collegians “in recognition for the immeasurable hours dedicated to the continued success of marginalized groups on campus.”  A native of Puerto Rico, she has served as a volunteer teacher in En Nuestra Lengua, a Saturday Spanish school dedicated to promoting Spanish literacy, cultural enrichment, and academic success for Latino children in Southeast Michigan.

Sarah Church, Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Pritzker University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Physics at Stanford University

Sarah Church has been in teaching, research, and senior-level administrative roles at Stanford for more than 20 years. She leads the university’s IDEAL Education initiatives, and In her VPUE role, she oversees numerous offices, programs, and grant initiatives dedicated to involving faculty with undergraduate education, connecting students with phenomenal academic, experiential, and research opportunities at Stanford, and fully realizing a liberal education. The VPUE office includes Academic Advising, the Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford Introductory Studies, the Program in Writing & Rhetoric, Undergraduate Research, Community Engaged Learning, and the Bing Overseas Studies Program. 

Provost's Remarks

Speaker

Persis Drell, Provost, James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor in the School of Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor of Physics at Stanford University

Afternoon Plenary Session—Insights from IDEAL Research for Teachers and Learners

Facilitator

Cassandra Volpe Horii, Associate Vice Provost for Education and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Stanford University

Panelists

Leslie Luqueño, Doctoral Candidate and RAISE Doctoral Fellow, Graduate School of Education at Stanford University

Leslie Patricia Luqueño is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Haverford College and a M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University. As a first-generation-to-college Latina, Leslie is dedicated to furthering justice, equity, and inclusion within higher education for students with marginalized identities. At Stanford, she has served as a teaching assistant for the GSE’s qualitative methods sequence and as a program development associate at the Center for Teaching and Learning. Her pedagogical commitments center student agency and course co-creation, which she implements in her own teaching and work with faculty on pedagogical strategies. Leslie has published on these topics through her co-authored book titled Promoting Equity and Justice through Pedagogical Partnership (2021) as well as journal articles and book chapters.

Jordan Starck, IDEAL Provostial Fellow at Stanford University

Jordan Starck, Ph.D., is an IDEAL Provostial Fellow and incoming assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Stanford University. His research investigates organizational diversity commitments, racial bias, and racial inequality, often in the context of education. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology & Social Policy from Princeton University.

Shima Salehi, Assistant Professor (Research) and Director of the IDEAL Research Lab in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University

Shima Salehi’s research focuses on how to use different instructional practices to teach science and engineering more effectively and inclusively. She has studied effective scientific problem-solving, developed empirical frameworks for training students in key problem-solving practices, and designed instructional activities to provide students with explicit opportunities to learn these problem-solving practices. She also examines barriers for equity in STEM education and instructional strategies and changes to address them. Salehi holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and a PhD minor in Psychology from Stanford University, and received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran. She is the founder of KhanAcademyFarsi, a non-profit educational organization which has provided service to Farsi-speaking students, particularly in under-privileged areas.