The 10 University of Georgia faculty members in the 2023-2025 cohort of the Lilly Teaching Fellows recently held their fall retreat at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.
During the retreat, led by the program’s co-directors, Steven Lewis, associate professor of physics, and Meg Mittelstadt, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, as well as assistant director Sarah Shannon, associate professor of sociology, the Fellows mapped the curriculum for their time in the program and engaged in team-building activities to build rapport across the cohort. This cohort’s curriculum will include discussions on innovative and alternative assessments, active learning, universal design for learning, and strategies to foster students’ motivation for learning.
“The Lilly Teaching Fellows represent the best and brightest teacher-scholars at the University of Georgia,” Mittelstadt said. “We are excited to welcome a new cohort of fellows to the program. Their selection honors and recognizes their dedication to instructional excellence while reinforcing a dynamic learning environment across campus.”
Mittelstadt said the fellows will explore evidence-based teaching methods, engage with master teachers from varied disciplines, and discuss finding balance in their pre-tenure commitments. Over the course of this two-year program, the faculty fellows will meet regularly to discuss topics of importance to pre-tenure faculty, with a particular focus on evidence-based pedagogical practices. In addition to the support system provided by their cohort colleagues, each fellow will be paired with a faculty mentor.
“The Lilly Teaching Fellows program is the embodiment of an unwavering commitment to nurturing pre-tenure teacher-scholars at the University of Georgia,” Mittelstadt said.
The 2023-2025 Lilly Teaching Fellows and their departments are:
- Felipe Pecas Correia, Department of Finance, Terry College of Business
- Sokiente Watariye (Tari) Dagogo-Jack, Department of Marketing, Terry College of Business
- Kate Cassity-Duffey, Department of Horticulture, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Jin Sun, Computer Science, School of Computing
- Samantha Schlemmer, Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine
- Kalyani Ramnath, Department of History, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Ania Aleksandra Majewska, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine
- Tatiane Russo-Tait, Department of Cellular Biology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Mackensie Jordan Minniear, Department of Communication Studies, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Gregory O’Neil Satterthwaite, Jazz Piano and African-American Studies, Hugh Hodgson School of Music
In the second year of the Lilly Teaching Fellows program, faculty fellows will continue to meet monthly in order to discuss evidence-based teaching methods, complete an instructional project designed to strengthen courses and teaching methods in their home departments, and will engage in peer review of teaching with one another.
The 2022-2024 Lilly Teaching Fellows and their departments are:
- Nora Benedict Frye, Department of Romance Languages, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Anny Chung, Department of Plant Biology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Christopher Cleveland, Department of Population Health and Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
- Ellyn Evans, Music Therapy, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Thomas Kadri, School of Law
- Joseph Kellner, Department of History, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Lindsay Sain Jones, Department of Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate, Terry College of Business
- Alexander Strauss, Ecology, Odum School of Ecology
- Kimberly Watkins, Department of Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics, College of Family and Consumer Sciences
- Sarah Whitley, Department of Marketing, Terry College of Business
The Lilly Teaching Fellow Program strives to improve the university’s instructional mission.
Fellows are tenure-track assistant professors who are in their first, second or third year at the university. They are selected for demonstrated passion for and commitment to excellence in teaching.