CPETE Faculty Fellows
The goal of the CPETE Faculty Fellows program is to supplement current CPETE university-wide programming in a specific way to meet more individualized needs of the faculty of each particular college. Faculty Fellows representing each college have the full support of the SDSU CPETE and are mentored in their role by CPETE staff to advance a culture of teaching excellence at SDSU.
Karla Hunter, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Hunter, a Professor in the School of Communication and Journalism with over with 30 years’ experience teaching in higher education, is the author of "Interpersonal Development: 21st Century Skills for the 'Real' and Virtual World" (Kendall Hunt, 2021). Her unique, evidence-based classroom activities help students cultivate self-efficacy, empowerment, and resilience though optimizing their communication skills. She is honored to work with CPETE and grateful for the opportunity to broaden the scope of her service to faculty and students in other disciplines.
Srinivas Janaswamy, College of Agriculture, Food, and Enviromental Sciences
Srinivas Janaswamy is an Associate Professor of Food Chemistry. The art of learning is a responsibility shared between the instructor and the student, and the instructor assumes many roles to create an engaging and supportive environment in the classroom. Herein, the Center for Professional Enrichment and Teaching Excellence (CPETE) has been playing an undeniable and indispensable role in continuously adjusting instructors’ pedagogical skills and teaching styles, and in turn, allowing every student to learn and succeed; thus, he enjoys working with them the most.
Christine Larson, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering
Christine Larson is a professor in the Mathematics and Statistics Department. She have served on the CPETE advisory board, helped with New Faculty Orientation, and is a CPETE Faculty Fellow for the Honors College.
Gregory Michna, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering
Gregory Michna is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He has served as a CPETE Faculty Fellow for two years. His passion is working with students to foster their mechanical engineering interests and skills, and he is excited to be working with CPETE to help bring evidence-based teaching strategies to the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.
Tiffany Niemann, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions
Tiffany Niemann is a Medical Laboratory Science Instructor and Laboratory Coordinator with the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions. She has a deep love for teaching those new to the profession through methodologies that truly relate to the current lives of her students. Tiffany has a goal of continued learning and growth of her own teaching styles; taking advantage of all that CPETE offers, including workshops and national conferences. Because of these opportunities, innovative and progressive teaching/learning strategies have been woven into her classes with much success.
Mandy Orth, College of Natural Sciences
Mandy Orth is a Lecturer and Lab Coordinator in the Biology and Microbiology Department. She loves working with students to provide the foundation for their continued college experience and future careers. She is especially interested in pedagogy related to large-enrollment courses and is excited to work with CPETE and the College of Natural Sciences on continued faculty professional development.
Annette Ray, College of Nursing
Annette Ray is a Lecturer and Simulation Coordinator with the College of Nursing. She has a passion for nursing education and strive to demonstrate excellence in all teaching practices. As the SDSU CON CPETE fellow she has collaborated with SDSU faculty from other colleges to create and identify valuable professional development learning opportunities. These experiences have afforded faculty the opportunity to prepare for professional accreditation exams, generate innovative teaching learning activities, and learn more about SDSU supportive resources available to all SDSU students, staff, and faculty. What she enjoys most about being a CPETE fellow is having an active role in supporting faculty professional development which in turn leads to improved learning outcomes for our students.
Katelyn Romsa, College of Education and Human Sciences
Katelyn Romsa is Associate Professor of Counseling and Human Development at South Dakota State University (SDSU). Katelyn is Coordinator of the Administration of Student Affairs (M.Ed.) and College Counseling (M.S.) programs at SDSU. Katelyn loves working with CPETE because they've helped her to identify and enhance her strengths as a faculty. Katelyn is grateful for their partnership and investment in developing faculty like herself.
CETL Faculty Mentors
The CPETE Faculty Mentor program is an opportunity for faculty to serve as peer observers for their colleagues in an official capacity within CPETE. The CPETE Faculty Mentor program supplements the traditional CPETE Observation program intended to provide strengths based and supportive feedback on teaching and learning to the faculty of South Dakota State University. CPETE Faculty Mentors conduct 8 observation and feedback sessions per semester in support of their colleagues.
Paula Carson, College of Nursing
Paula Carson has served as faculty at the College of Nursing at SDSU. Although she has formally retired, she continues to work as needed with nursing simulation during the semester. She enjoys her work with CPETE because of the wonderful opportunities to meet and collaborate with faculty across the campus programs. She gets to observe a variety of creative teaching styles as well as offer her teaching experiences.
Cody Christensen, College of Education and Human Sciences
Cody Christensen is an Associate Professor in the School of Health and Consumer Sciences where he teaches in aviation. Cody has worked with the CPETE office for many years and enjoys the benefits of learning new skills to increase student learning. He believes that active engagement by other professionals through a collaborative review process makes SDSU stronger and bolsters our reputation of developing phenomenal educators. As a faculty mentor, Cody strives to provide positive feedback and help support colleagues across the campus.
Tracy Nelson, School of Health and Consumer Sciences
Dr. Nelson has an EdD in Adult and Higher Education, an MS in Educational Administration and a BS in Health, Physical Education Recreation and Dance, specializing Physical Education Teacher Education and a minor in Health Education, from SDSU. Dr. Nelson has taught Physical Education and Heath (K-8th) where she developed and taught a developmentally appropriate physical education and health curriculum. Recently, Dr. Nelson has developed and implemented a hybrid high school personal fitness and lifetime activities course. Dr. Tracy Nelson coordinates the Physical Education Teacher Education Program and instructs teacher candidates at South Dakota State University. Go Jacks.
Cody Wright, School of Animal Science
Cody Wright is a professor in the Department of Animal Science where he teaches courses in animal nutrition, ruminant livestock production, and integrated ranch management. He has been actively involved with CPETE over the past decade as both a participant and as a CPETE Fellow and Faculty Mentor. As a Faculty Mentor, Cody enjoys the opportunity to work with teaching faculty from all corners of campus. He is not only able to provide support for colleagues, but also gather creative ideas from the talented teachers he is fortunate to collaborate with…all with the goal of enhancing student learning.
Judy Vondruska, College of Natural Sciences
Coming Soon!
SoTL Fellows
Mary Bowne, School of Education, Counseling, and Human Development
Mary Bowne is a Professor in the School of Education, Counseling, and Human Development and the Early Childhood Education Coordinator. As a CPETE Faculty Mentor, Mary enjoys working with a variety of colleagues across the university related to their teaching skills and strategies. She believes peer observations are a great tool as they provide an objective viewpoint to one’s teaching as well as unique strengths and potential ideas to strengthen one’s teaching skills and enhance student learning. She thinks these types of observations as well as CPETE’s unique opportunities and resources not only enhances one’s teaching and learning but also creates an inclusive community where teaching and learning are valued among colleagues.
Liz Droke, College of Education and Human Sciences
Dr. Droke is an associate professor in the School of Health and Consumer Sciences where she teaches courses in nutrition and dietetics, both face to face and online. She has been actively involved with CPETE as a participant and now as a SoTL Fellow. Liz enjoys working with colleagues across various disciplines to provide support and to enhance student learning.