CETL Faculty Fellows
The goal of the CETL Faculty Fellows program is to supplement current CETL 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 CETL and are mentored in their role by CETL staff to advance a culture of teaching excellence at SDSU. The 2022- 2023 South Dakota State University Faculty Fellows are listed below.
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 CETL, 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 the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) 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 CETL advisory board, helped with New Faculty Orientation, and is a CETL Faculty Fellow for the Honors College. CETL provides the SDSU faculty with various essential opportunities, and she is proud to be able to be part of some of them.
Gregory Michna, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering
Gregory Michna is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He has served as a CETL 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 CETL 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 CETL 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. Outside of teaching, Tiffany spends time serving on her professional society's state board and collaborating with numerous SDSU faculty members on projects that strive to change the way that rural healthcare is perceived and addressed in the state of South Dakota. Tiffany is appreciative of the investment SDSU makes in its faculty members and looks forward to her collaboration with CETL.
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 CETL 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 CETL 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 CETL 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 CETL 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 CETL Faculty Mentor program is an opportunity for faculty to serve as peer observers for their colleagues in an official capacity within CETL. The CETL Faculty Mentor program supplements the traditional CETL Observation program intended to provide strengths based and supportive feedback on teaching and learning to the faculty of South Dakota State University. CETL Faculty Mentors conduct 8 observation and feedback sessions per semester in support of their colleagues. The 2022-2023 CETL Faculty Mentors are listed below.
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 CETL 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. We all continue to learn, right?
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 CETL 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 CETL over the past decade as both a participant and as a CETL 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 CETL 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 CETL’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 CETL 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.