Faculty Associates

The Faculty Associate designation is a recognition of significant leadership capabilities and considerable expertise. In general terms, Pew FTLC Faculty Associates partner with the Pew FTLC to offer programming that offers guidance and examples for success to GVSU faculty. Faculty Associates serve by leading Mentoring groups or Faculty Learning Communities.

Learning Communities

Through learning communities, faculty and staff support one another as they adopt new teaching methods and assess resulting student learning. These communities of practice are proposed and led by faculty and staff with a particular interest and/or expertise and are supported through internal grant funding. The particular responsibilities of a Faculty Associate facilitating a learning community are:

  • Convene a small group of faculty around a particular teaching topic over the course of a semester or academic year
  • Craft a description of the community and establish participant learning objectives
  • Propose and manage the learning community grant budget
  • Establish the meeting schedule and work with Pew FTLC staff to reserve rooms and order refreshments 
  • Identify resource materials and work with Pew FTLC staff to order books/resources for participants
  • Participate in an orientation session for learning community facilitators

Mentoring

Mentoring – particularly for early-career faculty – plays a pivotal role in long-term faculty success and, thus, the Pew FTLC offers several evidence-based mentoring programs. The particular responsibilities of a Faculty Associate facilitating a mentoring group are:

  • Convene a small group of new faculty on a regular basis during the 2019-2020 academic year, during which time the faculty mentor creates a climate where newer faculty are free to ask questions, form relationships outside their discipline, and locate expertise across campus.
  • Participate in an orientation session for faculty mentoring group facilitators
  • Review and select readings, discussion prompts, and supplemental materials that will engage faculty from diverse fields and with a broad range of higher education experiences
  • Facilitate discussions of readings and topics of interest to participating faculty in order to expand their teaching to include engaged pedagogies
  • Assist faculty in locating the wide variety of campus resources within their department, college or elsewhere in the university

Liz Arnold  (Anthropology)

Dan Brown  (English)

Patty Bolea  (School of Social Work)

Michelle Calkins  (Writing)

Caitlin Callahan  (Geology)

Breanna Chycinski  (Occupational Science & Therapy)

Grace Coolidge  (History)

Sigrid Danielson  (Visual & Media Arts)

Bradford Dykes  (Statistics)

David Eick  (Modern Languages & Literatures)

Lindsay Ellis  (English)

Emily Frigo (University Libraries)

Karen Gipson  (Physics)

Anna Hammersmith  (Sociology)

Arya Jadhav  (School of Computing)

Laurence José  (Writing)

Leanne Kang  (Learning, Educational Foundations, &Technology)

Whitt Kilburn  (Political Science)

Brian Kipp  (Biomedical Sciences)

Jay Knight  (Kirkoff College of Nursing)

Jack Mangala  (School of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Laila McCloud  (Educational Leadership &Counseling)

Corinna McLeod  (English)

Carrie Menold  (Geology)

Dauvan Mulally  (Writing)

Kathryn Ohle  (Teaching & Learning)

Zsuzsanna Palmer  (Writing)

Justin Pettibone  (School of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Pengtong Qu  (English)

Santos Ramos  (School of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Wendy Reffeor  (Padnos College of Engineering)

Ellen Shupe  (Psychology)

Barbara Stevens  (eLearning Technologies)

Jerry Stinnett  (Writing)

Terry Stockton  (Literacy, Educational Foundations, & Technology)

Jennifer Vanderground  (Literacy, Educational Foundations, & Technology)

Rick Vandermolen  (Educational Leadership & Counseling)

Julia VanderMolen  (School of Interdisciplinary Health)

Jeffrey Ward  (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Ayana Weekley  (School of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Don Zinman  (Political Science)



Page last modified October 30, 2025