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Download Conversation #55
A change from our ordinary conversational format, this episode features a montage of commentary recorded in the spring of 2015 under the auspices of Dr. Megan Osterbur. We asked two questions: What does sustainability means to you? What can Xavier do to be more sustainable? Answers come mainly from students and staff. The closing thought comes from Dr. Kimberly Chandler.
...continue reading "Conversation #55: Sustainability at Xavier"
Download Conversation #54
A conversation with Saundra McGuire on teaching, learning, and teaching students to learn.
Dr. Saundra Yancy McGuire is the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success and retired Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at Louisiana State University. Prior to joining LSU, she spent eleven years at Cornell University, where she received the coveted Clark Distinguished Teaching Award. She has delivered keynote addresses or presented workshops at over 250 institutions in 43 states and eight countries. Her latest book, Teach Students How to Learn, was released in October 2015 and is now in its ninth printing. The most recent of her numerous awards is the 2017 American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students to Pursue Careers in the Chemical Sciences (ACS). She also received the 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Lifetime Mentor Award and the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. She is an elected Fellow of the ACS, the AAAS and the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA). In November 2007 the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring was presented to her in a White House Oval Office Ceremony. She received her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from Southern, her Master’s from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, where she received the Chancellors Citation for Exceptional Professional Promise. She is married to Dr. Stephen C. McGuire, a professor of physics at Southern. They are the parents of Dr. Carla McGuire Davis and Dr. Stephanie McGuire, and the doting grandparents of Joshua, Ruth, Daniel, and Joseph Davis.
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Download Conversation #53
A conversation with Helaine Blumenthal, Zach McDowell and Naniette Coleman on Wiki Ed. This is a continuation of conversation #52.
...continue reading "Conversation #53: Wiki Ed, Continued"
Download Conversation #52
A conversation with Helaine Blumenthal, Zach McDowell and Naniette Coleman on Wiki Ed.
As Classroom Program Manager for the Wiki Education Foundation, Helaine develops relationships with instructors, volunteers, and Wikipedia editors to expand support for program activities. Helaine is responsible for on-boarding and mentoring the instructors who teach Wikipedia classroom assignments. She helps design assignments that make sense for both student learning and for Wikipedia. Helaine brings extensive experience in higher education and academia to the Wiki Education Foundation.
Dr. Zachary McDowell is spending the 2016–17 academic year as a Research Fellow for Wiki Ed, determining the student learning outcomes of a Wikipedia assignment at the higher education level. Zach completed his Ph.D. in communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught courses with Wikipedia since 2011 as well as working with more than 350 faculty on integrating technology into their courses.
Naniette H. Coleman just completed her second semester teaching with Wikipedia through the Online and Continuing Education Program in the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Sociology Department. In addition to being an instructor at UML Naniette is also a Sociology Ph.D. student at the University of California Berkeley.
Download Conversation #51
A conversation with Dr. Maureen Powers on student life.
Dr. Maureen H. Powers is a respected international speaker on risk reduction/management, diversity and inclusion, student issues, retention, safety, and legal and international issues in higher education. She has delivered influential presentations on student safety, FERPA, diversity and inclusion and cross cultural competency to faculty, administrators and students in the USA and twelve other countries and served as a diversity and inclusion advisor to the CEO of Lockheed Martin UK. Dr. Powers has served in several senior leadership roles at universities in the US and abroad, most recently as the Dean of Students at Plymouth University in the UK, and previously served as the Dean of Students at Stanford University in California, and the Vice President for Student Affairs at The City College of New York and at Saint Leo University in Florida. Since returning from the UK this past year she is serving as a consultant to the Los Angeles Transit Authority on sexual harassment, as a consultant to the Indiana University IU-MSI STEM project, and as a consultant and program speaker for LEAD, a drug and alcohol abuse prevention non-profit outside Chicago. She holds dual citizenship in Ireland and the USA and has lived in Africa, Europe and the United States. Dr. Powers received her undergraduate degree at Georgetown University and her Ph.D. at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Download Conversation #50
A conversation with Dr. Corey Dolgon of Stonehill College on the "declawing" of service learning.
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Download Conversation #49
A conversation with Dr. Robert Duke of UT-Austin, on optimizing student learning.
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Download Conversation #48
A conversation with Dr. Jane Compson of UW-Tacoma, on implementing a contemplative pedagogy in an online course.
Dr. Compson got her PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Bristol, and more recently got her second Masters in Philosophy, concentrating on bioethics, from Colorado State. She currently teaches classes in Comparative Religion; Philosophy, Religion and the Environment; Environmental Ethics; Biomedical Ethics and Introduction to Ethics. She’s working on projects related to self-care and stress management for healthcare professionals as well as documenting local efforts for environmental justice, as well as mindfulness theory.
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Download Conversation #47
A conversation with Dr. Anne McCall, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana, on the future of HBCUs.
Prior to coming to Xavier, Dr. McCall served as Dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton University, New York’s top-ranked public university. Dr. McCall has also served as Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Denver and as Associate Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science at Tulane University. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in French and in German with highest distinction from the University of Virginia and the degree of docteur ès lettres from the Université Strasbourg. An authority on the work of the 19th-century French novelist, playwright, and memoirist George Sand, she is past president of the George Sand Association and has authored and edited books and published more than 25 scholarly articles on nineteenth-century French literature and related topics.
(At the time of this interview, Dr. McCall has been in her current position as provost for less than two months, so we are especially appreciative of her time.)
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Download Conversation #46
A conversation with Dr. Regan Gurung of UW-Green Bay on teachers as superheroes.
Dr. Regan Gurung is a Professor of Human Development and Psychology. He was born and raised in Bombay (India), got a B.S. at Carleton College (MN) in Human Development, then spent 5 years in Seattle at the University of Washington. After getting his Ph. D. (Social/Personality), he did postdoctoral work at UCLA (Health Psychology). Then landed in Wisconsin, Green Bay. He has served in a number of roles at UW-Green Bay including as Chair of Human Development and Chair of Psychology, as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and as co-director of the UW-Green Bay Teaching Scholars Program. He is Past-President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) and Past-President of the Bay Area Community Council (BACC).
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