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.
Faculty Learning Communities
Through faculty learning communities, faculty support one another as they adopt new teaching methods and assess resulting student learning. These communities of practice are proposed and led by faculty with a particular interest and/or expertise and are supported through internal grant funding. The particular responsibilities of a Faculty Associate facilitating a faculty 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 faculty 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 faculty 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
Feryal Alayont (Mathematics)
Rachel Anderson (English)
Jennifer Bourbina (Biomedical Sciences)
Mary Bower-Russa (Psychology)
Karl Brakora (Engineering)
Paul Bylsma (Educational Leadership & Counseling)
Meghan Cai (Modern Language and Literatures)
Caitlin Callahan (Geology)
Bradford Dykes (Statistics)
Gwenden Duker (Psychology)
Aaron Eddens (Area and Global Studies)
Megan Freudigmann (Teaching & Learning)
Elizabeth Gansen (Modern Languages and Literatures)
