Fellows Directory

Mary Beer

Current Fellow

Mary Beer is an LCSW-S and is a clinical associate professor and the Assistant Dean for Practicum Education at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She has taught Practice and Field, Theories and Methods of Group Intervention, Experiential Leadership, Generalist Social Work Practice, Treatment of Children and Adolescents, and the Advanced Integrative Capstone courses. Mary has integrated compassionate pedagogy, alternative grading, and experiential learning into her courses and these approaches are the focus of her PTF project.

Matt Bowers

Current Fellow

Dr. Matt Bowers is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Sport Management at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies youth development in and through sports and has published research studies related to the impact of sport participation on creativity and the value of sandlot/unstructured sports for children. His work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Wired, The Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal, SXSW, and the Aspen Institute’s Sport for All, Play For Life: A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game.

Michael Findley

Current Fellow

Peniel Joseph

Current Fellow

Peniel Joseph is the First-Year Representative on the 2020 PTF Steering Committee.

Lara Latimer

Current Fellow

Dr. Lara Latimer is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Health Behavior and Health Education at UT. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes, including Child & Adolescent Health, Theories of Substance Use & Abuse, Theories of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, and Foundations of Epidemiology. Lara hopes to learn more about and make an impact on classroom safety practices through her PTF initiative.

Tolga Ozyurtcu

Current Fellow

Tolga Ozyurtcu is a faculty member in Sport Management and Physical Culture and Sport Studies, in the department of Kinesiology and Health Education. He also serves as the department's Undergraduate Coordinator. He holds a PhD and MSc in Kinesiology from UT Austin and a B.A. in Political Science from Haverford College. Ozyurtcu teaches courses on the business and culture of sports and exercise, including topics such as organizational behavior, history, philosophy, and ethics.

Sarah Sloan

Current Fellow

Sarah Sloan is an Assistant Dean for Health Affairs and Clinical Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Her practice interests include social justice, mental health, and working with LGBTQIA+ communities. She worked with students at the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center from 2003-2012. Her project is about understanding Critical Race Theory and how it can be added as an additional theory in the curriculum to help social work faculty and students explore inequitable systems that marginalize people.

Jenna Summerlin

Current Fellow

Jenna Summerlin is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division in the College of Pharmacy. Jenna is a pediatric clinical pharmacy specialist in internal medicine and has a practice site at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Her teaching at the college includes experiential education for fourth-year pharmacy students, small group facilitation throughout the curriculum, and didactic teaching in the Pharmacotherapy and Foundations of Professional Development series.

Nick Winges-Yanez

Current Fellow

Dr. Nick is a clinical assistant professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work leading the Disability Studies program. She is a queer crip feminist activist-scholar interested in critical discourse analysis and how language, signs, and symbols create and perpetuate our realities. Her work also interrogates histories of disability in relation to sexuality, citizenship, and trauma. She is deeply dedicated to teaching and expanding and growing her practice of compassionate and inclusive pedagogy.