Fellows Directory

Displaying 1 - 11 of 11
Headshot of Marina Alexandrova in front of a bookcase.

Marina Alexandrova

Current Fellow
Slavic and Eurasian Studies
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College of Liberal Arts
Initiative Focus
Curriculum Redesign
Student Success
Student Wellbeing

Dr. Alexandrova teaches a variety of courses on Russian history, culture, and language. Her current research interests include international modernism and avant-garde, Russian radical and revolutionary movements, spirituality in Imperial Russia, and, most recently, cultural and spiritual ties between Russia and the United States. Her Signature Course, UGS 303 "Tsars and Mystics," examines (un)Orthodox spiritual practices of Russian rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Nicholas II.

The head and torso of Matt Bowers, a white man with a brown mustache and beard, smiling in a teal button up shirt.

Matt Bowers

Current Fellow
Kinesiology and Health Education
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College of Education
Initiative Focus
Curriculum Redesign
Interdisciplinary Learning

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.

person in regalia

Natalie Czimskey

Current Fellow
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
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Moody College of Communication
Initiative Focus
Student Success
Student Wellbeing

Natalie Czimskey, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Texas where she earned all three of her degrees. She began teaching as a doctoral student in 2012 and continued teaching part time until completing her Ph.D. in 2019 when she joined the faculty full-time.  Her primary research area is adult neurogenic disorders with a special interest in traumatic brain injury, though her passion is teaching; she has taught 9 different courses in the past 2 years.

Picture of Jules Elkins.

Jules Elkins

Current Fellow
Sustainability Studies
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College of Liberal Arts
Initiative Focus
Collaborative Learning
Interdisciplinary Learning

Dr. Elkins is the Director of Sustainability Studies and Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Geography and the Environment. Dr. Elkins’ research and teaching is in environmental health, and healthy indoor environments. She is particularly interested in low-dose chemical exposures, especially during the period from preconception to early childhood. Her interests focus on how exposures can be practically and cost-effectively reduced or prevented based on evidence-based models of what interventions measurably work.

Mike Findley

Michael Findley

Current Fellow
Government
Public Affairs
|
College of Liberal Arts
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Initiative Focus
Mentorship
Student Success
Headshot of Kristie Loescher.

Kristie J Loescher

Current Fellow
Management
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McCombs School of Business
Initiative Focus
Assessment
Student Success

Dr. Loescher is a Professor of Instruction in the Management Department of the McCombs School of Business. Her professional and education background includes recognition as a Senior Certified Professional in human resources, as well as a Doctorate in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University. Prior to her career in academia, she earned a Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan and worked in the healthcare industry for 15 years in the areas of quality assurance, utilization management, and clinical research.

Headshot of Ruth Shear.

Ruth Shear

Current Fellow
Chemistry
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College of Natural Sciences
Initiative Focus
Skill-Building
Student Success

Ruth Shear is a Professor of Practice in the Chemistry Department, and a Research Educator of the Urban Ecosystems research stream in the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI). After a PhD in Chemical Physics from Griffith University (Australia) and postdoctoral work at Stanford and Cornell, she started as a lecturer at UT Austin in 1996. After running the physical and analytical chemistry teaching labs for 10 years, she helped create FRI in 2006. She has been teaching Research Methods in various forms ever since.

Headshot of Stacy Sparks.

Stacy Sparks

Current Fellow
Chemistry
|
College of Natural Sciences
Initiative Focus
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Student Success

Stacy Sparks is a Professor of Instruction in the Chemistry Department and focuses much of her teaching on General Chemistry courses. She directs the Chemistry Learning Assistant Program, which provides an experiential learning experience for 80 undergraduate students each semester, building their teaching and leadership skills and preparing them to assist general chemistry and organic chemistry students in the classroom.

 

image of a white woman with dark brown hair, looking directly at the camera and smiling.

Gwendolyn Stovall

Current Fellow
Freshman Research Initiative
|
College of Natural Sciences
Initiative Focus
Mentorship
Skill-Building
Student Success

For the last 10+ years, Gwen Stovall has worked as a biochemist and aptamer researcher in the CNS Freshman Research Initiative, where she leads a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) to identify aptamers, understand the underlying mechanisms and parameters of aptamer selections, and investigate aptamer specificity. As an educator, Gwen is committed to student empowerment and success, and seeks to improve student outcomes by mentoring, teaching, challenging, and engaging students.

Headshot of Carlos Torres-Verdin.

Carlos Torres-Verdín

Current Fellow
Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
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Cockrell School of Engineering
Initiative Focus
Assessment
Improving Teaching and Learning

Carlos Torres-Verdín received a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Geoscience from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. During 1991-1997, he held the position of Research Scientist with Schlumberger-Doll Research. From 1997-1999, he was Reservoir Specialist and Technology Champion with YPF (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Photo of Kristina Zvinakis

Kristina Zvinakis

Current Fellow
Accounting
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McCombs School of Business
Initiative Focus
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Student Success