Fellows Directory

Hina Azam

Dr. Hina Azam teaches courses in Islamic Studies such as Islamic theology, Islamic law, the Qur'an, Qur'an interpretation, and Islamic feminism, as well as a course on comparative religions of the Middle East. Her research focuses on women/gender/sexuality in Islam, ethics, and pedagogy. She supervises or serves as reader for undergraduate and graduate theses and dissertations across the University.

Matthew Balhoff

Matthew is a professor in the Hildebrand Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE) Department. Matt’s work as a PTF includes a curriculum-wide design project that is presented to the students in their first petroleum engineering class, taught in the spring of their first year. In every PGE class they are assigned at least one homework assignment or project taken directly from the design project. The objective of this initiative is to use unique methods and tools to develop an integrated and synergistic program.

Courtney Byrd

As Founding Director of The University of Texas at Austin Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute, Courtney has unparalleled access to one of the largest and most diverse clinical populations of children and adults who stutter. Given the low incidence nature of this disorder, she feels a profound responsibility to share my unique access to the stuttering community with students, professors, and practicing clinicians across the globe. Her PTF initiative aims to do just that.

Julia Clarke

Hands-on research experiences for undergraduates offer unique active-learning experiences with real-world questions. These experiences create communities and improve 4-year graduation rates. They may also help create a student body and alumni population that recognize the importance of the research mission of large R1 universities.

Patrick Davis

Professor Emeritus of Pharmacy (Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry). Teaches required and elective pharmacy coursework in drug metabolism, infectious diseases, and interprofessional health education. Also teaches a First-Year Signature Course on historical pandemics and their impact on society.

Juan Dominguez

Michael Findley

Vernita Gordon

I did my undergraduate work at Vanderbilt, with a double major in physics and math, and my Ph.D. work in physics at Harvard. At both institutions, I saw and experienced the positive difference that caring, committed instructors and a nurturing university community can make in students' lives. I have been a faculty member in the Physics department at UT Austin since 2010. I have taught introductory calculus-based mechanics for Physics majors, a Plan II Physics course for liberal arts honors students, and an upper-division course on Biological Physics.

Michelle Habeck

Lars Hinrichs

Peniel Joseph

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

Fernanda Leite

Fernanda Leite is a Professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds the John A. Focht Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering. She is the past Chair of a University-wide Bridging Barriers research initiative called Planet Texas 2050. Her built environment research program sits at the interface of engineering and computing. She teaches courses on Building Information Modeling, Project Management and Economics, Construction Safety, and Sustainable Systems Engineering.

Christina Markert

Luis Martins

Luis Martins is the Herb Kelleher Chair in Entrepreneurship and the James B. Goodson Professor in Business at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Management and Organizational Behavior from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Dr. Martins teaches courses on leadership and organizational behavior, innovation, entrepreneurship, and change management in the McCombs School’s full-time, professional, and executive MBA programs, and in its non-degree executive programs.

Julia Mickenberg

Julia Mickenberg is Professor of American Studies and an affiliate in the Center for Women and Gender Studies, the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. She is the author of American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream (Chicago, 2017) and Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics (Oxford, 2006) and editor or co-editor of several other books, along with articles in journals ranging from the Journal of American History to Radical Teacher.

Rick Neptune

Project Title: Integrating Computational Techniques in the Engineering Curriculum 

Mary Neuburger

Dr. Mary Neuburger is a Professor of history, the Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES), and the Chair of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas of Austin. Dr.

Paola Passalacqua

Sean Theriault

Project Title: COLA’s Teaching Mentor Program 

Jessica Toste

Dr. Jessica Toste is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin. She has research affiliations with the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk and the Texas Center for Equity Promotion. Toste was the Chair of Provost’s Teaching Fellow in 2022-2023.

Louis Waldman

Louis Alexander Waldman is an Associate Professor in Art and Art History (College of Fine Arts) with a joint appointment in French and Italian (Liberal Arts). Previously Louis worked in Florence, Italy, as Assistant Director of the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti.