Fellows Directory

Niveen AbiGhannam

Dr. Niveen AbiGhannam is a science communication researcher and educator whose work centers around the strategic and inclusive communication of technical knowledge. More specifically, her research seeks to understand individual, organizational, and social factors that can drive or hinder public engagement with STEM behaviors. She also examines the identities of publicly engaged scientists and engineers and the meanings that they associate with their engagement experiences. On the teaching front, Dr. AbiGhannam has taught Engineering Communication at UT since 2015.

Renee Acosta

Renee’ Acosta is a Clinical Professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Renee teaches extensively in the professional PharmD Program. Her primary instruction includes Nonprescription Pharmacotherapeutics and Self-Care I and II, and a UGS courses titled Self-Care and OTC Products. Her PTF project focused on the use of standardized patients in Objective Structured Clinical Exams(OSCEs).

Marina Alexandrova

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.

Diane Bailey

Open any book on university teaching and you are sure to find thorough discussion of in-class techniques to engage and motivate students, to place learning squarely in their hands, and to get them collaborating with one another. Now look for the section on how to negotiate your courseload, market your under-enrolled elective, build up a largely stable repertoire of courses, or network in a new community to find industry folks and others who can help you with materials for and guest talks in your course.

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.

Matt Bowers

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.

Brian Bremen

Project Title: Graduate Student Training and Support in Lower-Division Literature Classes 

 

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.

Ashley Castleberry

As an Assistant Dean of Curriculum and Assessment in the Division of Pharmacy Practice in the College of Pharmacy, Dr. Castleberry teaches first- and second-year pharmacy students cardiovascular physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology and coordinates the Pharmacy Practice Lab course. As Division Head of Pharmacy Practice, she leads a team of 20 faculty. She is passionate about assessment, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and faculty development.

Natalie Czimskey

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.

Jade DeKinder

Andrew Dell'Antonio

Andrew Dell’Antonio (he/him/his) specializes in musical repertories of early modern Europe, with a focus on seventeenth-century Italy. His research interests include musical historiography, reception history, and disability studies.

Erica "EG" Gionfriddo

Erica Gionfriddo is a dance artist, educator and somatic researcher who believes in the intelligent body each of us occupies. They are co-founder of ARCOS Dance (arcosdance.com), whose ongoing inquiry probes the intersection of technology and humanity through rigorous interdisciplinary experimentation. ARCOS’ recent work has focused on “hacking” consumer technologies, or repurposing them outside of their intended uses, into performance and developing an embodied cyborgian movement language.

Lars Hinrichs

Elon Lang

Elon Lang is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a variety of undergraduate literature survey courses on ethical topics, medieval and early modern studies, dramatic literature, and Experiential Learning courses based in archival research. One example was his 2020-2021 courses called Archival Advocacy in which students learned how to bring archival techniques to bear on a real-world social justice issue facing the East Austin, Texas, community: the closing of one of Austin's historically Hispanic elementary schools.

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.

Mike Mackert

Mike Mackert was the 2016 Chair of the Provost's Teaching Fellows.

Christina Markert

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.

Nico Osier

Nico Osier (they/them) is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Dell Medical School Department of Neurology. They love engaging students in their Genetics in Health Care course by applying principles of universal design for learning and experiential learning. They are an Experiential Learning Initiative Ambassador and a Provost Teaching Fellow. They are well-known for their stylized syllabuses, creative project, and epic use of Bitmoji.

Tolga Ozyurtcu

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.

Paola Passalacqua

Kristin Patterson

Kristin Patterson is the Fourth-Year Fellow Representative on the 2021 Provost's Teaching Fellows Steering Committee.