Student Success

person in regalia

Natalie Czimskey

Current Fellow
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
|
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.

Headshot of Ruth Shear.

Ruth Shear

Current Fellow
Chemistry
|
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.

Mike Findley

Michael Findley

Alumni
Government
Public Affairs
|
College of Liberal Arts
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Initiative Focus
Mentorship
Student Success
Nina Telang

Nina Telang

Alumni
Electrical and Computer Engineering
|
Cockrell School of Engineering
Initiative Focus
Student Success
Student Wellbeing

Nina Telang is a Professor of Instruction in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and a Kilby Faculty Fellow. She is passionate about student success and well-being and has implemented student success programs in her first and second-year courses.

A headshot of Steve Finkelstein, a white man with a dark brown mustache and beard, in a blue button up dress shirt.

Steven Finkelstein

Alumni
Astronomy
|
College of Natural Sciences
Initiative Focus
Student Success

Steven Finkelstein is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Washington in 2003, his PhD in 2008 from Arizona State University, and from there he took a postdoctoral position at Texas A&M University. In 2011 he earned a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship which he took to the University of Texas in Austin, where he was hired on as faculty in 2012. His research focuses on the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early universe, and the interplay of these sources with reionization.

Photo of Kristina Zvinakis

Kristina Zvinakis

Alumni
Accounting
|
McCombs School of Business
Initiative Focus
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Student Success
Photo of professor Jessica Toste of Special Education

Jessica Toste

Alumni
Special Education
|
College of Education
Initiative Focus
Mentorship
Student Success

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.

Tuttle headshot

Clint Tuttle

Alumni
Information, Risk, and Operations Management
|
McCombs School of Business
Initiative Focus
Student Success

Clint has seen that many students lack the tools and techniques to define their own personal path to success and lack confidence in making decisions about their futures. They seek a “safe path” rather than the one that aligns to their own passions. Every teacher at some point has taught a disengaged student who was more concerned about the grade than the learning. A student who knows why they’re in pursuit of certain knowledge can be more engaged and learn better.

Mary Poteet wearing a hat on a sunny day in Australia

Mary Poteet

Alumni
Geological Sciences
|
Jackson School of Geosciences
Initiative Focus
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Student Success

Mary Poteet is an alumnus Provost Teaching Fellow from the Jackson School of Geosciences. Her research focuses on how human stressors alter complex ecosystem function. She currently focuses on the response of aquatic ecosystems to urbanization with specific focus on stream metabolic regimes. Her active teaching style includes teaching through research in the Freshman Research Initiative, field courses in EVS and Geology, and engaging non-science majors in the use of scientific knowledge by societies.

Moriates headshot

Chris Moriates

Former Members
Medicine
|
Dell Medical School
Initiative Focus
Student Success
Subscribe to Student Success