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.

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.

Mary Beer

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.

Maura Borrego

Keith Brown

Project Title: Peer Evaluation of Teaching: Policy and Process 

 

Jade DeKinder

Lori Holleran Steiker

Lori Holleran Steiker, PhD, is the Steve Hicks Professor of Addiction, Recovery and Substance Use Services at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Director of Instruction, Engagement and Wellness at the School of Undergraduate Studies.

Kristie J Loescher

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.

Krishna Kumar

Krishna Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Civil, Architecture, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Krishna’s work involves developing exascale micro and macro-scale numerical methods for modeling natural hazards. Krishna also develops Scientific Machine Learning algorithms: Graph Network Simulators and Differentiable programming to accelerate numerical methods and solve optimization, design, and inverse problems.

Carlos Landaverde Alvarado

Carlos Landaverde-Alvarado is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Sanford Leeds

Project Title: The McCombs Business Journal was an effort to give students an opportunity to read and write about research.  

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.

Karen M Landolt

Karen Landolt is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Business, Government and Society Department and in the Department of Computer Science. She teaches Business Law, Behavioral Ethics, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property Law, and Negotiations. Her courses have a service-learning component, allowing students to use real-life problems and tasks to increase cultural awareness, learning, and retention. She previously received a Course-developer Award (2020-2022) from the Provost Experiential-Learning Initiative.

Filippo Mangolini

Filippo is an Associate Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. His interdisciplinary research activities aim to develop a fundamental understanding of the chemical and physical processes occurring on material surfaces as well as at interfaces under extreme environments and far-from-equilibrium conditions. Filippo teaches courses on Materials Engineering, Enhancing Sustainability through Tribology, Phase Transformations, and Advanced Methods in Surface Analysis.

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.

Diane McDaniel Rhodes

Dr. Rhodes teaches undergraduate courses in social justice and community practice. Her teaching passions focus on creating engagement and belonging through pedagogy and practice. A graduate of the Stanford Teaching and Learning Studio and the Academy of College and University Educators, she continually seeks new knowledge about teaching and works to provide knowledge gained to colleagues through writing and mentoring. "I probably learn the most about teaching from my students, who are some of the most generous and smartest folx I know."

Rick Neptune

Project Title: Integrating Computational Techniques in the Engineering Curriculum 

Vicki Packheiser

As a Provost’s Teaching Fellow, Vicki Packheiser is transforming experiential learning in Social Work’s foundational courses. This two-course sequence has long required 45 hours of service learning per course with a community agency. Social Work pre-majors contribute 10,000+ hours of service to the Austin community, serving as UT ambassadors while they gain experience that grounds their academics in future years. But the implementation has not lived up to the potential.

Paola Passalacqua

Robert Prentice

D'Arcy Randall

Navid Saleh

Navid Saleh is a Professor at the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering department. He is an environmental engineering faculty member with a passion for teaching. His mission as an educator and researcher has been to engage with the community and co-create knowledge. He has developed modules utilizing problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy, conducted detailed and systematic evaluation, and devoted himself to student learning at UT.

Pedro Santacruz

Carolyn Seepersad

Project Title: Freshman Introduction to Research in Engineering (FIRE) 

Starla Simmons

Starla Simmons, LCSW-S is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Earl Maxwell Scholar Program at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. She is strongly rooted in racial justice and liberation, with a passion for supporting the vitality, resilience, and collectivism of Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. As Earl Maxwell Program Director, she provides both program oversight and practicum instruction for social work student interns placed in community organizations.