Fellows Directory

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.

Andrew Carlson

Katie Dawson

Project Title: Drama-Based Pedagogy: Refinement and Alignment for the University Context 

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.

Michelle Habeck

Martha Hilley

Martha Hilley is a PTF Emeritus Fellow after 36 years on the faculty of The University of Texas Butler School of Music! During that time, she has served as Professor of Group Piano and Pedagogy, head of the keyboard division, Associate Director of BSOM and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

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.

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."

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.

Julie Schell

Julie Schell is the Assistant Dean of Instructional Continuity and Innovation in the College of Fine Arts. She is also an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Design and Program in Program in Higher Education Leadership. Julie is an expert in teaching and learning and has taught courses on higher education pedagogy, design pedagogy, design thinking, and technology and innovation in higher education for more than a decade. 

Sarah Sloan

Sarah Sloan is an Assistant Dean for Health Affairs and Clinical Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Her practice interests include social justice, mental health, and working with LGBTQIA+ communities. She worked with students at the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center from 2003-2012. Her project is about understanding Critical Race Theory and how it can be added as an additional theory in the curriculum to help social work faculty and students explore inequitable systems that marginalize people.

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.

Nick Winges-Yanez

Dr. Nick is a clinical assistant professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work leading the Disability Studies program. She is a queer crip feminist activist-scholar interested in critical discourse analysis and how language, signs, and symbols create and perpetuate our realities. Her work also interrogates histories of disability in relation to sexuality, citizenship, and trauma. She is deeply dedicated to teaching and expanding and growing her practice of compassionate and inclusive pedagogy.