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.

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.

Katie Dawson

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

Jade DeKinder

Carol Delville

My focus is advanced practice nursing (APRN) education using an active experience learning competency-based approach. Student engage in both clinical and community project to improve health outcomes. My Provost Fellow Project helps me to design and publish a clinical evaluation tool for our APRN programs.

Jules Elkins

Dr. Elkins is the Director of Sustainability Studies and Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Geography and the Environment. Dr. Elkins’ research and teaching is in environmental health, and healthy indoor environments. She is particularly interested in low-dose chemical exposures, especially during the period from preconception to early childhood. Her interests focus on how exposures can be practically and cost-effectively reduced or prevented based on evidence-based models of what interventions measurably work.

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.

Jonathan Perry

Jonathan Perry is a Texas native who, after completing his BA and MS in physics at Baylor University and his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University, has managed to stick around the state. For his doctoral work he found himself with an unexpected passion for teaching and learning in his field, and so he focused on physics education research. He joined the faculty at UT Austin in 2019 as an Assistant Professor of Instruction.

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.

Amy Kristin Sanders

Dr. Amy Kristin Sanders is an award-winning former journalist, licensed attorney and Associate Professor. Before coming to the University of Texas at Austin, she taught at Northwestern University’s campus in Doha, Qatar. Her expertise focuses on the intersection of law, ethics and new technology as it relates to media freedom and democratic participation. As an instructor, Sanders has developed and taught courses on comparative media law, media ethics, media leadership, and media and society.

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. 

Stephanie Seidel Holmsten

Stephanie Seidel Holmsten is an associate professor of instruction in the College of Liberal Arts where she teaches core courses in the International Relations and Global Studies program, as well as Gender and Politics in the Government Department. Her teaching methods include global virtual exchange and team-based learning. She is Chair of the Provost Teaching Fellows, co-Director of the Brumley Next Generation Scholars Program, and Director of the Global Virtual Exchange faculty learning community. Her research explores minority women's election around the world.