Anna Balzer has recently been appointed the Director of the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS) based at EMU. She is involved in education, leadership, and community engagement. She is particularly interested in uplifting the expertise of young people and connecting them with community leaders to advance environmental and social justice principles. 

Juniper serves as the Engagement & Activities Coordinator for Campus Life. In her role she is constantly learning how to serve, support, and encourage students in their quest to find people and places at EMU where they feel they belong. Her curiosity and warm, enthusiastic nature help others feel comfortable to open up and take risks, which helps her work on campus evolve naturally.  

Jeffrey L. Bernstein is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Bruce K. Nelson Faculty Development Center at Eastern Michigan University.  He works on questions of how to enhance teaching excellence at universities, particularly on the role that pedagogical partnerships with students play in transforming the culture of an institution. While FDC Director, he continues to teach each semester in the political science department.

Ann Blakeslee, PhD, is Professor of English and Director of the Office of Campus & Community Writing and of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at EMU. She is also outgoing chair of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC); Associate Publisher for Monographs, Collections, and Conference Proceedings for The WAC Clearinghouse; and co-founder of the community writing resource, YpsiWrites. 

Leslie is an Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She has a special interest in autism spectrum disorders and interprofessional education. She has been actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) at EMU since arriving three years ago. 

April Calkovsky is a Career Coach with the UACDC and a doctoral student at EMU. April is very passionate about social justice and increasing equity and access to career development for all students. April holds a master's in public policy and management and a bachelor's in English, both from Ohio State University. 

Sarah is the Faculty Associate Director of the Faculty Development Center and a Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders. She has conducted SoTL research in her field and across higher education. She is currently focused on the Teaching and Learning Together (TaLT) initiative in the FDC. 

Jillian Graves is an associate professor at Eastern Michigan University in the School of Social Work. Her scholarly work has focused on the experiences of family caregivers, especially siblings, in adolescent and emerging adult development, in reflexivity in qualitative research methodology, and in trauma-reactive violence. Her most recent research has been on the impact of COVID-19 on retail workers’ mental health and the use of relational coordination as a mitigating factor. She is currently the co-director of the IPE Center in the College of Health and Human Services.

Debbie is a Professor in the Chemistry department and has been at EMU for 32 years.  Her research in medicinal chemistry involves design and synthesis of peptides in the investigation for new pharmaceutical agents.  She has extensive experience in collaborating with student researchers in the laboratory where they have been named as co-authors on many published papers, and recently in collaborating with a student in the redesign of a lecture course. 

Sharon Holt is a Senior Lecturer in the Occupational Therapy Program at EMU.  Her teaching focuses on creating opportunities for students to become capable, creative and caring occupation-focused practitioners who will lead the profession into the future. She has participated in, created, and disseminated work in interprofessional education since 2017. 

Dr. Kathryn Hughesdon is an assistant professor at Eastern Michigan University School of Nursing. Her clinical background is in child and adolescent mental health nursing. Her research background is in childhood trauma, trauma-informed care, students’ and nurses’ mental health, and interprofessional education. 

Dr. Jarrah joined EMU in 2021 as an assistant professor, where he teaches courses in the Construction Management and Civil Engineering programs. He has 10 years of construction contracting experience in the Middle East and North Africa, mostly on railway and infrastructure projects. His research interests include sustainability, risk management, and engineering education. 

Willie is a Program Associate for SEMIS. He is actively engaged in developing new place-based initiatives for youth activism and civic engagement using arts-based and other classroom content, which is very well received by student groups and teachers. He is an EMU graduate, the current alumni president of Kings Of Color Incorporated, and much, much more. 

John is the Director of General Education at EMU and a Professor of Philosophy. His research interests include general and feminist philosophy, cognitive science, leadership, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He enthusiastically participates in teaching and learning, and his curiosity about the world (whether social, natural, constructed, or what have you) extends far beyond just his research interests. 

Dr. Hailee Lauritzen is a licensed social worker and Assistant Professor at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a doctorate in Health Science from Indiana State University, a master's degree in social work from Michigan State University, and a bachelor's degree in social work from Central Michigan University. Before her current role, Dr. Lauritzen served as the BSW Program Director and Title IV-E Coordinator at Indiana State University. With over 15 years of experience as a social worker, she has worked with diverse populations, including children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral needs, survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and homecare and hospice patients. Her work includes individual, group, and family therapies. 

Harriet Lindsay has been a faculty member in the Chemistry Department for over 20 years and is currently serving as Interim Department Head. She loves working with EMU students both in the classroom and the research lab.  She's been teaching organic chemistry as a flipped class since 2017, and strongly believes that this method is excellent pedagogy, particularly for courses that involve problem solving.  

Dr. Longworth earned her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Iowa in 1996. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa, with a double major in political science and history. Her research and teaching interests have focused on the determinants of successful executive leadership, particularly in electoral and legislative arenas and the politics of gender. She is the coauthor of the book “Framing Sarah Palin: Pit Bulls, Puritans and Politics” that analyzes partisan and gender narrative frames in American electoral politics.

In addition to her scholarly interests, she is a veteran administrator. Her assignments at Eastern Michigan University over the years include: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (currently) and Associate Provost and Associate VP for Academic Programming and Services, where she led the University’s retention and graduation improvement efforts. She has also served as Women’s Studies Director; Department Head, Political Science; Assistant VP of Academic Affairs (I); Assistant VP of Academic Human Resources and Divisional Budget (I); Director of Course and Program Development; and Professor, Political Science. 

Dr. McVey's career has spanned over 40 years in PK-20 education and most of the past 25 years has been spend focusing on online instruction and instructional design. He has also examined the impact of the many emerging technologies that have accompanied the rise of online education. He has been a professor at EMU for 17 short years. 

Dr. Margaret Ann Paauw is an assistant professor and licensed clinical social worker who has worked mainly with people experiencing housing insecurity and serious mental illness. Dr. Paauw’s research background includes social work practice in libraries and multidisciplinary treatment for individuals living with psychosis 

Ken is a professor in the school of social work. His diverse research and teaching interests are focused on giving voice to marginalized groups and issues affecting them.

Dr. Matt Schumann has taught History at EMU since 2005, and worked with the Faculty Development Center since taking the Part-Time Lecturer Summer Seminar in 2014. While leading that seminar in 2016-19, he presented regularly about student-led online research for the SoTL Academy annual conference. Following his award-winning design of Historiography during his first year at Bowling Green State University (2019-20), Dr. Schumann helped organize the first virtual SoTL Academy meeting in 2021, also at BGSU. Since 2021, Dr. Schumann has taught dual-enrolled History and Political Science classes at Michigan Islamic Academy through EMU's Eagle Scholars Program, and he earned a certificate in Instructional Design from BGSU in 2022. 

Mary G. Strasma is passionate about effective teaching and creating classrooms that foster engagement, belonging, and challenging work for students. A specialist in Latin American history, global human rights, and social justice, Prof. Strasma’s research has focused on place, memory, and transitional justice in societies recovering from political violence, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr. Jessica Swan is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology with 15 years of experience as an educator in urban schools designated as dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery.  She is a humanist who seeks to restore dignity, respect, and protection from harm through an education grounded in love, care, joy, and our shared humanity. 

Vicki L. Washington, DNP, RN, APRN, ACNS-BC is an Assistant Professor for the School of Nursing, Eastern Michigan University (EMU), and the Associate Director for Online Nursing Studies (ADONS). Dr. Washington is passionate about promoting health and parity in healthcare for the mentally ill. She is also passionate about educating nurses and in the promotion of health in the nursing workforce (nursing students and nurses) through the practice of mindfulness and self-reflection to foster resilience to stress. Her research background/interests are in mental health/health promotion, mindfulness and self-reflection to foster resilience, the opioid epidemic, and interprofessional education. 

Andrea Zakrajsek is a Professor of Occupational Therapy and Co-Director of the Center for Interprofessional Education, Research & Practice (CIERP) at Eastern Michigan University. Her research and teaching interests include preparing future health professionals to support participation and access for older adults and people with disabilities. In 2018, she was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice for her interprofessional work.