Faculty Fellows Program
About the Program
Meet the Fellows
Apply to be a Fellow
About the Program
The Faculty Fellows Program is designed to give our faculty leadership experience in a professional development area (e.g., Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), teaching online, leveraging the makerspace, inclusive pedagogy, community engagement, high-impact practices) as they work as CTE staff to prepare programming and deliverables in their area of expertise that will enhance pedagogy across the university.
The CTE would like to invite applicants to apply for two CTE Faculty Fellows for AY 2023-2024. The fellows’ area of expertise is open, but examples include: training and mentoring graduate teaching assistants, integrating technology in teaching and learning, inclusive pedagogy, active learning strategies, effective grading and assessments, community engagement and building, scholarship of teaching and learning, or course/curriculum design.
CTE Faculty Fellows will support the CTE’s services. Expected responsibilities include, but not limited to, the following:
1- organize and present at least 2 CTE-sponsored workshops per year on their area of expertise
2- provide confidential formative teaching observations
3- provide teaching consultations to faculty members
4- participate in CTE meetings and events
5- participate in Professional Development Day and New Faculty Orientation in August
6- assist in inviting internal and external guest speakers
7- keep an activity log and prepare a final reflection at the end of the Faculty Fellowship.
Faculty fellows should expect to allot around 5 hours of their time to the CTE each week. Faculty fellows will receive a $4,000 Faculty Fellows Stipend and a 3-credit course release per year. This release should be supported by the chair of your department and the dean of your college, before submitting the application. The CTE fellows will commit to a one-year term, with the option to renew for a second year with recommendation of the CTE director and the approval of the provost. Appointments will most likely begin in August 2023 and the fellows are expected to attend the Professional Development Day and New Faculty Orientation a week before classes begin.
Application Process
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) is announcing an application call for CTE Faculty Fellows for AY 23/24. Applications are due by April 7, 2023. To apply, please fill this form. Applications will be reviewed by the CTE Director, Dr. Houssein El Turkey, Assistant Provost for Assessment and Faculty Development, Dr. Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, and current CTE Faculty Fellow Dr. Danielle Cooper. Announcements of selected Faculty Fellows will be communicated at the end of Spring 2023 semester.
Please contact the CTE (cte@newhaven.edu) with any questions.
Current Faculty Fellows
Danielle Cooper
Associate Professor • Criminal Justice
Dr. Danielle Cooper is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and the Director of Research at the Tow Youth Justice Institute at the University of New Haven. Dr. Cooper currently conducts research in the areas of youths and young adults, juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, criminological theory, and sex offending.
In addition to her work as a Professor and the Director of Research at UNH, she is also a Certified Prevention Professional who is committed to community connections, Dr. Cooper has had the opportunity to work locally in New Haven and West Haven, as well as statewide with a variety of entities. In her role as an inaugural CTE Faculty Fellow, she will share her experiences about how these partnerships have been used a) to increase our students’ engagement and critical thinking around global topics (e.g., justice policy issues), b) to collaboratively build class content that takes a real-world approach, and c) to secure funding to bring educational content to practitioners in the field.
Dr. Cooper is committed to facilitating discussions around best practices and to helping refocus faculty attention in a healthy and student-centered way, while also advocating for the well-being of faculty and staff. Find more about her at @PreventionDani on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Her email address is dcooper@newhaven.edu.
Mehdi Mekni
Associate Professor • Computer Science
Mehdi Mekni is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of New Haven. He built an international professional career where he held various research, development, and management leading positions while working on software development with Vermeg (France), Ubisoft (Canada) and later with Fujitsu (Canada). His academic career includes computing-related curricula design, delivery and assessment at the University of Minnesota and later at St. Cloud State University.
Dr. Mekni has been involved in the implementation of active learning in Software Engineering. He participated in strategic initiatives focused on accessibility, inclusivity, equity and diversity curricula design and assessment. He is also interested in online course design, delivery and evaluation. He is a certified Quality Master Reviewer and continuously collaborating with Quality Matters evaluating and assessing the design of online, hybrid and blended courses.
In his role as a Faculty Fellow, Dr. Mekni will be closely collaborating with the rest of the valuable Faculty Fellows and members of the Center for Teaching Excellence to discuss, define, and establish a comprehensive framework to develop, implement, and assess diversity and inclusive teaching particularly in the field of engineering. More information about him is available @mmekni on LinkedIn. His email address is mmekni@newhaven.edu.
Past Faculty Fellows
Houssein El Turkey
Associate Professor • Math
Dr. Houssein El Turkey is currently an associate professor of Mathematics. Since arriving at the University of New Haven in 2014, he has been a part of multi-institutional research group studying mathematical creativity, which has secured an NSF-IUSE grant to explore connections between mathematical creativity and mathematical identity in the Calculus classroom. He has co-authored several publications and presentations in the field of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (RUME).
As a CTE fellow, he will share his research expertise as RUME researcher to work with interested faculty in starting research in SoTL. Using his background in active-learning methodologies, he is interested in working with faculty on identifying changes we can make in our teaching methods to allow for an active classroom. These could range from minimal to a complete flip of the standard lecture. Tangentially, he is interested in exploring with faculty equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Beyond the classroom, he would like to have open discussions with faculty on effective mentoring (and advising) of students. To achieve these goals, he hopes to organize interactive workshops, guest lectures, or panel discussions on these different topics. He will also participate in preparing recommendation reports that include research-based readings and online webinars on the aforementioned topics.
He can be reached at helturkey@newhaven.edu.
Simon Hutchinson
Assistant Professor • Music
Simon Hutchinson is a creator and teacher of music, audio, and things tangentially related. He teaches classes on a broad range of musical topics, including interactive media, composition, music technology, world music, and music theory. He has taught at the University of Oregon, University of Montana, Gordon College, and he is currently Assistant Professor of Music Technology in the Division of Performing Arts.
Through his work as a CTE Fellow, Simon Hutchinson will draw on his background teaching art and technology to offer workshops to discuss strategies for personalizing online learning, developing effective creative projects, and teaching technology to students with diverse backgrounds.
Simon is focused on designing accessible courses that hold students accountable for quality thought and academic rigor, and is excited to share his strategies and experience.
Simon can be reached at SHutchinson@newhaven.edu.