Robert Kurt, PhD (Program Director)
Kreider Professor of Biology
Dr. Kurt cares about equity and inclusion because some of the best students he has had in class have left biology or STEM disciplines for the wrong reasons. He cares because some of his best research students have been C students indicating that how students are assessed in our courses does not match how well they can do science. He cares because he has found that when he cares about a student as a person he approaches their education differently; he becomes a better teacher.
Some of the experiences of Dr. Kurt include his willingness to try new things; early adopter of problem-based learning and course-based research, he co-developed and co-taught an alternative general biology course (a modeling based approach to biology) that utilized no lectures, and he incorporated a module on issues of gender into his general biology course. As biology department head he oversaw: a major revision of the curriculum, expansion of the biology staff and faculty including a target of opportunity hire, plans for construction of biology’s new home in the Rockwell Integrated Science Center to meet the needs of our current and future teaching and research programs, and expansion of course-based research in the department including joining the SEA PHAGE program. As program director for Lafayette’s 2012 HHMI grant he oversaw: the creation and implementation of our Science Horizons program (mentoring and research program), providing more diverse students with research experience on and off campus, incorporation of interdisciplinary infusions into more than half of the biology courses, and the hiring of our first computational and mathematical biologists. During all of this time there were many, many bumps in the road.
Bringing about change means there will be failure, opposition, disagreements, and as a result a need to educate, compromise, and keep on target. Dr. Kurt’s experience with the inherent difficulty of shepherding a group of faculty with diverse interests and expertise through lots of change, and his experience working with people who are opposed and/or afraid of change are an important aspect of what he will bring to the project team.
Jenn Stroud Rossmann, PhD
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Faculty Director, Inclusive STEM Initiative
As a female mechanical engineer, Rossmann is keenly aware of the baked-in discriminatory attitudes and culture in engineering, and their potential harms. As a faculty member and during six years as mechanical engineering department head, she has sought to improve the climate within engineering classrooms and communities for students, faculty, and staff. Her efforts include developing a peer mentoring program for female and nonbinary engineering students; restructuring capstone design projects to de-emphasize competition and focus on developing empathy for broadly construed stakeholders; and developing courses that address the intersection of technology and society, with special attention to issues of identity and difference in both historical and contemporary technological “progress.” At the College, she is a member of the Promotion, Tenure and Review (PTR) committee tasked with evaluating the teaching, scholarship, and service records of colleagues from all of campus. As the Inclusive STEM faculty director, she facilitates community-building and collaborative development and implementation of a range of programs at Lafayette, including the mission of the newly endowed Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education.
Chawne Kimber, PhD
Professor of Mathematics and Department Head
Director of the Summer Program to Advance Leadership in STEM
Chawne Kimber is committed to inclusion in STEM for both personal and professional reasons. She has experienced and continues to grapple first-hand with the environmental factors of exclusion as both a woman and underrepresented minority who was a student and is a professor of mathematics. For more than two decades Kimber has incorporated active learning and other compassionate inclusive pedagogy practices that focus on students-as-people into her classroom, designed and implemented institutional programs (like a summer transitional program) that improve the student experience on campus and success in STEM careers, built and collaborated on programs to improve the sense of institutional belonging for faculty from underrepresented groups in STEM, and led transnational task forces on the conditions for women researchers in mathematics. At Lafayette, she has served on the Promotion Tenure and Review (PTR) and Teaching & Learning Committees, chaired the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee, directed the Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship, and currently heads the Mathematics Department.
Tracie Marcella Addy, PhD, MPhil
Associate Dean for Faculty Support
Director, Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship
As the Director of the Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship and an advocate of supporting all Lafayette faculty as teacher-scholars, working with the project team on inclusive excellence aligns with the Center’s mission and Dr. Addy’s professional values. The Center promotes inclusive excellence by offering programming and resources to support faculty in their efforts.
Dr. Addy’s commitment to inclusive teaching is evident through her experiences. She has worked with instructors directly, supporting their adoption, commitment and implementation of inclusive teaching efforts. Prior to joining Lafayette two years ago, she co-directed the nationally respected Summer Institutes of Scientific Teaching at the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning and co-taught an evidence-based teaching course for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students which focused on the principles of scientific teaching: inclusive teaching, active learning and assessment. She is currently a Course Editor for CourseSource, an online peer-reviewed journal of teaching resources, that publishes resources that integrate inclusive teaching. Dr. Addy recently had an opportunity to give a keynote talk to present preliminary results of a national research study on inclusive teaching at the Gordon Conference for Undergraduate Biology Education Research in August 2019, and presented the full results of the study at the Professional and Organizational Development Network annual meeting in November 2020. Dr. Addy is producing scholarly work from these efforts to benefit instructors both locally at Lafayette College, regionally and nationally.
At Lafayette, in addition to working with faculty on their inclusive teaching efforts through professional development, Dr. Addy serves on a faculty subcommittee that is reviewing the criteria for distinguished teaching. The work that she will provide through this grant includes professional development offerings for faculty and partnerships with the incoming director of the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education. Her efforts will extend beyond STEM to support faculty from all disciplines in their inclusive teaching efforts on Lafayette’s campus, furthering systemic change.
Relevant Presentations and Publications
Addy, T.M. (2020, January). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ceremony Public Talk (Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s Legacy: Implications for Higher Education) & Inclusive Teaching Workshop (Reaching Students Through Inclusive Teaching). Ohio Northern University.
Addy, T.M. (2019, November). What Really Matters for Faculty Implementing Inclusive Teaching Approaches. Conferences of the Professional and Organizational Development Network Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.
Addy, T., & DeVault, A. (2019, November). Students as Critical Partners for Inclusive Pedagogical Practices. Conference of the Professional and Organizational Development Network. Pittsburgh, PA.
Addy, T.M. (2019, August). Keynote Address: The Critical Importance of Inclusive Teaching. Bowie State University Summer Institute.
Addy, T., Husseini, A., & DeVault, A. (2019, July). What Two Students Want You to Know About Inclusive Teaching. Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/inclusive-teaching-fosters-supportive-classroom/
Addy, T.M. (2019, June). Keynote Address: Inclusive Biology Education: Where We Are Now and Where We Could Go. Gordon Research Conference for Undergraduate Biology Research. Theme: Achieving Widespread Improvement in Undergraduate Education. Bates College. June 23 – 28. Available at: https://www.grc.org/undergraduate-biology-education-research-conference/2019/