Lee Rumbarger directs UO’s professional teaching development program, including TEP’s slate of events and network of faculty learning and leadership communities (CAITs), which form around key teaching issues—for example, teaching high-challenge gateway courses and teaching about difference and inequality. She partners with the Teaching Academy board to host UO’s distinguished teachers quarterly as an advisory group to the provost and chairs the Provost’s Teaching Success group. Lee serves on the Senate core education and teaching evaluation committees. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked in administrative and teaching roles at Vassar College and the University of Exeter in the UK.

Laurel supports instructors in meeting their teaching/learning goals with a focus on inclusion and equity grounded in both what students explicitly tell us they need to succeed and respect for instructor values, positionalities, and teaching contexts. Areas of expertise include Universal Design, trauma-informed pedagogy, and designing participation and active learning for equity; she serves on the Disability Studies Executive Board, the ICT Accessibility Committee, and co-facilitates the Neurodivergent Instructor and Staff Affinity Group. She holds an MFA from UW-Madison, where she taught as a Senior Lecturer and founded/taught with the Writers in Prisons Project.

Nanosh is fortunate to join a community dedicated to serving faculty and students at the University of Oregon. He brings enthusiasm, levity, and purpose to his work. Nanosh’s mission is to collaborate with educators to make teaching efficient, sustainable, and enjoyable. His career as an educator began over twenty-five years ago as a Teaching Assistant in political science courses. His experience broadened to encompass teaching Spanish, English as a second language, and history. Similarly, he has wide interdisciplinary research interests, holding a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Teaching, and a dual M.A. in Spanish Languages & Literature and History. When he is not cooking or enjoying the outdoors with family and friends, he is completing his doctoral thesis in history at the University of Oregon.

Julie Mueller is a senior faculty consultant in the Teaching Engagement Program. Her work focuses on improving learning and overall student success by spotlighting the results of research on teaching and learning. To this end, she facilitates reading groups, incorporates research results into workshops, and highlights them in written work with the ultimate goal of helping members of the UO community incorporate those results into their own teaching. In the FIG course she teaches, Julie also works to help students develop the skills they need to succeed in college. She holds MS and Ph.D. degrees in physical chemistry from Cornell University, did postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago and was a member of the chemistry faculty at Santa Clara University before moving to Eugene.

He earned his Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies from UMass Amherst, where his research focused on critical media literacy, the learning experiences of teachers, and the role identities play in their learning and unlearning processes. As an educator, Ali has had the privilege of working as an instructional designer, a project manager for an NGO in Turkey, and a teacher at both undergraduate and graduate levels in the United States. As an international scholar, he brings a diverse range of expertise in humanizing pedagogy, inclusive teaching practices, and practitioner inquiry to support educators in the UO community. As a first-generation student from a historically marginalized group in Turkey, he is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and vibrant learning environment, and is eager to contribute to this dynamic team.

Richard joined TEP from right here in Oregon, receiving a Ph.D. in physics from UO. He was lucky enough to work closely with the Science Literacy Program while a graduate student and feels strongly about the importance the training of graduate students who will become the next generation of faculty. Before returning to UO, he taught physics at various institutions in New England and the Pacific Northwest. His courses and now his work with TEP promote equitable and inclusive pedagogy including reducing course costs for students.