UW-Parkside professors selected for Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars Program

SOMERS – The University of Wisconsin System announced today the selection of the 2021–2022 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars Program participants. Included among those are University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s Dr. Ekundayo “Dayo” Akinlade and Misti Bradford.

Bradford, associate professor in the UW-Parkside Theatre Arts Department, has a number of professional design credits to her name, including Childeren's Theatre of Madison, Milwaukee Rep Theatre, Renaissance Theatre Works, The Pacific Repertory Opera, and more. Bradford has also received a number of national and regional design awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and has also been nominated for the Stella Gray Teaching award twice, here at the UW-Parkside.

“This opportunity will hope to open up for me, a community of other UW System campuses for teaching and learning development,” said Bradford, excited to be among those selected. “I hope to gain deeper knowledge and understanding for teaching in higher education in terms of diversity and inclusion, creativity in the classroom, focusing on the ideas of student learning beyond the classroom involving high impact practices.” 

Dr. Akinlade, an assistant professor of management/human resources in the Business Department at UW-Parkside, has taught advanced courses in global management. She is excited about the opportunity the WTFS program offers her, to meet and share perspectives on the scholarship of teaching and learning with colleagues from different disciplines in the UW System. 

“As we all adjust and prepare for a new normal, engaging with faculty with different backgrounds and experiences facing similar challenges will help me enhance my teaching to meet the needs of our students under these new and changing circumstances,” said Akinlade. “Ultimately, I look forward to building relationships across disciplines and campuses that will last beyond the year, as we continue to work toward improving our teaching and scholarship.”

The program provides UW faculty and teaching academic staff a unique opportunity to collaborate with other exceptional instructors from across the UW System and from various disciplines. In addition to discussing influential literature, participants are guided through systematic research focused on improving student learning through a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project, the 20th year of using this format.

Program participants come from all 13 UW System universities with the exception of UW-Madison, and with one participant from UW Extended Campus. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the year-long program that usually begins in May will be postponed until spring 2021. These 26 interdisciplinary faculty and lecturers, however, will meet this summer in an interim online Community of Practice, which will include a review of online instruction amid the pandemic. The program and summer session will be co-directed and facilitated by Heather Pelzel, associate professor of biological sciences at UW-Whitewater, and Alison Staudinger, associate professor of democracy and justice studies, women’s and gender studies, and political science at UW-Green Bay. Both are alumni of the program.

The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars Program is one of three programs offered by the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID). OPID supports UW System's 13 Centers for Teaching and Learning in fostering a culture of teaching and learning excellence in Wisconsin. Together they offer professional development programs that ensure student learning in face-to-face, online, and blended learning environments. Dr. Fay Akindes, formerly a professor of communication at UW-Parkside, is OPID director.

All three of OPID's programs – Spring Conference on Teaching and Learning, Faculty College, and Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars – have been postponed until spring 2021.

The 2021–2022 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars are:

• Amy Lane, UW Extended Campus, Instructional Design
• Bryan Brown, UW-Eau Claire, Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Matt Evans, UW-Eau Claire, Physics and Astronomy
• Dinesh Yadav, UW-Green Bay, Theatre
• Jessica Van Slooten, UW-Green Bay, English, Writing Foundations, Women's & Gender Studies
• Hongying Xu, UW-La Crosse, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Pedagogy
• Rebekah Fowler, UW-La Crosse, Literature
• Ali Gattoni, UW-Milwaukee, Communication
• Sarah Riforgiate, UW-Milwaukee, Communication
• Ashay Desai, UW Oshkosh, Management
• Don Hones, UW Oshkosh, Second Language Education/Multicultural Education
• Ekundayo Akinlade, UW-Parkside, Management and Human Resources
• Misti Bradford, UW-Parkside, Costume Design
• Andrey Ivanov, UW-Platteville, History
• Chelsea Lancelle, UW-Platteville, Geology
• Tyler Ostergaard, UW-Platteville, Art History
• Bidhan Roy, UW-Platteville, Mechanical Engineering
• Desiree Wiesen-Martin, UW-River Falls, Criminology
• Greg Kerkvliet, UW-River Falls, Rhetoric and Composition
• Steven Johnson , UW-Stevens Point, Physical Therapy
• Keith Gilland, UW-Stout, Ecology/Environmental Science
• Leni Marshall, UW-Stout, Composition, Literature, and Intercultural Agility
• Nicholle Schuelke, UW-Superior, Education
• Praopan Pratoomchat, UW-Superior, Economics
• Ken Brosky, UW-Whitewater, English
• Nadine Kriska, UW-Whitewater, Biology

The University of Wisconsin System serves approximately 170,000 students. Awarding nearly 37,000 degrees annually, the UW System is Wisconsin’s talent pipeline, putting graduates in position to increase their earning power, contribute to their communities, and make Wisconsin a better place to live. Nearly 90 percent of in-state UW System graduates stay in Wisconsin five years after earning a degree. The UW System provides a 23:1 return on state investment. UW System universities also contribute to the richness of Wisconsin’s culture and economy with groundbreaking research, new companies and patents, and boundless creative intellectual energy.

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Media contact:

John Mielke
Communications Director
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
mielkej@uwp.edu
262-595-3226 | 262-902-9355

Mark Pitsch
UW System
608-265-3419
mpitsch@uwsa.edu
universityrelations@uwsa.edu