2017-2018 UTSA Faculty Learning Community on Inclusive Excellence: Teaching Our Diverse Student Body
During this academic year, the Inclusive Excellence Faculty Learning Community met to discuss and explore teaching strategies related to the unique diversity of UTSA students. The community reviewed current research, policies and best practices for teaching diverse students and created a strategy for disseminating the information to the UTSA community.
Kristabel Aguero, Biology
Kristabel is an alumni of the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Science and a first generation college graduate. She is a Lecturer II and core course coordinator and instructor of Contemporary Biology II for non-Science majors and Biosciences II labs for science majors. In addition to teaching the labs she is also the lab coordinator for Biosciences II. She is looking forward to contributing to the effort to make UTSA a more inclusive environment for its diverse student population.
Paul Ardoin, English
Paul is an assistant professor in the department of English. He teaches a range of courses, from large undergraduate surveys of literature to narrowly focused graduate and senior seminars. His current research focuses on narrating and not narrating race in contemporary American literature.
Orlando Bolanos, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Orlando is in his second semester at UTSA collaborating as an Instructor with the department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. He is a full-time Arts Educator and Administrator with The DoSeum where he is active in design, facilitation, and curation. Presently he is ABD with his PhD in Art Criticism where he has focused on the contributions of Latino artists to Socially Engaged Art and Mainstream Art movements.
Lapetra Bowman, Philosophy and Humanities
Lapetra has been at UTSA for 20 years, where she has taught a multitude of courses for the English Department, the Women’s Studies Program, and the Philosophy, Classics, and Humanities Department. In addition to her teaching duties, she has worked as an Academic Advisor for 15 years, Internship Coordinator, and Undergraduate Advisor of Record. Most recently she accepted a position with the Honors College as an Honors College Academic Counselor. She has been and remains student focused, both inside and outside of the classroom, as she seeks to create academic partnerships with her students.
Sara DeTurk, Communication
Sara is a communication professor specializing in intercultural communication. Her specific areas of interest are ideologies about identity and difference, social justice activism, intergroup dialogue, teaching, and training/group facilitation.
Claudia Garcia-Louis, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Claudia is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies department at the University of Texas San Antonio. Her research seeks to disrupt deficit thinking about communities of color, disadvantaged populations, and underrepresented students. Her goals are to expand the definitions of Latinidad and Blackness in higher education, to make a critical contribution to a newly formed line of inquiry that explores the educational experiences of AfroLatinxs in higher education, and to conduct research that highlights Latinx heterogeneity.
Mark Giles, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Mark is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and former Director of the African American Studies program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His scholarship and teaching interests include 20th century African American educational history, African American spirituality, leadership, and critical race studies.
Norma Guerra, Educational Psychology
Norma has her doctoral degree from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in educational psychology and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is trained and certified with a license specialty in school psychology and license as a professional counselor – supervisor. She has also been certified as an educational diagnostician and a secondary level teacher. Norma’s 29 years at UTSA reflect her professional contributions across academic, administrative, student affairs, and business affairs areas. Her research areas include social cognitive problem solving, initial/sustained attention, and work with underrepresented college student groups.
David Han, Management and Statistics
David is an associate professor at the Department of Management Science & Statistics, serving as a chapter officer of the American Statistical Association. With a doctoral degree in statistical science, David has taught physical and statistical/mathematical sciences for almost 20 years from the grade school to the university graduate levels. His teaching specialties include probability and mathematical statistics, applied statistics, business statistics, engineering statistics, biostatistics and survival/reliability analysis.
Anne Hardgrove, History
Anne is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. Her research and teaching interests focus on India and Asian History, including transnational history, gender and sexuality studies, and Bollywood. She enjoys taking students on field trips to participate in Asian culture activities in San Antonio, especially to encourage students to learn about and appreciate new cultures and religions.
Matthias Hofferberth, Political Science and Geography
Born and educated in Germany, Mattias joined UTSA as an Assistant Professor of Political Science in January 2013. He researches and teaches world politics, global governance, and globalization. Diversity and critical thinking is important to him which is why he likes to challenge his students in interactive, inclusive, and student-focused classes.
Sue Hum, English
Sue brings expertise in writing pedagogy, quantitative literacy, data visualization, critical race theory, and visual rhetoric. Her most recent book, Persuading with Numbers, developed from her involvement with UTSA’s Quantitative Literacy Program. She is currently working on a manuscript about visuality, race, and persuasion in the writing classroom.
Carolyn Luna, Mathematics
Carolyn has been teaching mathematics at UTSA since 2008 and enjoys the time she spends both with the subject and with her students. After earning a bachelor of science degree in environmental science and working in consulting for 7 years, she entered the field of education in 2005. She reaps the benefits daily of her decision to switch careers; sharing her passion for the subject with others coupled with the challenge of engaging students in the content has been a constant source of joy for her. Carolyn is also a cancer survivor after being diagnosed with melanoma in 2002.
Lee Mason, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Lee is an associate professor of special education and director of the TEAM Autism Research Center. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in special education and applied behavior analysis with an emphasis on neurodiversity and cultural materialism.
Terri Matiella, Environmental Science
Terri teaches in the Department of Environmental Science and Ecology. She teaches and coordinates ES 2013, Introduction to Environmental Science: I, and coordinates assessment for the Department. She is interested in assessment and student success, and wants to reach students by presenting engaging and relevant content in her courses.