Campus News

Lilly Teaching Fellows participate in fall retreat

The Lilly Teaching Fellows engaged in team-building activities to build rapport across the cohort during their recent fall retreat. (Photo by Megan Fitzgerald)

The 2022-2024 cohort of the Lilly Teaching Fellows held their fall retreat at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. The Fellows engaged in team-building activities to build rapport across the cohort.

During the retreat, the program’s co-directors Steven Lewis, associate professor of physics, and Meg Mittelstadt, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and assistant director Sarah Shannon, associate professor of sociology, along with the Fellows mapped the curriculum for their time in the program. This cohort’s curriculum will include discussions of innovative and alternative assessment; the integration of ethics and social good into one’s teaching; and diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom.

The 2022-2024 Lilly Teaching Fellows and their departments are:

  • Nora Benedict Frye, Romance Languages, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Anny Chung, Plant Biology and Plant Pathology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
  • Christopher Cleveland, Population Health and Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
  • Ellyn Evans, Music Therapy, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Thomas Kadri, School of Law
  • Joseph Kellner, History, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Lindsay Sain Jones, Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate, Terry College of Business
  • Alexander Strauss, Ecology, Odum School of Ecology
  • Kimberly Watkins, Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics, College of Family and Consumer Sciences
  • Sarah Whitley, Marketing, Terry College of Business

The Lilly Teaching Fellow Program strives to improve the university’s instructional mission. Fellows are tenure-track assistant professors who are recent recipients of a Ph.D. or terminal degree in their discipline or profession and are in their first, second or third year at the university. They are selected for demonstrated passion for and commitment to excellence in teaching.

“The new Lilly Fellows are an exemplary group of young teacher-scholars. Each in their own way strives to integrate their teaching and scholarly activities where possible to promote excellence in both,” said Lewis. “The Lilly Fellows program fosters this process by exposing members of the cohort to evidence-based best practices in diverse aspects of academia, engaging them in in-depth discussions of cutting-edge approaches with leaders across campus and introducing them to the various resources at UGA for enabling the academic mission.”

The Lilly Teaching Fellows is a two-year program of professional development, interaction and engagement. New Fellows are introduced to the second-year fellows. And during the second year, Fellows continue to discuss the latest instructional topics, meet with campus leaders and engage in a scholarly teaching project and peer observations of teaching.

The 2021-2023 Lilly Teaching Fellows and their departments are:

  • Maureen Flint, Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy, Mary Frances Early College of Education
  • Vanessa Gonlin, Sociology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Cassandra Hall, Physics and Astronomy, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Rebecca Hallman-Martini, English, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Kalsea Koss, Human Development and Family Science, College of Family and Consumer Sciences
  • Michelle Lofton, Public Administration and Policy, School of Public and International Affairs
  • Wunpini Mohammed, Entertainment and Media Studies, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
  • Megan DeMarche, Plant Biology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Jordan Pickett, Classics, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
  • Mattia Pistone, Geology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences