As a administrator, I assist faculty across the disciplines as they design writing instruction that promotes their learning goals for the course and is meaningful for their students as emerging professionals. From curriculum development to assessment, we create learning through lines for their classes and programs using writing instruction. In collaborating with campus partners, I design student support services that can reach students facing common writing and professional challenges: preparing job materials, developing graduate-level writing projects, communicating research, and acquiring informational and digital literacies, among others.  

Working with Faculty & Staff

Faculty and staff development is a significant aspect of supporting writing across the disciplines. At a school of over 30,000, it's not feasible to believe I can have contact with every student. Therefore, working with faculty from across the disciplines becomes my main strategy for impacting students at the course-level. My administrative approach is to actively listen to individuals' needs and help make connections between theoretically sound writing instruction, students' writing needs, and faculty's goals for learning.

Faculty usually agree that students need to be effective communicators when they graduate, but they are often unsure of how to support students in developing the ability to communicate dynamically in professional contexts. Finding common ground between institutional and field-specific goals allows me to create more meaningful professional development experiences for faculty and staff and assures them that I am not imposing restrictions on their pedagogy or course content. Instead, I'm working with them and sound writing instruction is helping them achieve their learning goals they want for their students.

Faculty Academies
Faculty Academies are intensive programs that guide faculty to redesign their curriculum to integrate meaningful writing instruction. Faculty can participate as individuals in topically focused Academies, such as Designing Research Communication Assignments, or in teams in Academies that respond to departmental proposals. Within the last two years, I have worked with faculty in Educational Leadership, Animal Science, Horticulture, Consumer and Design Sciences, and Biology in curricular revisions to better integrate high-impact practices like ePortfolios, course-embedded undergraduate research experiences, and writing-intensive courses.
 

In-Class Presentations
I regularly design and deliver presentations for students across the disciplines. Some of these workshops are resources already designed through our office, like workshops on writing literature reviews, creating strong personal statements, reading difficult materials, etc. In other moments, I consult with faculty and design tailored resources for their course context. After demoing the materials and reflecting on that experience with them, I hand the lesson off so that faculty can continue to adapt and deliver it in future semesters.
 

WE Write
WE (writing-enriched) courses are courses that integrate meaningful writing experiences for students across a program or college. I help faculty deliver a needs assessment study, develop WE learning outcomes, and then align those outcomes to new writing curriculum to meet the needs articulated by their students, faculty, and industry partners.
 

Faculty as Writers
Faculty writing groups and regular writing retreats support faculty as writers by offering them structure and strategies for developing good writing habits and balancing writing with teaching and service responsibilities. In addition to facilitating these programs, I have developed online and asynchronous versions of these programs.

Online Educational Resources (OER) for Writing Instruction
The OER is open-access with writing instructions resources for faculty. These resources include instructional materials that faculty can download and immediately use or adapt for their courses in addition to faculty-facing materials on designing writing assignments, evaluating writing, delivering meaningful feedback on student writing. While we created our OER to serve the Auburn community, we are pleased to discover that it is being accessed and used by faculty from across the globe.