February 12, 2025 |
Using data to learn about your students and inform your teaching practice |
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Andrew Eppig - Director of Equity Data Initiatives Dr. Eppig (he/his) is the inaugural Director of Equity Data Initiatives in Equity & Inclusion. He oversees institutional research to understand and eliminate inequalities in higher education. His work encompasses program assessment and evaluation; survey design and analysis; demographic data collection and reporting methodology; and institutional data governance and infrastructure. Andrew has a PhD in Physics from the University of Michigan where he worked on high energy experimental particle physics at the ATLAS experiment at CERN and the CDF experiment at Fermilab. |
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MaryAnn Robak - Lecturer, Chemistry Dr. Robak received a BS in Chemistry at the University of Buffalo and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Robak has served as a Lecturer on campus for over 14 years. She was awarded a Lecturer Teaching Fellowship in Fall 2022 in recognition of her commitment to teaching, especially for her practice of active learning in large enrollment courses. |
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SanSan Kwan - Professor and Department Chair, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies SanSan's research interests include dance studies, Asian American studies, and performance studies. Her recent book, Love Dances: Loss and Mourning in Intercultural Collaboration (Oxford UP, 2021), is winner of the 2022 de la Torre Bueno© Award. She is also author of Kinesthetic City: Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces (Oxford UP, 2013) and co-editor, with Kenneth Speirs, of Mixing It Up: Multiracial Subjects (University of Texas Press, 2004). Her article on cartographies of race and the Chop Suey circuit, a group of Asian American cabaret entertainers who toured the nation during the World War II era, is published in TDR. Her article, "When is Contemporary Dance," on contended understandings of the term "contemporary" across dance genres and communities, is in the December 2017 issue of Dance Research Journal. Additional articles can be found in Theatre Survey, Performance Research, Choreographic Practices, Representations, and other journals and anthologies. SanSan remains active as a professional dancer and is currently performing with Lenora Lee Dance, Chingchi Moves, and Jen Liu. |
February 26, 2025 |
How does your course content, discipline, or teaching practice endure legacies of racism? And what can you do about it? |
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Ché L. Abram - Chief of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Berkeley Public Health An Oakland native, Abram has 20 years of experience in higher education with a commitment to community engagement. She considers herself a culture shifter by moving race and equity initiatives forward, a transformational leader by centering the needs of her partners in decision-making, and a changemaker as a longtime advocate for K-12 BIPOC students in the Oakland Unified School District. She brings the lens of intersectional identities and restorative practices to her work, engaging people at all levels of the university in race and equity initiatives. |
March 12, 2025 |
Active learning, instructor identity, and instructional behaviors to cultivate a sense of belonging |
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Lorenzo Lones - Assistant Professor of Teaching, Division of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Dr. Lones received a BS in Psychology and Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and a PhD in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis. He then earned a PhD in Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis where he studied seizure susceptibility with Dr. Aaron DiAntonio. Lorenzo then completed a postdoc at San Francisco State University in the lab of Dr. Kimberly Tanner, the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory (SEPAL), studying instructor implementation of active learning. Currently, his lab is studying students' perceptions of instructor practices and the extent to which these practices promote feelings of inclusion or exclusion. |
April 2, 2025 |
Instructor positioning in/and advancing equity in assessment |
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Amber Sweat - Doctoral Candidate in French at UC Berkeley, Adjunct Faculty at Fisk University Amber Patrice Sweat (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in French at Berkeley and an adjunct French and Film faculty member at Fisk University. At Berkeley, she also has a designated emphasis in Film and Media, a certificate in Universal Design for Learning, and a certificate in Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education. Raised and heat-tested in Texas, she received an Honors BA from UT-Austin before moving to the Paris region, where she was an intern at l'Université de Paris–Sorbonne IV and a high school English teacher in Aubervilliers. She currently studies coming-of-age narratives (literature, film, and new media) for Black girls in the Francophone world, focusing on texts from Senegal, Guadeloupe, and the African diaspora into the French banlieue. More than anything, she is an educator from a long line of teachers. She sees experiential learning and critical pedagogy as vital parts of the changing humanities landscape, and she believes in a care-informed pedagogy for students of all identities. |
April 16, 2025 |
Universal Design for Learning and its relationship to disability justice |
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Tara Mason - Universal Design for Learning Consultant Tara (she/her) holds a PhD in Special Education from Texas Tech University and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she worked as both a faculty member and K-12 educational professional. Tara's research interests are primarily related to UDL, promoting equity and inclusion, mentoring, and teacher preparation. |
