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Andrea (“Dea”) Follmer Greenhoot, is Professor of Psychology, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and Gautt Teaching Scholar at the University of Kansas (KU). Her research in psychology focuses on memory and cognitive development. Her work in higher education envisions and explores strategies for advancing transformed teaching and learning, informed by cognitive and developmental science. Supported by grants from the Spencer, Teagle, and National Science Foundations, the Association of American Universities, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, much of her work has examined strategies for improving learning and student development in diverse populations of students, for assessing learning, and for using the evidence to improve education. She has led numerous university-wide educational improvement initiatives at KU.

Dea serves as Director of the BVA and is principle investigator of the BVA’s TRESTLE project, promoting STEM course transformation and improved learning through department-embedded expertise and community building. She also leads the KU effort on TEval, another NSF-funded collaboration that aims to transform the evaluation of teaching in higher education through the use of a multi-dimensional, multi-source framework.

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George Rehrey directs the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus (IUB), leading efforts to fully integrate and institutionalize a program with a 16-year history of success. He is also a Principal Instructional Consultant with IUB’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, where he supports instructors of all ranks as they transform their courses, conduct classroom research, collect evidence of student learning, form communities of inquiry, and disseminate their work locally, nationally, and internationally. This past year George played an instrumental role in the design and implementation of a new program review process now required of all 44 departments within the College of Arts and Sciences. George is a co-founding member of the Institute for Curriculum and Campus Internationalization as well as the Internationalization Collaborative Across Bloomington (ICAB), a Title VI funded project that brings faculty together from IUB and Ivy Tech Community Colleges. ICAB participants work collectively on  the integration of global student learning outcomes within curricula. George’s current SOTL research includes the learning of geological time, the problems of academic integrity as a cultural phenomenon in computer science courses, the effect of backward course design upon student engagement and, the influence that social and economic reward systems may have upon academic development programs.

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Dr. Linda Slakey is a graduate of Siena Heights College (B.S. in Chemistry), and the University of Michigan
(Ph.D. in Biochemistry.) She was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1973. Her scientific work focused on lipid metabolism and vascular biology, and was funded by the 
National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the National Science Foundation. She was Head of the Department of Biochemistry from 1986 until 1991, and Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) from 1993 until 2000. In September of 2000, she was appointed Dean of Commonwealth College, the honors college of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As Dean of
NSM and of Commonwealth College she was active in supporting teaching and learning initiatives 
throughout the University, with particular attention to engaging undergraduate students in research, to faculty development activities that promote the transition from lecturing to more engaged pedagogies, and to the support of research on STEM learning. She served at the National Science Foundation from 2006 until 2011, as Director of the Division of Undergraduate Education. At present she has a consulting practice focused on bringing about a shift in the culture of undergraduate teaching from one in which lecture as the dominant mode is an acceptable norm toward one characterized by personal and institutional expectations of more student-centered teaching practices.

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Mary Deane Sorcinelli is co-PI, Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, Association of American Universities (AAU) and senior fellow, Center for Teaching & Learning, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previous roles include senior scholar, Mount Holyoke College, associate provost, professor emeritus, and founding director, Center for Teaching & Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and director, Office of Faculty Development, Indiana University Bloomington.  Her research is in the areas of faculty professional development, mentoring, scholarly writing, improvement of teaching and learning, and the role of teaching centers in fostering 21st century faculty learning. She has published over 100 articles, book chapters and books, co-authoring A Center for Teaching and Learning Matrix(2019), Institutional commitment to teaching excellence(2017), Faculty development in the age of evidence(2016), and Creating the future of faculty development (2006). She served as president, POD Network in Higher Education, senior scholar, Association for Higher Education (AAHE), and has worked in 15 countries, most recently as 2019 Educator-in-Residence, National University of Singapore and 2018 Fulbright Specialist, Education City, Qatar. Her doctorate in educational policy is from University of Massachusetts Amherst. She serves on the BVA Hub and the external advisory board of TEval.

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Lorne A. Whitehead is UBC’s Special Advisor on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Research and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Whitehead has held a number of administrative positions including Associate Dean, Dean pro tem, VP Academic & Provost and Leader of Education Innovation. In these roles a considerable portion of his effort has focused on applying the methodology of innovation to the improvement of teaching and learning. Dr. Whitehead received a Ph.D. in Applied Optics from UBC and has considerable experience in technological, business and administrative innovation. From 1983 to 1993 he served as CEO of TIR Systems, a UBC spin-off company that grew to 200 employees before being purchased by the Philips corporation. Since joining UBC in 1994, his scientific research has involved novel applications of the optical, electrical and mechanical properties of micro-structured surfaces, a field in which he holds more than 100 patents. His technology has produced seven university spin-off companies and numerous licensing agreements, and can be found in many common computer screens and televisions.

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Brita is the Program Manager for the BVA and is also a strategic communications and public relations consultant. She has a focus on post-secondary education, having worked for several years at both the University of British Columbia and Capilano University. She holds an MSc in Planning and Development from University College London, UK, a BAC in Public Relations from Mount Royal University and a BA in History from the University of Calgary. She has worked in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors delivering strategic communications advice and tactics. Brita is a Director of the Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation and a member of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS).