Andrea (“Dea”) Follmer, 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.