Election for Faculty Council Group II: Assistant Professors, Instructors, and Non-Tenured Faculty

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education. A clinical child psychologist by training, my research focuses on the well-documented gap between science and practice for child and adolescent mental health interventions. I use randomized clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of mental health interventions with proven efficacy as they are implemented in low-resource and publicly funded settings (schools, primary care, community mental health clinics), and engage with community stakeholders to increase access to and effectiveness of interventions. I teach classes across the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels. I am a member of the Bridging Barriers group Whole Communities – Whole Health, which has increased my familiarity with faculty from other academic units across campus. I have not had prior experience in faculty governance though I am an active member of my department’s graduate studies committee. I am also a UT Alumna, having received my Ph.D from the Department of Psychology in 2005!

Milica Cudina is an Assistant Professor of Practice with the Department of Mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin. She earned an MA in Statistics from Columbia University and received her PhD in Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie-Mellon University. Her professional interests lie in probability and statistics, particularly as applied to actuarial science and financial mathematics. She is the recipient of the John Durbin Teaching Award. As a high-school student, she represented Croatia twice at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Hi,
I'm Luisa , a faculty member of Textiles and Apparel. I'm interested in continuing being part of the Faculty Council because I see so much opportunity to lift each other up and more than anything finding platforms to collaborate between different colleges and disciplines.

Luisa is an assistant professor in the Textiles and Apparel Program at the University of Texas in Austin. Besides her strong passion for textiles and fabrication techniques , she is also interested in sustainability in the textile industry and in building interdisciplinary opportunities for her students. During her time at the University, she has also been a guest lecturer for the School of Architecture, the School of Fine Arts and also constantly speaks to different student organizations about the overlap of Textiles with other disciplines.

Luisa has also collaborated with the department of Mechanical Engineering redesigning a robot for stroke, Chemical Engineering assisting the nanotechnology Maymester in Japan and UT Portugal program, and most recently Computer Science researching three-dimensional weaving.

Luisa enjoys mentoring students and creating platforms for collaboration like the UT chapter of AATCC ( American Association of Colorists and Chemists), being the principal investigator for Women’s Relief Initiative, a student led project that aims to bring sanitary garments to Africa, advising Bridging Disciplines and Honors thesis (Polymatics and Dean’s Honors), and being part of the founding team of Cientifico Latino (https://www.cientificolatino.com/) UT Austin Chapter . Luisa is also part of the faculty team that was awarded the 2019-2020 President's Award for Global Learning which is designing and prototyping sustainable materials for the fashion industry.

Through her company Fandindo (http://www.fandindo.com/), Luisa creates wholesale and custom made textile and fiber pieces that comply with codes and regulations for hospitality and interior design. In recent years, Luisa has been researching digital fabrication applied to textile surface design.

Current Affiliations:

DEI committee School of Human Ecology member

DEI Committee College of Natural Science member

Faculty Council member 2019-2021

Cientifico Latino- UT Austin Chapter

Experiential Learning Cohort 2019-2021

AATCC faculty advisor

Shinko is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Mathematics with over 20 years of experience at UT Austin. She is a member of the Math Department Online Instruction Expert Team and is co-chair of the UT Actuarial Science Program Case Competition. She was chair of the Math Department Non-Tenure Track annual review committee in Fall 2015 and Fall 2019. She has transformed two actuarial science courses to an inquiry-based format and is working on expanding the role of active learning in all her courses.

I am an Associate Professor of Instruction for the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences and also serve as Director of Undergraduate Studies. Outside my department, I am in my third year on the Faculty Council Educational Policy Committee and am currently serving as Chair and Chair Elect of the committee. I am also Vice Chair of the Faculty Council Undergraduate Curriculum Changes Committee. This year, I have the privilege of being on the Faculty Council Executive Committee and we have worked tirelessly to respond to the multiple crises the university has faced. I previously co-chaired the Faculty Council sponsored Student Feedback on Teaching Task Force which delivered recommendations for revisions to the CIS survey and system.

I am interested in serving on Faculty Council to represent faculty, especially non-tenure track faculty in the College of Liberal Arts, as we continue to build teaching excellence at the University and engage in scholarship and teaching partnerships around the world. I am an assistant professor of instruction in the International Relations and Global Studies (IRG) program and Government department. My research explores the election of women, ethnic minorities and minority women. I currently serve as Chair-elect of the Provost’s Teaching Fellows (PTF). I lead the UT faculty learning community for Global Virtual Exchange grant recipients, after teaching my own virtual exchange with partner universities in South America. I am also co-director of the Brumley NextGen Undergraduate Scholars program at the Robert Strauss Center, preparing students for public service. Recent initiatives include serving as faculty director for study abroad in Chile and Panama, and co-hosting the PTF podcast, The Other Side of Campus, showcasing the teaching and research interests of UT faculty.

Kristie J. Loescher, MPH, DBA, SHRM-SCP

Dr. Loescher is a Senior Lecturer in the Management Department of the McCombs School of Business where she teaches management, organizational behavior, human resources, and healthcare system classes in both the undergraduate and MBA programs. In addition to being a Senior Certified Professional in human resources, she has her doctorate in business administration from Nova Southeastern University, specializing in human resources management. Prior to her career in academia, she earned an MPH from the University of Michigan and worked in the healthcare industry for 15 years in the areas of quality assurance, utilization management, and clinical research. Her academic publications focus on ethical education, organizational ethics, diversity management, process improvement in health care delivery systems, and health care reform. Dr. Loescher is the associate director for the Business Foundations Program and the faculty director for the McCombs Healthcare Innovation Initiative. Dr. Loescher is also a co-author of the book, Communication Matters: Write, Speak, Succeed published by Kendall Hunt in 2007 with a second edition in 2010.

Dr. Loescher has previous experience on faculty council (Fall 2018 to Summer 2020) and continues to serve on UT’s Admissions and Registrations Committee. As part of her previous faculty council service, she organized feedback from McCombs professional faculty to share with the council and reflect in her voting choices. In addition, she has served on several community boards as well as the Texas Student Media board (as Executive Committee chair) and Dell Medical School Admissions Committee on campus. Finally, she has served as a faculty representative on a number of UT committees including the Bridging Disciplines Program’s Faculty Advisory Board and Leadership and Ethics Committee, Undergraduate Studies’ Leadership, Business, and Society Committee, University Service Learning Committee, University Blackboard Advisory Committee, McCombs Business of Healthcare committee, McCombs Staff Evaluation Committee, and McCombs’ Staff Awards Committee.

Dr. Loescher has also demonstrated an ability to connect and serve beyond the McCombs school as an Inter-professional Education Fellow (Medical School, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work), an Impact Fellow (Medical School, LBJ School), and member of the Center for Health Communications Think Tank (School of Communications).

Professor of Practice in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, Paul V. Montgomery Fellow of Actuarial Mathematics, and program director of Actuarial Studies. Strong background in actuarial science program development including: student recruitment, student advising, designing/adapting curricula to be consistent with actuarial accrediting organizations, on-site and on-line professional examination preparation, classroom teaching, student placement, and employer networking. Focus is on innovative inquiry-based education.
I have been able to serve on the CNS undergraduate faculty advisors committee and the mathematics undergraduate studies committee since 2009.

Tim Riedel has been working in the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI program in CNS) since 2014 and runs an undergraduate diagnostic development lab. He is a founding member of the Inventors Program and Maker Space facility. If elected to the council representing non-tenured faculty, Tim will work to increase non-tenured faculty pay. The high turnover of high quality faculty due to anemic salaries (that are not even closely matched or pacing with the cost-of-living of Austin) is a threat to the university creative environment.

https://cns.utexas.edu/directory/item/58-research-international-study/1…

Suzanne Seriff, Sr. Lecturer, Department of Anthropology and Jewish Studies; Director, Social Justice Internship Program, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies

I received my Bachelor of Education with honors in Anthropology from Swarthmore College in 1978, and my M.A. and Ph.D in Folklore/Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. As both an academic anthropologist and practicing museum professional, I have built my 30-year career at UT and in the public sphere on three pedagogical pillars: a commitment to experiential learning, a practice of interdisciplinary and international engagement and dialogue, and an ethic of equity and inclusion. My nationally and internationally traveling museum exhibitions on such issues as immigration, women’s empowerment, HIV/AIDS, and the ethics of the marketplace have been recognized with awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Council for Museum Anthropology, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and the American Alliance for Museums. From 2010-2017 I served as the founding Director of the Gallery of Conscience at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an award-winning experimental lab within the museum that draws on the words and works of contemporary folk artists to catalyze conversations around critical social justice issues in our lives.

At the University of Texas, I have sought to develop innovative classes in anthropology, museum studies, and Jewish studies that engage students in critical analytical thinking, hands on learning, creative problem solving, reflective practice, and community collaborations through such experiential learning components as “pop up” exhibits, radio-ready digital stories, oral history interviews, critical archival research, and student-led public arts festivals and symposia. In 2018, I designed and currently direct a social justice internship program for liberal arts which partners with over a dozen non-profit and arts organizations throughout Central Texas. These teaching and research initiatives at UT have been recognized over the past five years with the Experiential Learning Course Development Award, the Signature Course Inclusive Classroom Award, the Faculty Innovation Center’s Innovation in Teaching Award, the Signature Maymester Study Abroad Award, and the Presidents Award for Global Learning (2019-2020).

As a non-tenure track Sr. Lecturer at UT since 1996, I believe that I am in a unique position to represent a critical, yet frequently under-recognized component of our faculty community. With over thirty years of teaching and service experience at UT, and in leadership positions in national and international professional organizations, I have the time, resources, and experience to fully commit and contribute to such a position on the faculty council. Some of the key issues and opportunities that the faculty will confront in a post-pandemic world are ones for which my tools as an international researcher and dialogue facilitator, oral historian, contingent faculty member, and heritage consultant may be especially important. To UT’s commitment toward increased diversity, equity and inclusion across the campus community, I bring my successful experience as head of the American Folklore Society’s Cultural Diversity Committee from 2016-2019, and my longtime work as a national dialogue facilitator. To UT’s stated desire to educate global leaders and participate at the forefront of global change, I bring my decades of experience creating and curating international networks of social folk art entrepreneurs, holding leadership positions on international professional society Boards, developing an international study abroad program for UT students, and participating in the 2019-2020 President’s innovative Award for Global Learning initiative. And in our continued efforts to address the highly contested issues surrounding some of our campus’ most public icons—from the Eyes of Texas to the Confederate statues to the building names—I bring years of classroom and town hall experience writing about and facilitating public engagement processes around just these types of controversial issues. Collaboration is at the heart of all of my professional work both within and outside the university walls and I would be honored to work with my esteemed colleagues on the faculty council to represent my alma mater, my home state’s flagship university, and my longtime employer of the University of Texas at Austin.

I am a non-tenure-track faculty member in the College of Education specializing in mathematics education. I received my PhD in Mathematics from the University of Arizona in 2002 and have taught here at UT for nearly 20 years, primarily teaching courses and supporting field experiences for pre-service K-12 teachers. As a faculty member in the UTeach program, I regularly collaborate with faculty and staff in the College of Natural Sciences. I am also interested in supporting the teaching development of graduate students and new faculty.

I am an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Special Education, and I welcome this nomination to serve on Faculty Council to represent non-tenured faculty (Assistant Professors and non-tenure track faculty.) I serve as the Undergraduate Advisor for my department, sit on the Provost’s Teaching Fellows Steering Committee, and served on the Online Education Task Force during the summer of 2020. I am also a parent through both biology and the foster care system.

My name is Sara Toynbee and I am finishing up my fourth year as an Assistant Professor in the Accounting department in the McCombs School of Business. I teach undergraduate students who are pursuing joint Bachelors and Masters’ degrees in Accounting and research financial accounting topics with a focus on issues of interest to accounting standard setters and regulators. Although I do not have formal experience in faculty governance, I understand the importance of having open-minded and diverse thinking in governance roles. I appreciate the opportunities that UT provides both faculty and students and hope to be able to contribute to an environment with policies that put all members of the UT community in the best position to succeed, both individually and for UT as a whole.