Keynote Speaker
Dr. Gary Poole
From 2000 to 2010, Gary Poole was the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth and the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at UBC. He is past- President of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Gary has won a 3M Teaching Fellowship, which is a Canadian national teaching award, an Excellence in Teaching award from Simon Fraser University, and a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for contributions to Higher Education. He is the co-author of “Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education,” and “The Psychology of Health and Health Care: A Canadian Perspective.” Gary is also the Associate Director of the School of Population and Public Health in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine.
Panelists
Joseph Topornycky
After coming to Canada in 2005 to work on a PhD in Philosophy, Joseph got involved with the Centre after receiving training as a Teaching Assistant. Now completed his PhD, Joseph currently works with departments to help them plan and implement discipline specific TA Training for their Teaching Assistants.
Cynthia Korpan
Cynthia Korpan, M.A., is the TA Training Program Manager at the Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Victoria. Cynthia plans and develops all the activities related to the campus-wide Teaching Assistant programming, including two yearly TA Conferences, the Teaching Assistant Consultant program, weekly workshops, and co-teaches the new Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LATHE) Graduate Certificate program.
Michael Potter
Michael is a Teaching and Learning Specialist in the Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Windsor - where he administers the University Teaching Certificate (UTC) Program - and Past Chair of the Council of Ontario Educational Developers (COED). Educated as a philosopher and moral psychologist, his present research focuses on affective learning, constructive alignment, and applications of pragmatist and anarchist philosophy to education. As a graduate student, Michael founded the TA Network at McMaster University, and was also involved in teaching educational development courses for graduate students and coordinating the annual induction event, TA Day. Now, at the University of Windsor, in addition to his other responsibilities, he oversees the programs for graduate assistants (GAs) and teaching assistants (TAs), but the actual work is done by the startlingly competent and independent GA/TA Network coordinators, Candace Nast and Betsy Keating. Michael believes that educational development for graduate students and teaching assistants is essential to the long-term viability of all educational development programs.
Conference Organizers
Dr. Catherine Rawn
Email: cdrawn@psych.ubc.ca, Twitter: @cdrawn, Web: www.psych.ubc.ca/~cdrawn
Catherine is a tenure-track Instructor in the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia, where she teaches learners introductory psychology, research methods and statistics, and social psychology. She has been a facilitator of graduate student programming since 2007, both at the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, and within the psychology department. Catherine is an experienced Instructional Skills Workshop facilitator, and has trained over 200 graduate students in psychology for their roles as Teaching Assistants and teachers. She is currently developing a graduate seminar on the Teaching of Psychology, to be launched January 2013.
Dr. Erin Aspenlieder
Email: easpenli@sfu.ca, Twitter: @ErinAspenlieder
As an Educational Consultant at Simon Fraser University, Erin coordinates and facilitates the Certificate Program in University Teaching and Learning for graduate students, a program that includes an Instructional Skills Workshop and a 13 week course. With a research background in graduate student professional development, Erin has put her keen interest in teaching assistant training and support to good use as Vice-Chair of the Teaching Assistant and Graduate Student STLHE Special Interest Group, the lead author on two guidebooks for Teaching Assistants, and the sole author of a research report on teaching assistant training and development. She is currently working on a professional development program for graduate students at SFU. She is also currently learning to drive.