
2023 University of Pittsburgh Assessment and Teaching Conference
The 11th annual Assessment and Teaching Conference was held on Friday, Jan. 27. Information and details on our keynote speaker, agenda items, and more is available below.

Keynote Bio:
Chavella T. Pittman is the owner of Effective & Efficient Faculty, a faculty development company that works extensively with faculty and campuses across the country to help them develop strategies for inclusive learning environments and the retention of diverse students and faculty.
Dr. Pittman received her PhD in Sociology and a MA in Higher Education from the University of Michigan. She is currently Professor of Sociology at Dominican University. Her research interests and expertise include higher education, interpersonal interactions and marginalized statuses, research methods & statistics. She has a love/hate relationship with running, is a beer aficionado, recently cured her black thumb via growing cherry tomatoes, loves to learn, and believes black joy is resistance.
Some of her teaching publications include:
- “Evaluating the Teaching Effectiveness of Black Women Faculty,”
(The Journal of Negro Education, accepted November 2019,
forthcoming Winter 2021) - “Incivility in the Classroom: Effective Strategies for Faculty at
the Margins” (in Difficult Subjects: Insights and Strategies for
Teaching Race, Sexuality and Gender 2018) - “Race and Gender Oppression in the Classroom: The Experiences
of Women Faculty of Color with White Male Students” (Teaching
Sociology 2010)
Keynote Address:
Supporting the Well-Being Diverse Faculty and Students: Understanding their Classroom Experiences
Supporting the retention and success of diverse faculty and students begins with supporting their well-being which requires knowing more about their campus experiences. At the end, participants will know 1) the highlights of research on the challenging classroom experiences of BIPOC and diverse faculty and students, 2) the related faculty, student and institutional costs (including on well-being), and 3) possible next step to address them.
8:30 – 9 a.m. |
Breakfast |
Ballroom A |
9 – 10 a.m. | Introduction of Keynote Speaker Amanda Godley, Vice Provost for Graduate StudiesKeynote Address: Supporting the Well-Being of Diverse Faculty and Students: Understanding their Classroom ExperiencesDr. Chavella T. Pittman Professor of Sociology – Dominican University |
Ballroom A |
10 – 10:30 a.m. |
Pitt Resources for Students and Faculty Kevin Binning Stevvaie Brown Jay Darr Omid Fotuhi Lorie Johnson-Osho Amanda Godley: Moderator |
Ballroom A |
Break-out Session 1 |
||
10:45 – 11:45 a.m. |
Understanding Our Students’ Well-Being in the Classroom – Undergraduate Student Panel Ashawnti Buckner Rachel Lembeck-Edens Sophia Shapiro April E. Belback: Moderator |
Gold Room |
Understanding Our Students’ Well-being in the Classroom – Graduate Student Panel Cigdem Benam Nikhil Gaur Pratik Khare Rudy Pineda Aparna Ramani Amanda Godley: Moderator |
Conference Room A | |
Supporting Inclusive Faculty Well-Being Panel Gina Garcia Victoria Grieve Ron Idoko Sera Mathew: Moderator |
Ballroom B | |
11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m. |
Lunch |
Ballroom A |
Break-out Session 2 |
||
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. |
Proactively Promoting Student Well-Being in Large Lectures Grant Martsolf David Sanchez Chandralekha Singh Belkys Torres: Moderator |
Gold Room |
Supporting Graduate Students During Milestone Assessments Rip Correnti Mike Dickey Neil Hukriede Jeremy Martinson Balaji Palanisamy Erica Owen: Moderator |
Conference Room A | |
Facilitating Difficult Dialogues Kris Kanthak |
Ballroom B | |
2:15 – 3:45 p.m. |
Poster Session |
Ballroom A |
Rika Asai
Teaching American Music with Primary Sources
Department of Music
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Joanne Baird and Ketki Raina
An Emerging Model: Near-peer Facilitation to Support Simulation Education
Department of Occupational Therapy
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Maggie Beeler, Andrew Wein
Peer Teaching with Technology: Enhanced Structures for Student Debates
Department of Classics
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Reivian Berrios Barillas, Jared Divido
Does time spent learning anatomy online and asynchronously impact student performance?
Department of Physical Therapy
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Harvey Borovetz
Teaching Health Disparities of Bioengineering Cardiopulmonary Technologies
Department of Bioengineering
Swanson School of Engineering, Pittsburgh Campus
Mark Conlon
Emphasizing Civic Education and Literacy in Social Studies Methods Courses
Division of Education
University of Pittsburgh – Johnstown
Jennifer Cousins
The Role of Example-Based Instruction on Concept Learning, Belonging, and Engagement in a Large Introductory Psychology Course
Department of Psychology
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Tom Davis
The Case for Inclusive Pedagogy: Engagement, Co-Creation, and Accelerators
Business Administration
Katz Graduate School of Business, Pittsburgh Campus
Mark DiMauro
The Hunt for Pedagogical Pirate Treasure
Division of Multimedia and Digital Culture
University of Pittsburgh – Johnstown
Ashley Firm
Physician Assistant Students’ Perceptions of Writing Reflections on Supervised Clinical Practice Experiences (SCPE)
Department of Physician Assistant Studies
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Amy Gresock, Amanda Davis
Strategy Olym14)pics: Combining Business and Phys. Ed. in the Year of Well-Being
Division of Business Management
University of Pittsburgh – Bradford
Hyunju Ha
In-class Short Speeches’ Online & Offline Applications
Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Deborah Josbeno
Peer-assisted teaching in health professional education: benefits for the teaching peer.
Department of Physical Therapy
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Wendy Krenzel
Journal Reading Exams to Replace Mid-Term and Final Exams in the Chemistry Laboratory
Division of Physical & Computational Sciences
University of Pittsburgh – Bradford
Urszula Lechtenberg
A Learner-Centered Approach to Academic Integrity
University Library System
Pittsburgh Campus
Gang Liu
Student Grade Distribution Shifts in Online Engineering Fundamental Course
Division of Physical & Computational Sciences
University of Pittsburgh – Bradford
Rebecca McHugh
Teaching Psychology Capstones: Lab Format, or Class? Comparing and Contrasting Two Course Formats
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences
University of Pittsburgh – Bradford
Tara McSwigan, Christina Davis
Teaching Medical Procedures in a Hybrid Curriculum
Department of Physician Assistant Studies
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Gordon Mitchell
Adjacent Curriculum
Department of Communication
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Pittsburgh Campus
Marcia Rapchak
A Community of Practice for Inclusive Pedagogy in SCI
Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship
School of Computing and Information, Pittsburgh Campus
Catherine Rebitch, Prema Iyer, Stephen Zhang
Bridging the gap: Gaming as a strategy to integrate biochemistry principles and clinical concepts in pharmacy education
Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics
School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh Campus
Cynthia Salter
Using a health access simulation to teach social determinants of health
Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences
School of Public Health, Pittsburgh Campus
Ryan Teeter
Students have entered the chat. Communicating effectively with Microsoft Teams.
Business Administration
Katz Graduate School of Business, Pittsburgh Campus
Daniel Wilkenfeld, Christine Durmis
Images, Scientific Understanding, and the Importance of Multi-Modal Presentation
Department of Acute and Tertiary Care
School of Nursing, Pittsburgh Campus
Clare Withers, Christina Durmis
More Than Just Cool Stuff: Integrating Primary Sources into Critical Evaluation and Experiential Learning
University Library System
Pittsburgh Campus
Ashley Yarabinec
Developing Culturally Affirming Students: Overview of a Longitudinal Student Rotation Exchange with Howard University
Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics
School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh Campus