Q: What work experiences led you to this position with the University Center for Teaching and Learning?
A: My career began as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, where I first encountered and participated as a student in online learning. My interest in online courses led to a master’s degree in Philosophy, focusing on the visual representation of arguments. I continued this work at CMU’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI), producing large-scale open-enrollment courses. At OLI, I learned the value of collaboration, working with teaching centers across the country to build a wide and deep catalog of coursework.  I later joined the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, working on education for hospital professionals, which prepared me well for the many challenges of Pitt Online’s graduate and professional courses.

Q: What’s the most exciting project you’re working on right now? What makes it so interesting?
A: I work with multiple programs for the School of Law, including Human Resources Law, which I have designed since its inception, and International Business Law and Dispute Resolution, where I collaborate with two of my newest teammates. Each time a course runs, we have a unique opportunity to improve and update the material, pushing ourselves creatively to provide the best experience possible. In each School of Law program, we also share approaches between different courses, re-using the core elements to produce a consistent look and feel for our content.

Q: What do you love most about your job and why?
A: Success at the Teaching Center is driven by our ability to collaborate with each other. From the colleagues I talk to every day to the professors I’ve worked with for years, each course becomes a new opportunity to work with people to help our students as much as we can. One beauty of teaching is that there are many ways to do it well and considering additional features of the problem can always add to the solution.