New Staff Profile: Shaina Rowell, Educational Development
The Center for Teaching and Learning is featuring profiles on new staff members so the WashU community can learn more about our team. This week, we’re featuring Shaina Rowell, assistant director of Educational Development. You can also read more about Shaina here.
What are your responsibilities at The Center for Teaching and Learning?
I will lead workshops on evidence-based teaching for faculty, graduate students, and postdocs. I will provide consultations about effective teaching practices for instructors in several STEM departments and contribute to graduate student and postdoc professional development. I will also be co-teaching the CTL’s Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning seminar.
What drew you to the position?
The only thing I love more than teaching my own classes is helping other people become better teachers. I’m particularly excited that I’ll have the chance to interact with people in a variety of departments because I enjoy learning new things and seeing how different disciplines think about an issue.
What are you looking forward to as an assistant director of Educational Development at the CTL?
I’m looking forward to having more opportunities to get involved in graduate student and postdoc professional development. I remember how important the pedagogical training that I had in graduate school was for my career development and so I’m excited to help others on that journey.
What is your education and work background? How did it prepare you for this role?
I have a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Virginia where I studied the development of memory and metacognition in childhood. For the past four years, I have been an Educational Specialist in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science here at Wash U where I have helped instructors incorporate evidence-based teaching techniques into their courses. I have also taught Experimental Psychology and Developmental Psychology courses and I am part of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) where I collaborate on research about helping students improve their study strategies.
What is your favorite place to eat in St. Louis?
That’s a tough choice! I would say it’s a tie between Himalayan Yeti and the pizza at Urban Chestnut’s U.R.B.
What are some of your favorite St. Louis destinations?
I love to visit Forest Park to walk, bike, picnic, and wander the museums. And this summer I’m looking forward to checking out some shows at the Muny.
What is a fun fact about you?
I am very susceptible to getting songs stuck in my head. This is both a blessing and a curse – sometimes it’s nice to have a soundtrack in my head but sometimes that soundtrack consists primarily of Call Me Maybe…
