- Educational Development
Elina Salminen, PhD
Assistant Director for Educational Development
- Eads 105
- elinasalminen@wustl.edu
How Can I Help
I'm excited to work with faculty and graduate student instructors to support equitable, excellent teaching, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. I enjoy discussing how to center your course goals and make them both transparent and relevant to students. I especially like brainstorming about teaching that is interdisciplinary, incorporates transferable skills, and allows students to bring in their varied commitments and interests.
Bio
Elina (she/her/hers) joined WashU and the Center for Teaching and Learning in January 2024 as Assistant Director for Educational Development. In her role, she supports a broad range of the Center’s programming from graduate student reading groups to developing new programming for faculty.
Elina’s PhD (University of Michigan) is in Classical Art and Archaeology, and she has published on social identities in ancient Macedonia and on the archaeology of households. In her role at WashU, she enjoys leaning on her training at the intersection of humanities and social sciences to share insights from both traditions on scholarship. As part of her graduate training, Elina also taught and supported community-based learning courses, and she remains deeply committed to building connections between on-campus and off-campus communities.
Prior to coming to WashU, Elina worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on humanities initiatives. In that role, she developed pedagogical programming to support the success of California’s diverse students, with a particular focus on belonging, transfer, and career awareness. She also worked on an initiative to reimagine large general education courses.