Announcing the Executive Director of the new UIC Center for Teaching Excellence

Dear Faculty,

Happy New Year, and Welcome Back!

I have some very good news to start the semester. Dr. Erin Sanders O’Leary has accepted our offer to be the inaugural Executive Director of the new UIC Center for Teaching Excellence, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. She will start on July 1, 2020.

Dr. O’Leary currently serves as the Director of UCLA’s Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences. She works in collaboration with faculty across the campus to inspire change in teaching practices and provide resources to support transformation of the teaching culture. She is also the Coordinator for the NIH IRACDA program called UCLA Postdocs Longitudinal Investment in Faculty Training (UPLIFT) and the Institutional Administrative Co-Leader for UCLA’s Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) program. Additionally, Dr. O’Leary works closely with UCLA’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching to train graduate student Teaching Assistant Consultants campus-wide and she co-teaches the pedagogy course for TAs in the Life Sciences division. Dr. O’Leary has a PhD in Biological Chemistry from UCLA.

In the last decade, Dr. O’Leary has been awarded millions of dollars in federal and foundation grants to support educational initiatives and she is a published author and a recognized research scholar in science education. She was recently awarded a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award by UCLA’s Academic Senate for her extraordinary leadership and commitment to diversity initiatives that strengthen the teaching community and support the academic success of students historically underrepresented and underserved in higher education.

I extend my gratitude to Dr. James Pellegrino and the search committee for their excellent work in bringing outstanding candidates to campus last semester.

Sincerely,

Susan Poser
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

For more information, please contact:
Kelcie O’Shea
kgauen3@uic.edu