(493b) Reflections from Ten Years at the Lectern: Insights on Teaching, Scholarship, and Service from an Educational-Focused Perspective

If asked to identify what are the three most important elements of a professor's life, a common reply might be, "teaching, scholarship, and service." As faculty members progress through their careers, it is important to identify how they want to make an impact in these areas. It is understandable that different types of universities place different emphasis on these three elements: an R1 research university might put more emphasis on research, whereas an primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) might put more emphasis on teaching. But what about service? Service can mean many things: service to your department, service to your institution, and service to your profession.

In this talk, I will provide insights into advancing teaching, scholarship, and service from the perspective of working at an undergraduate-focused institution. More specifically, I will focus primarily on teaching and service. The teaching part of my talk will focus on adopting modern pedagogical methods and leveraging resources to enhance student learning in the classroom. Examples of teaching initiatives that I have worked on include peer instruction, digital textbooks, and incorporating computation in the classroom. The service part of my talk will provide insight into how to identify opportunities to make a difference both on an institutional and professional society level. Examples of service initiatives that I have worked on include serving on multiple search committees, chairing my university's Faculty-Student Senate, leading institutional accreditation efforts, serving as a volunteer ABET evaluator, and working in leadership roles at AIChE and ASEE.

While I will provide some background on the opportunities that I have pursued in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service, ultimately the goal of this talk is to provide advice to young faculty members in achieving success and ideally a valued sense of fulfillment in these three important areas of faculty life.