Keynote Speakers

Randy Bass Associate Professor, Department of English Assistant Provost, Teaching and Learning Initiatives Executive Director, Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship Director, Visible Knowledge Project Georgetown University

Randy Bass earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Brown University and his B.A. from the University of the Pacific. His teaching and research interests include: 19th century American literature and American cultural studies; American documentary; and representations of violence and social crisis. His primary interests include use of new technologies in humanities instruction and pedagogy, theory and practice of digital textuality. Randy's selected publications include: serving as Co-editor of Intentional Media: The Crossroads Conversations on Learning and Technology in the American Culture and History Classroom (Works and Days, 2000); serving as Editor of Border Texts: Cultural Readings for Contemporary Writers (Houghton Mifflin, 1999); serving as supervising editor of Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Using Technology in Teaching American Studies; and serving as director of the American Studies Crossroads Project.  One of his more influential writings is an article, “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:  What's the Problem?” He has received a $2.67 million grant for Visible Knowledge Project (2000) and EDUCAUSE's medal for outstanding achievement in technology and undergraduate education (1998).  He also served as a Pew Scholar and Carnegie Fellow, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1999) and is currently working on Visible Knowledge Project (national research project on learning and technology in the humanities), and the book project: Hyper Activity and Under Construction: Learning Culture in the 21st Century.

Kathy Takayama Associate Director for the Life & Physical Sciences The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning Adjunct Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Brown University

Kathy Takayama holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutgers Medical School. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1991–1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1994 Kathy joined the faculty of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She returned to the US in 2007 to join the Sheridan Center at Brown University. In addition to her molecular biology research, Kathy has engaged in cross-disciplinary research on the impact of visualizations on learning in the sciences. Her selected publications include: “Teaching visualizing the science of genomics” (2005), in Visualization in Science Education (Gilbert, ed.); “Mapping student learning throughout the collaborative inquiry process: the progressive e-poster” (with Wilson, 2005, Uniserve Symposium Proceedings); “Computer-aided visualisation in teaching genomics and bioinformatics” (with Whitaker), FASEB Journal (2004). Kathy has engaged in arts-science collaborations to explore the communication and interpretation of the sciences. Her work with Sydney-based sculptor John Nicholson (“The Symbiotic Bacterial Light Project: Luxcorp”) has been exhibited at the Canberra Contemporary Arts Space gallery in Australia’s capital city. She has been awarded the UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, the Australian College of Educators New South Wales Quality Teaching Award, and the Australian Society for Microbiology David White Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2003, Kathy was selected as the first Carnegie Scholar from Australasia. She is a founding member of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and served as ISSOTL’s first Regional VP for Australasia, and Chair of the 4th ISSOTL Conference in Sydney. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, and the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Kathy also serves on the National Steering Committee of the NSF-sponsored SOTL residency institute: the Biology Scholars Program, and Co-Chairs the Biology Scholars Writing Residency Program. In addition to her work in the scholarship of teaching and learning, Kathy has been extensively involved in outreach projects for elementary schools and museums, and has mentored underprivileged children in the sciences.

Laurie Richlin Director, Office of Faculty Development, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science Director, Lilly Conference on College & University Teaching-West Executive Editor, Journal on Excellence in College Teaching President, International Alliance of Teacher Scholars

Laurie Richlin received her doctorate in higher education from the Claremont Graduate University and her dissertation research on alternative doctoral scholarship received the national Gratzke award from the American Association of University Administrators. Her recent publications include Blueprint for Learning: Constructing Courses to Facilitate, Assess, and Document Learning (Stylus, 2006); Building Faculty Learning Communities (NDTL Number 97) with Milton Cox; "Scholarly Teaching & the Scholarship of Teaching" in The Scholarship of Teaching (New Directions in Teaching and Learning); Preparing Faculty for the New Conceptions of Scholarship (New Directions in Teaching and Learning); Broadening the Concept of Scholarship in the Professions" (with Rice), in Educating Professionals (Curry & Wergin, eds.). Her new book, Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching will be out in August 2009 (Stylus). She has taught The Academic Career, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, New Orleans: Legacy and Promise, Journalism, Career Development, capstone courses in Education, and writing and research methods courses in several disciplines. Richlin developed and implemented the Teaching Assistant Development Program at the University of California, Riverside, was "Educator in Residence" at four small colleges in Kentucky and Indiana under a FIPSE grant, and
served as Director of the Office of Faculty Development at the University of Pittsburgh before returning to California.