Skip to main content
Sign In

Resources For: Prospective Students | Current Students | Parents | Faculty & Staff | Alumni & Friends | Patients

Center for Faculty Development

 

About Us

Staff

Donna Sobel ​

Donna Sobel, Acting Director

Dr. Donna Sobel is an associate professor in the School of Education & Human Development’s Special Education program at the University of Colorado Denver where she works with general and special education teacher candidates on how manage the realities of today's classrooms. Donna's concerns about the attitudes that teachers hold regarding issues of inclusive, culturally responsive teaching practices has led to a series of investigations examining  the developing pedagogical understanding of teachers to meet the educational needs of learners from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs. Donna has secured federal, state, and university grants aimed at investigating and fostering inclusive teaching practices. She is co-author of the book, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Teaching like our Students’ Lives Matter; has published her research in journals and books directed at classroom practitioners and teacher education researchers such as the Teaching Education,  Action in Teacher Education, Teacher Development, Exceptional Children; and has presented extensively at national conferences.

Trish Applegate-Loetz​





Administrative Assistant, Jody Maestas 


Joni Dunlap                                                

Joanna C. Dunlap, MBA, PhD, is an associate professor of instructional design and technology in the School of Education & Human Development, and past Assistant Director for Teaching Effectiveness in the CFD. An award-winning educator, Joni’s teaching and research interests focus on the use of sociocultural approaches to enhance adult learners’ development and experience in postsecondary settings. Recently, her work in this area has revolved around online teaching and learning in higher education, specifically looking at social presence, student engagement and retention, and the use of social media and networking tools and communities to support learning. Joni maintains a blog on postsecondary teaching and learning at http://joannadunlap.com.

Mary Connelly 

Mary K. Connelly is an associate professor and area head of Painting, Drawing and Foundations in the Visual Arts Department in the College of Arts & Media. She holds an M.F.A. in painting from Indiana University in Bloomington. Mary has exhibited her work in fourteen solo exhibitions over the last sixteen years, and her work has won numerous awards—she was recently given “First Place” in Figures & Faces juried exhibition in Palo Alto, CA, which opened in August 2012. Mary was an artist-in-residence at the prestigious Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a two-month fellowship while on sabbatical in 2010. Her work is represented by Goodwin Fine Art in Denver and First Street Gallery in NYC. Mary’s interest in teaching and assessment began as an assistant professor with her collaborations with Dr. Kenneth Wolf, co-authoring and publishing two papers on rubrics. In 2008 she was selected by the Center for Faculty Development to be one of six featured CU Denver professors in the national online video teaching project, Elixr Merlot. Mary has presented papers on assessment at national conferences, most recently at the ISoTL conference in 2009 and the FATE (Foundations in Art, Theory and Education) conference in 2011. Mary's work can be viewed at www.maryconnelly.com.​ 

Kenneth Wolf   

As the Director of Outcomes Assessment, Kenny is guiding academic programs in identifying student learning outcomes, creating effective assessments for measuring student learning, improving programs, and advancing student learning. Kenny received his doctorate at Stanford University in Curriculum and Teacher Education, with an emphasis in Language, Literacy, and Culture. His areas of scholarship are in educational assessment and literacy, and his publications have appeared in a variety of scholarly and practitioner journals.

Brenda Allen                      

Brenda J. Allen, Master Mentor​

In 2008, communication professor Brenda J. Allen (now the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion) parterned with Ellen Stevens (the former director of the Center for Faculty Development) to create the Tenure Track Faculty Mentoring Program on the CU Denver Downtown Campus. The program has matched senior scholars with new faculty to provide a holistic approach to professional development which includes offering information and guidance related to achieving tenure, fostering collegial relationships, and creating a scholarly community. As Master Mentor, Dr. Allen coordinates the program while also serving as a model for mentors and as a guide, resource, and source of inspiration for mentees. In 2011, she received the inaugural Annual Award for Excellence in Mentoring at CU Denver.

  

 

University of Colorado Denver

© 2013 The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate. All rights reserved.

All trademarks are registered property of the University. Used by permission only.