CNM Announces 2023-2024 Presidential Fellows
Every year, CNM chooses several faculty members to serve as Presidential Fellows. As a Presidential Fellow, they take a year off from teaching classes and spend one academic year researching topics important to CNM’s future. At the end of the fellowship, they provide recommendations on how CNM should strategically progress in their focus area. A brief description of each fellow’s research topic along with a short biography can be found below.
Artificial Intelligence: Shared Fellowship by Patty Wilber and Jim Batzer
Patty Wilber and Jim Batzer will be researching and assessing best practices to guide faculty through the challenge of course delivery and assessment in the age of student accessibility to Artificial Intelligent applications. They will also focus on identifying strategies and best practices for how CNM and CNM Ingenuity can harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to support processes across the college.
About Patty: Patty has worked at CNM in the biology department since 1996. She began as a part-time faculty member and discovered she really enjoyed teaching and eventually became full-time. Her interest in using technology in the classroom was piqued during the pandemic, as she spearheaded the development of an online microbiology lab and upgraded another biology lab. She is looking forward to investigating uses of artificial intelligence for both online and face-to-face classes.
About Jim: Jim has been teaching at CNM since 2011. He has taught a range of courses including Introduction to Computers and various computer programming classes. In recent years, his focus has shifted to artificial intelligence and machine learning. He helped design and currently teaches Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIML 1010) to help equip students with valuable skills for the future. Jim strongly believes that artificial intelligence, and generative artificial intelligence in particular, will be the defining technological development of our lifetimes. In his view, it is critically important to the future success of every single CNM student that we address these technologies head-on. As one of the two recipients of the artificial intelligence fellowship, Jim is excited about the opportunity to support faculty in navigating student use of artificial intelligence, identify concerns, and help guide and inform future policies.
Amplifying Hidden Voices Presidential Fellowship: Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh
Clarissa plans to collaborate with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and faculty from various disciplines across CNM to identify “Hidden Figures” within their fields. She will work with faculty to develop curriculum to amplify the voices of these individuals, helping Hispanic/LatinX, Native American, African American/Black, Asian American Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and North African, and LGBTQIA2S+ students see themselves within all disciplines. The Hidden Figures project will also focus on recognizing our own underrepresented faculty and staff that are leaders in their fields. Along this same theme, Clarissa will work with faculty, students, and staff to develop visual aids of the “Hidden Figures” that can be displayed in buildings across campus and host forums and panel discussions.
About Clarissa: Since 2002, Clarissa (Rissa) has reinforced her full-time chemistry faculty position at CNM with a passion for social justice. Her recent UNM graduate studies have broadened this passion from social justice to DEIJ and from the lenses of practitioner to practitioner/researcher/evaluator. Rissa’s STEM educational research focuses on emancipatory pedagogies, centering assessment and evaluation, and the theoretical and ethical frameworks that support DEIJ learning environments. Rissa regularly serves as both a lead organizer and faculty for #MYFest, a three-month open virtual learning experience designed to deepen learning by leveraging human connection, respecting agency, and self-determination (heutagogy). Rissa also gives national and international talks on “ungrading”, publishes regularly, and serves in several committee roles for the American Chemical Society.
Framework for Quality Education: Corrie Andries
Corrie will work closely with the Director of Learning and Development and the Cooperative for Teaching and Learning committees to support all aspects of the Framework for Quality Education: Principles and Pathways comprehensive faculty development model. Corrie’s work will focus on working with Office of Data Strategy and Academic Affairs staff on data reporting and analysis for faculty, supporting the implementation, review, and needed revisions of the Teaching Excellence Portfolio and related badge courses, collaborating on the development of curricula for the Teaching Academy and Educator Bootcamp, managing and supporting the faculty peer coaches, and organization of the badge and portfolio approval process and peer review committees.
About Corrie: Corrie has been a full-time biology faculty for over 20 years at CNM. She has worked on a wide variety of projects including novel degree programs, assessment, and curriculum development. In Fall 2022, she completed a STEM Inclusive Teaching Certificate Program funded through the National Science Foundation. Corrie also returned to a student role and completed a Spanish Language Certificate Program at CNM in 2019. That experience provided a fresh insight into how students navigate education today. Through years of working with fellow faculty and students, she wants to bring those experiences to support the Teaching Excellence Portfolio and Certificate initiative underway at our institution. Prior to joining CNM, Corrie worked at the UNM Cancer Center in a clinical laboratory classifying pediatric leukemia subtypes. Before that, she worked as an environmental consultant in Phoenix, where she managed site characterization and remediation of fuel-contaminated areas throughout Arizona. Corrie became passionate about teaching while a graduate student at Michigan State University and went on to complete a Teaching Certificate in the Sciences while earning her Master of Science in Botany and Plant Pathology.