TLC Faculty Director Announcement

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) is pleased to announce the selection of Robin Dunkin, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, as its new Faculty Director. The Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) and Online Education (OE) merged in the spring of 2023 to become the TLC. The merger of OE and CITL allows us to bring together the expertise of both units to support the campus in navigating the contemporary instructional landscape, including pedagogical and equity-minded approaches for teaching with technology. As an even more comprehensive teaching center, we can better serve instructors at all levels with course design and redesign, promoting and assessing student learning, making equity data actionable, and having an impact on how we evaluate and reward teaching on campus.

Robin’s appointment is effective on July 1, 2023, and she will serve a three year term. As the faculty lead of the center, the primary responsibilities of the faculty director are to lead faculty development efforts at the TLC, collaboratively develop goals for the TLC, and provide faculty leadership and oversight on TLC operations and communications.

Robin brings a wealth of teaching experience and leadership to the TLC Faculty Director position. She has served as CITL’s Assistant Faculty Director since 2019 and acting Faculty Director for two quarters. As CITL’s Assistant Faculty Director, Robin has supported the Faculty Director and partnered with center staff to develop and deliver faculty workshops, the STEM Teaching and Learning Community, Project REAL, and New Faculty Teaching Academy. As a CITL Faculty Fellow over several years, Robin focused on bringing active learning to large lecture courses and on using these activities as training opportunities for graduate students. More recently, Robin has been working to enhance cross-course connections across the introductory science curriculum and refining new methods of assessment in large lecture science courses. Robin has also been active in the Academic Senate, serving on the Committee on Teaching for 4 years. She has been recognized with a Disability Resource Center teaching award, as well as the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Academic Senate Committee on Teaching. 

Founding Faculty Director Jody Greene will be stepping down on June 30 after seven years leading the center through the first phase of its development. The campus benefited tremendously from Jody’s vision, leadership, and tireless efforts in creating the center and changing the culture of teaching and learning at UC Santa Cruz, and we are looking forward to continuing a close partnership. We welcome Robin Dunkin as the TLC’s new Faculty Director in this next phase, and we are excited for the contributions she will make.