The Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellows are a group who demonstrate excellence in online teaching. The Fellows provide guidance to members of the UF teaching community who wish to improve their online courses and complete online course reviews. Fellows also serve as ambassadors and reviewers for the Pathways Online Course Reviews process.

Teaching Excellence Fellows advise in these areas of the course review process:

  • Best practices for writing and submitting a self-review
  • How to interpret and incorporate feedback from your review team
  • How to efficiently “pay-it-forward” as a Reviewer
  • Expand the accordions to see the 2023-2024 Faculty Fellows and the colleges they serve.

Agricultural and Life Sciences

A picture of Soohyoun Ahn

Soohyoun (Soo) Ahn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Food Science and Human Nutrition

Dr. Soohyoun (Soo) Ahn is an Instructional Assistant Professor in Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at UF. She received her Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell University and started her work at UF as a faculty member in 2012. Dr. Ahn is teaching multiple Food Science courses, including 3 online courses, and she also teaches two courses for distance learning students under Flexible Learning program. She is a nationally acclaimed food safety expert, and she also started the Florida Food Entrepreneurship program in 2013 and helped numerous Floridians to start their own food business as the program coordinator until she stepped down in 2020. Dr. Ahn is the CALS Undergraduate Teacher of the year in 2022-2023. Dr. Ahn loves reading, watching movies, doing jigsaw puzzles, or playing with her border collie, Milo, in her free time.

An image of Megan Cantrell

Megan Cantrell
Lecturer
Department of Agricultural Education and Communication

Megan Cantrell is a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication. Her classes are focused within agricultural leadership development, and she also conducts various leadership trainings for agriculture and natural resources industry groups around Florida. In addition to her teaching and extension programming, Cantrell serves as the coordinator for the university-wide leadership minor at the University of Florida.

Warrington College of Business
Design Construction & Planning

An image of Kimberly MooreKim Moore, Ph.D.
Professor
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Environmental Horticulture

Kimberly Moore is a professor of Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida, IFAS, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education center. In addition to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, she teaches Elementary Organic and Biological Chemistry as well as Nutritional Management and Getting Published in Horticulture. Along with her students, she researches nutritional management strategies for ornamental crops to reduce fertilizer run-off and improve fertilization management. Dr. Moore received her PhD and MS in horticulture from Iowa State University and her BS in Environmental Science and Botany with a minor in chemistry from Eastern Illinois University. She joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1995.

 

Education

A photo of Dr. Elyse Hambacher.Dr. Elyse Hambacher
Clinical Associate Professor
Program Coordinator for the Teachers, Schools, and Society online EdD program

Elyse Hambacher is a Clinical Associate Professor of Education and Program Coordinator for the Teachers, Schools, and Society online EdD program. Her teaching and research focus on the sociopolitical contexts of education, social justice teaching and teacher preparation. Dr. Hambacher is currently working on a project that examines how justice-oriented white educators in a predominantly white school district engage with concepts of race, anti-racism, and whiteness. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Florida and holds a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She works with students and educators at various levels including pre-service teachers, inservice teachers, and master’s and PhD students. Prior to working in higher education, she was a classroom teacher in Miami, FL, and taught English in Kumamoto, Japan. In her free time, you can find her at the beach, on a spin bike, or finding the next best place to eat.

 

A photo of Bojan Lazarevic, Ph.D.Bojan Lazarevic, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
College of Education

Bojan Lazarevic's educational background is in instructional technology with an emphasis on online learning, media development, and emerging technologies. His work is strongly rooted in an interdisciplinary approach aspiring to bridge the science of learning and innovative online pedagogy with various academic fields such as medicine, language, and art.
The scope of Dr. Lazarevic's research interest encompasses the intersection of online teaching methods and quality assurance, instructional design, emerging technologies including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), interactive multimedia, cognition and learning. Currently, his research endeavors gravitate toward exploring effective strategies for integrating emerging learning technologies associated with online instruction. He is especially invested in designing, developing, and evaluating the affordances of video technology and 360/VR immersive content and its application in an online environment. Translating theory into practice combined with reflective instructional design has been the pivotal point of his academic efforts in the past decade. As a principal researcher he conducts the following two ongoing projects: a) Integration of an Immersive VR Video Technology in Nursing Education and b) Task-Based Language Teaching Through Virtual Reality.
Above all, Dr. Lazarevic enjoys leading the EdTech undergraduate specialization and minor at the University of Florida. This professional engagement consists of a wide range of responsibilities that are not limited to the following: conceptualizing curriculum, coordinating instructional and program activities, mentoring course instructors, securing external partnerships, and teaching.
To date, Dr. Lazarevic has published two books and a number of papers in both peer review journals and conference proceedings.
Wertheim College of Engineering

A photo of Sujata KrishnaSujata Krishna, Ph.D.
Lecturer
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Physics Department

I am an Assistant Instructional Professor of Physics at UF. I have been teaching and developing online courses for over 5 years. I also teach face-to-face courses and rung the Physics Learning Assistant Program. I have an Online Teaching Certificate from OLC.

a photo of John Mendoza-Garcia.John Mendoza-Garcia, PhD
Instructional Associate Professor
Department of Engineering Education
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering

John Mendoza Garcia is an Instructional Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Purdue University, and his Master's and a Bachelor's in Systems and Computing Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, in Colombia, and Universidad Nacional de Colombia respectively. He teaches professional skills like systems thinking, design thinking, problem-solving and algorithmic thinking. Dr. Mendoza-Garcia's research interests include investigating how to nurture in students these skills. He also worked in Industry before transitioning to academia.

Health & Human Performance

Ashlee Hoffman-OssiboffAshlee Hoffman-Ossiboff, MA, MS, PhD, MCHES
Instructional Assistant Professor
Department of Health Education and Behavior

Ashlee Ossiboff (Dr. O) teaches a variety of courses in the Department of Health Education and Behavior, including Personal and Family Health; Methods and Materials in Health Education; Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Health Promotion Programs; Emotional Health Counseling; Trends in International Health; Health Communication, as well as a Quest 2 Course – Culture and Health. Her teaching focus is international perspectives in health education. She uses a ‘flipped’ class format to increase student engagement and discussion. Each course includes weekly discussions, participation activities, and application-based tasks for optimal learning. She also hosts a health education internship in design, is a Study Abroad Director for the college, is involved in university learning communities, advises multiple student organizations, and works as a Preview Advisor during the summer for incoming freshman.
She earned her PhD in Health Education, with a cognate in Multicultural Issues in Health, as well as a MS in Health Promotion and Education from the University of Cincinnati. She also holds a MA in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University and a BA in Psychology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Dr. Ossiboff’s professional experience includes working in community health programs and initiatives, university wellness, fitness and health event management, and as a substance abuse counselor.

A photo of Linda NguyenLinda Nguyen, Ph.D.
Instructional Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology

Dr. Linda Nguyen is an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology. Dr. Nguyen teaches a wide array of anatomy and physiology undergraduate and graduate courses across various platforms (online, hybrid, residential courses). She also mentors and supervises the department’s graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants and has a keen interest in diversity, student engagement and academic support to meet the current needs of students in higher education. Dr. Nguyen has extensive experience working with the Center for Online and Innovative Productions (COIP) to update and optimize online course materials which has included utilizing green screens for lecture videos and interactive online lab activities. She is very passionate about teaching and student learning and is always trying to gain new perspectives on course development to provide the best learning experience for students.

Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dr. Stefanie K GazdaDr. Stefanie K Gazda
Associate Instructional Professor
Biology Department

Dr. Gazda is an Associate Instructional Professor and Online Education Coordinator in the Biology Department at UF. Originally from Massachusetts by way of New Hampshire, she joined UF in 2018. Her teaching interests include advancing the education of students with student-centered pedagogy and promoting a culture of inclusion and diversity within classes. She also conducts research on bottlenose dolphin foraging ecology in the Cedar Keys area. Here she is interested in understanding the role of environmental variables and spatial and temporal structures and scales in shaping large predator and prey habitat usage and dynamics, and monitoring regime change and ecosystem health through dolphins, a sentinel species.

A photo of Sujata Krishna.

Sujata Krishna, Ph.D.
Lecturer
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Physics Department

Dr. Krishna is a faculty member in the UF Physics Department. She has been reviewing online courses using the UF+QM rubric for the UF Center for Teaching Excellence for the past few years, and prior to that was a received Exemplary Course designation for courses taught by her online.. She received her online teaching certification from OLC in 2016 and actively teaches face-to-face as well.

A photo of Crystal MarullCrystal Marull, Ph.D.
Online Spanish and Coordinator
Online Spanish Program
Spanish and Portuguese Studies

Dr. Crystal Marull became the Coordinator of the Online Spanish Program in 2017. She adopts an innovative approach that incorporates telecollaborative virtual exchanges to facilitate student conversations with native speakers located across the Spanish-speaking world. These personal exchanges are crucial to engaging traditional and non-traditional learners by providing them with a safe space to navigate the process of discovery and to find meaning for their learning. Her courses have received local and national recognition and was named the 2023 UF Online Educator of the Year. She is actively engaged with the CTE as she strives to continue her own process of discovery and pedagogical development.

A photo of Stephanie StineStephanie Stine
Lecturer
Statistics Department

Stephanie Stine is a Lecturer in the Statistics Department at the University of Florida. She mainly teaches Introduction to Statistics 1, both the large enrollment hybrid class and the UF Online class. Prior to joining UF, Stephanie was a high school teacher and earned her M.S. in Statistics as a distance student from Texas A&M University. Having been an online learner and now an online teacher has given Stephanie an insight to both aspects of the online experience. She likes to hear about other methods or activities that teachers use in their lectures, and in turn thinking of how to incorporate them into her lessons to give students a variety of ways to learn Statistics. Stephanie recently completed a course refresh of STA 2023 Introduction to Statistics 1 UF Online which utilized PlayPosit to create interactive lectures for students.

an image of Shawn Weatherford.

Shawn Weatherford, Ph.D.
Associate Instructional Professor
Department of Physics

Shawn Weatherford joined the University of Florida Department of Physics in 2017 and currently holds the position of Associate Instructional Professor. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from North Carolina State University in 2011. His focus is the design of technology to provide students agency to create authentic artifacts representing their learning of physics. This includes students writing computer programs to model physical systems and the collection of authentic data to make sense of physical relationships utilizing quantitative reasoning. His work in the space of online learning was recognized in 2019 by the Online Learning Consortium with the Digital Learning Innovation Award for Faculty-Based Teams, in collaboration with other faculty in physics and CoIP. Shawn also received the 2020 Pioneer Contributor Award for courseware available through Florida CourseShare.

Nursing

A Photo of Marcia JohanssonMarcia Johansson, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, FCCM, FAANP
Associate Professor
College of Nursing

Marcia Johansson is an associate professor in the College of Nursing. She has had experience with Quality Matters and course reviews for the past 4 years. She is working with the College to review all of the online courses to meet the Quality Matters standards set by the University and the State of Florida.

Department Visits & Consultations

To request a chat with your college’s Faculty Fellow, use this form. You can expect a response within 1-2 business days. For immediate assistance contact lyonsn@ufl.edu.

To schedule a department visit with a member of the Center for Teaching Excellence staff or request a presentation from your college’s Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow, please complete
this form.

For questions about the Pathways to Online Teaching Excellence course review process, contact
lyonsn@ufl.edu