Office of the Provost–Division of Faculty Success
Trinity Hall 106, 800 Greek Row Dr., Box 19128
The University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, TX 76019
Phone: 817-272-7464 | Email: CRTLE@uta.edu
Faculty Fellows
Meet the UTA CRTLE Faculty Fellows: Your Campus Partners in Teaching Excellence
Our CRTLE Faculty Fellows serve a two-year role with us and bring a wide range of teaching expertise across UTA’s colleges.
This group of dedicated educators supports evidence‑based teaching, innovative course design, active learning, service learning, experiential learning, and much more. Their role includes co-leading CRTLE programming, collaborating with colleagues, shaping faculty development, refining their own teaching, piloting new ideas, and serving as liaisons between CRTLE and academic departments.
If you're looking to brainstorm ideas, refine a teaching strategy, explore new tools, or connect around a specific pedagogical interest, feel free to reach out directly to any of our facilitators—their areas of expertise are listed with each profile. They’re here to support and collaborate with colleagues across campus!
Kevin Carr, PhD
Kevin Carr, Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing, is deeply committed to empowering students, especially first generation learners, to develop confidence, professional communication skills, and a strong sense of belonging in academic and workplace environments. As the son of immigrants and a first generation college graduate himself, he designs dynamic, highly interactive learning experiences centered on scaffolded practice, real time feedback, and reflection. His courses simulate real workplace communication through team meeting role plays, networking rehearsals, and feedback delivery exercises that cultivate emotional intelligence and effective verbal and nonverbal communication. Dr. Carr integrates generative AI transparently and ethically to support formative assessment, revision, and confidence building. Student voice shapes every course through structured feedback loops such as “What I Want to Learn” reflections and mid semester Start/Stop/Continue evaluations. His team based consulting projects engage students in solving authentic business problems and presenting credible, audience centered recommendations.
Jiyoon Yoon, PhD
Jiyoon Yoon, Associate Professor of Science Education, brings over 23 years of experience preparing pre service and in service teachers through research informed, equity centered, and inquiry driven instruction. She emphasizes experiential learning that positions students as active investigators, reflective thinkers, and critical evaluators of educational practices. Her courses integrate culturally responsive pedagogy, AI supported formative feedback, and structured collaboration to deepen conceptual understanding and improve research literacy. Dr. Yoon is known for designing signature assignments such as misconception interviews, culturally responsive lesson design, and data driven critiques of educational interventions. She prioritizes transparency, iterative feedback, and purposeful assessment across all modalities: face to face, hybrid, and online. Her redesign of graduate level science education courses enhanced students’ abilities to analyze evidence, apply research to authentic classroom contexts, and develop reflective teaching identities. She cultivates inclusive learning environments where emerging educators learn to become critical consumers of research.
Tyler D. Garner, PhD, CSCS
Tyler Garner, Clinical Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, has spent more than a decade teaching high enrollment courses in human movement, physiology, sport nutrition, and health promotion. His pedagogy centers on growth mindset, belonging, and inclusive, equity minded instruction. He integrates active learning, Universal Design for Learning, and experiential simulations that connect course concepts to real human experiences. His hallmark COPD Empathy Simulation—where students navigate daily tasks while breathing through a straw and pulling a suitcase—builds compassion, critical thinking, and awareness of health disparities. Dr. Garner’s leadership in teaching innovation includes serving as a Faculty Fellow with the Student Experience Project and the Maverick Advantage Faculty Engagement program. He has mentored hundreds of students through advising and continues to support colleagues as a CRTLE Faculty Facilitator by sharing practical strategies for course design and engagement. His excellence was recognized with the 2025 CONHI Faculty Teaching Award.
Laurel Smith Stvan, PhD
Laurel Smith Stvan, Associate Professor of Linguistics and TESOL, has dedicated over 25 years to teaching semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and research methods while mentoring 23 doctoral students to degree completion. She co developed UTA’s MA in TESOL program and has played a major role in redesigning core linguistics curriculum, including creating the department’s first intentionally online synchronous course that meets Quality Matters standards. Her teaching emphasizes accessibility, multimodal engagement, and the development of public facing scholarly communication skills. Since 2017 she has integrated Wiki Education projects into multiple courses, enabling students to expand Wikipedia entries related to linguistics while practicing peer reviewed, research supported writing for broad audiences. As a CRTLE Learning Analytics Fellow, she collaborates with University Analytics to explore data informed teaching strategies and contributes to scholarship of teaching and learning. Her longstanding leadership includes roles as department chair and interim chair in two academic units.
Christy Spivey, PhD
Christy Spivey, Clinical Professor of Economics and Distinguished Teaching Professor, is a nationally recognized leader in online pedagogy, applied economics education, and faculty led global learning. With more than twenty years of teaching experience, she designs highly interactive, technology rich courses that emphasize hands on data analysis, simulation based learning, and reproducible research practices. She integrates tools such as Tableau, Stata, H5P, Moblab, and AI to create dynamic environments where students explore real world economic problems. Her signature data storytelling project teaches students to build compelling, evidence based visual narratives and earn a microcredential. Dr. Spivey also leads study abroad programs in Europe and Panama and developed UTA’s first virtual global learning course, which significantly advances students’ intercultural competence. As Program Director for the MS in Economic Data Analytics and a Quality Matters peer reviewer, she contributes extensively to curriculum improvement and faculty development. Her numerous honors include the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and the TxDLA Excellence in Distance Education...
Bonnie Bost Laster, PhD
Bonnie Laster, Associate Professor of Instruction in Psychology, teaches clinical counseling, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology with an emphasis on experiential, applied, and trauma informed learning. Drawing on over twenty years of experience in higher education, she designs signature assignments such as clinical case formulations, diagnostic analyses of fictional clients, reflective journals, structured role plays, and an innovative abnormal psychology storybook project that blends creativity with deep conceptual understanding. Dr. Laster incorporates mental health related microcredentials—such as suicide prevention and mental health first aid training—into her advanced clinical courses to support workforce readiness. She champions inclusive and holistic assessment practices that value reflection, depth of thinking, and real world relevance. Her pedagogy integrates learning science, counseling modalities, and applied psychology to help students develop critical thinking and clinical reasoning. She received the 2025 Outstanding Teaching Award in the College of Science.
Shelley L. Wigley, PhD
Shelley Wigley, Associate Professor of Communication, has taught public relations for more than two decades and is known for creating highly interactive, practice based learning environments. Her PR Campaigns capstone places students in agency style teams partnering with real clients, allowing them to design, implement, and evaluate strategic communication campaigns. She created the department’s first strategic social media course and launched the Communication Ambassadors program, now used across multiple units. Her courses incorporate experiential learning with AI tools, archival research using UTA Special Collections, and microcredentials that support professional development. Dr. Wigley is an ACUE certified instructor, a Student Experience Project fellow, and a leader of her department’s Working AI Group. She promotes inclusive, relationship centered teaching and helps students connect communication theory to authentic professional contexts. Her teaching has been recognized with multiple awards in the College of Liberal Arts.
Dianna Rachell Woods Jones, PhD
Dianna Woods Jones, Assistant Professor of Practice in Social Work, brings over 15 years of university teaching experience and more than 25 years of macro practice expertise across community, organizational, and policy settings. Her teaching is grounded in flipped learning, project based learning, and adult learning theory, emphasizing student directed inquiry, reflection, and real world application. Dr. Woods Jones’s classes help emerging social workers understand how policy, advocacy, and community based research intersect to shape systems level change. Her scholarly interests include participatory action research, policy analysis, and applied research in service organizations and higher education. She views classrooms and community partnerships as spaces for cocreated knowledge and critical inquiry, preparing students to become adaptable social justice oriented practitioners. She mentors adjunct faculty, supports program development, and has been recognized for excellence in student engagement by the Division of Student Affairs.
Ahmad Bani Hani, PhD, M.ASCE
Ahmad Bani Hani is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Civil Engineering, where he teaches Construction Management with a strong emphasis on active learning, applied research, and industry aligned professional preparation. Drawing on experience from National Science Foundation (NSF) and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) projects, he brings practical engineering challenges into the classroom, helping students connect theoretical concepts to real world construction environments. As a LEED Green Associate, he integrates sustainability, environmental responsibility, and contemporary construction practices into collaborative, student centered activities that promote critical thinking, communication, and technical skill development. Dr. Bani Hani regularly participates in pedagogical professional development to refine his teaching and strengthen student learning outcomes. He serves as a CRTLE Faculty Facilitator, supporting instructional innovation across campus, and advises the Construction Management Student Organization, coordinating guest speakers, mentoring, and field visits that help students engage with industry professionals.
Sarah Alice Shelton, PhD, Lead Facilitator
Sarah Alice Shelton is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, where she teaches composition and literature and leads several key departmental initiatives, including social media coordination, the Rhetoric and Writing Studies minor, and the internship program. Her interdisciplinary praxis spans experiential learning, multimodal composition, digital authorship, posthumanist pedagogy, and AI supported writing instruction. She encourages students to approach reading and writing as embodied, creative, and critically reflective processes shaped by material, technological, and cultural contexts. Dr. Shelton’s scholarly work appears in publications including Towards Posthumanism in Education. A dedicated mentor and advocate, she serves as a MAFE Facilitator with CRTLE, supporting faculty in integrating experiential learning across disciplines. Her teaching foregrounds equity, curiosity, and multimodal creativity, encouraging students to see themselves as capable thinkers and makers. She has been recognized with multiple awards, including UTA Libraries instructional grants, the O’Neill Academic Excellence Award, and the Mansfield ISD Distinguished Educator Award.