FTAD Staff
FTAD professional staff have specialized educational backgrounds and professional experience in college teaching. In addition to supporting teachers at Ohio State, they teach courses, conduct research, consult nationally, and are active in national and regional organizations.
Alan Kalish, Ph.D., is director of Faculty & TA Development and adjunct assistant professor of Education Policy & Leadership at The Ohio State University. He previously served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Sacramento, and associate director of the Teaching Resources Center at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he also earned his Ph.D. in English. His research interests include how people negotiate the transition from graduate school to faculty lives, and his publications include articles on this topic, as well as on other issues in college teaching.
Kathryn M. Plank, Ph.D., is the associate director of Faculty & TA Development and an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Educational Policy & Leadership. She joined Ohio State after several years at Penn State, where she was associate director of the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching and an affiliate assistant professor of English. Her interests include assessment, teaching with technology, gender issues in higher education, and literature and medicine.
Stephanie Rohdieck, MSW, LSW, is the instructional consultant for GTA Programs in Faculty & TA Development and an adjunct instructor in the School of Educational Policy & Leadership. She has a masters in Social Work Administration and earned her BA in Psychology and Women's Studies. Her current interests are graduate teaching preparation, teaching portfolio development, and writing reflectively about teaching.
Judith S. Ridgway, Ph.D., is the instructional consultant for Assessment and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Faculty & TA Development. She earned both a doctorate in Science Education and an MS in Zoology at The Ohio State University. Her research has focused on the adoption of standards-based teaching and educational digital libraries by undergraduate science faculty. Her current interests are implementation of inquiry teaching methods, articulation of learning outcomes, and evaluation of teaching strategies.
Laurie Maynell, M.A., is the instructional consultant specializing in support of international faculty and TAs, and an instructor with the ESL/Spoken English Program. She is a Ph.D. candidate currently writing her dissertation in the department of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. Her interests include classroom communication issues, intonation in spoken language, and language processing.
Heather Mitchell, B.A., program coordinator in Faculty & TA Development, joined The Ohio State University after serving four years as coordinator of academic programs in The University of Akron School of Music. She has a bachelor of arts in History from Baldwin Wallace College and is currently working on her master's degree in Higher Education Administration. Her professional interests include program evaluation, organizational assessment, and university policies relating to nontraditional students.
Stephanie Fowler, B.A., Office Supervisor, joined FTAD after serving eight years as the Business Manager of The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University. Her professional interests include fiscal accounting and statistical reporting.