ACADEMIC AFFAIRS | Vice Provost for Academic Affairs David Sapp recently announced the following:
After a semester-long search process, which included over two dozen nominations and a deep pool of qualified faculty applicants, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Martina Giselle Ramirez, Professor of Biology, as the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Ramirez will begin a three-year term on June 1, 2018.
As CTE Director, Dr. Ramirez will report to the Associate Provost for Research and Professional Development. She plans to build on the work of previous directors and provide a robust set of programs and resources that will appeal to full- and part-time faculty across the disciplines. Dr. Ramirez will continue to partner closely with the Committee on Excellence in Teaching, whose members vetted and interviewed candidates and recommended that Dr. Ramirez be appointed. Father Luís Proença, Associate Professor of Production and Chair of the Committee on Excellence in Teaching points out that Dr. Ramirez “enjoys bringing excellent minds and voices together to create innovative and significant resources in the service of [faculty] growth and transformation” and will bring to the CTE “a wealth of university-wide connections.”
Prof. Ramirez received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from LMU and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is well-known for her commitment to teaching and mentoring and has a long history of University service and leadership. As former chair of the Biology Department, Dr. Ramirez currently serves on the Faculty Committee on Mission and Identity, the Committee on the Status of Women, the University Research Council, and ex officio as a member of the Committee on Excellence in Teaching. As Special Assistant to the Provost for Technology Enhanced Learning since 2015, Dr. Ramirez has worked closely with LMU faculty, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Academic Technology Committee to provide knowledge of best practices and support for the development and assessment of LMU’s growing number of online and hybrid courses. She also has served as co-Director of the McNair Scholars Program; she co-wrote the successful $1.1M grant from the U.S. Department of Education that resulted in the McNair Scholar Program being founded at LMU in 2012 and was PI on the successful proposal for renewal in 2017.
Dedicated to the teacher-scholar model, Dr. Ramirez has been a faculty member at LMU since 1999 and is well known for her commitment to mentoring and engaging students in research. Dr. Ramirez’s research involves conservation biology, population genetics, and the evolutionary biology of spiders. Her Spider Lab gives students the opportunity to engage in scientific studies of selected biological phenomena. This has led to numerous grants and published papers with undergraduate student coauthors. Arising from this record of success, Dr. Ramirez was the recipient of the “Biology Mentor Award” from the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR, a national organization).
As we welcome Dr. Ramirez, I would also like to join the LMU faculty community, including members of the Committee on Excellence in Teaching, in thanking Dr. Vince Coletta, Professor of Physics, for his service as CTE Director during the 2017-2018 academic year. Please join me in expressing our appreciation to Dr. Coletta and our best wishes to Dr. Ramirez as she takes on this important leadership role.
I am deeply appreciative to all of our LMU faculty colleagues who participated in this search process through nominations, applications, inquires, questions, and encouraging feedback. I am especially grateful to the members of the Committee for Excellence in Teaching for their dedication to our faculty and students and their commitment to shared governance.
All best wishes as you bring the semester to its conclusion,
David Sapp
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Professor of Educational Leadership
