2022-2023 Engaged Faculty Fellows

Jennifer Schonwetter, Lecturer, Department of Writing Studies, College of Arts and Sciences 

With the Engaged Faculty Fellowship, Jennifer Schonwetter developed a new course for The
Writing Studies Department, entitled “Embodied Education and Outreach: Using Mindfulness, Literacy, and Service to Counter Silencing in Marginalized Female Communities.” The course combines composition and mindfulness and invites University of Miami students to learn about the historical context of marginalized females’ subjugation and survival tactics in the United States, with a specific focus on black, Asian American, and Latinx females. During the course, students engage with multicultural feminist texts, enhance literacy skills through readings, writing assignments, and reflections, and create inclusive, literacy-based mindfulness activities to be used during service-learning outreach.

Jill Richardson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, Rosenstiel School, Schools & Colleges

Growing up in Miami, Jill Richardson was all too familiar with the stark inequities in education, access, and opportunity in disadvantaged communities, particularly among young students. So, in 2008, she created an annual outreach event called “Ocean Kids” with two primary goals. The first was to engage children in under-resourced public schools in Miami-Dade County in the joy of STEM education and discovery, reaching over 2,000 at-risk students to date, and the second was to foster a sense of responsibility and civic engagement among undergraduate and graduate students at UM/RSMAS. To integrate and expand upon these goals, she developed a course in DEIA in STEM Education: Theory and Reflection (Part I) and Practice and Implementation (Part II). The course will serve as a platform to have difficult but meaningful conversations about race, gender, and disability, with the ultimate goals of identifying and acknowledging inherent biases and moving towards a sense of solidarity and inclusion in, not only our teaching but our everyday lives.

Doug Lehmann, Associate Professor of Professional Practice Director, Deloitte Institute for Research and Practice in Analytics, Miami Herbert Business School  

Doug Lehmann is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Department of
Management Science, where he teaches courses in business analytics. As an Engaged
Faculty Fellow, he will develop an undergraduate course that blends the use of analytics
with civic-engagement and service-learning. Titled “Analytics for Social Good”, students
will undertake analytics-oriented projects for local non-profit organizations. The course
will give students a real-world experience with data, analytics, and the methods learned
in the classroom, while providing support to local non-profits and enabling students to
engage with community leaders and see the impact of data and analytics when applied for
social good.

Jyotika Rampaprasad, Professor, Department of Journalism and Media Management, School of Communication 

Jyotika Ramaprasad’s Engaged Faculty Fellows Program course is on global civic engagement using social change communication. She is a firm believer in the critical role a global orientation and field experience play in a student’s civic education, both complementing the study of critical theories and research and facilitating the inclusion of local culture and epistemologies in practice. Specifically, students will engage with a global perspective on social issues, develop an understanding of communication theory, research, and informed practice, and implement virtually a communication-based project in the developing world. Ramaprasad’s contacts in the Global South will facilitate the virtual experience.

Jason Mizell, Assistant Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning (ED), School of Education and Human Development

Jason D. Mizell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning. His
research, teaching, and service are filtered through a Culturally sustaining systemic functional linguistics lens that holds at its center anti-racist and abolitionist teaching. As an Engaged Faculty Fellow, Dr Mizell plans to partner with local community centers and/or libraries in South Miami Dade to develop a community-centered Children’s literature course. His course will center on children’s books that bring into focus the lives of Black, Brown, and multilingual youth as they can be found in our communities. As an educator with nearly 2 decades of PreK-12 and postsecondary experience, Dr. Mizell has learned that children’s books have the ability to open our eyes to different lived experiences.

Top