2025 - 2026 Faculty Learning Communities

Facilitator: Jennifer Nyland, Biological Sciences

The First Year Seminar courses are a defining element of our General Education curriculum. The goal of this FLC is to create a space for faculty to learn from each other's experiments, to share our failures and struggles, to encourage each other, and to celebrate our successes. Participation will be open to all faculty teaching FYS courses. In this second year offering these FYS FLC gatherings, we will provide professional development opportunities (for example, presentations from middle and high school teachers to better understand the educational environment our FYS students are coming in from) and share resources. With one year of experiences and data, we can begin to fine-tune our approach to these courses together. Anticipate Friday meetings- either early morning or mid-afternoon.

Facilitator: Melissa Thompson, Social Work

The rapid evolution of generative AI has disrupted traditional assumptions about how students demonstrate learning—particularly in written assignments and standardized assessments. This Faculty Learning Community will serve as a collaborative space for faculty to critically and creatively rethink assignment design across disciplines and modalities.

Rather than framing AI as a threat, this FLC starts with a generative question: What kinds of assignments are still meaningful, motivating, and uniquely human—even when AI is in the room? What does a learning community focused on integrity look like? And how, in collaboration with our students, do we create them?

We will examine how to create assignments that emphasize process, critical thinking, creativity, and authentic engagement—moving beyond reliance on essays, exams, and discussion posts as default forms of assessment. Through shared inquiry, redesign experiments, and reflective dialogue, this FLC aims to cultivate a culture of innovation around how we ask students to demonstrate what they know. "

Facilitator: Meredith Patterson, Psychology

This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will pursue two interrelated goals: (1) to expand and enrich the Gerontology minor at Salisbury University and (2) to have SU become a member of the Gerontological Society of America’s Age-Friendly University (AFU) Global Network.

Facilitators: Chrys Egan, Fulton School; Stephen Habay, Chemistry; Jim Fox, Education Leadership and Literacy Studies;

The Department Chairs and School Directors FLC invites leaders across academic units to collaborate throughout the academic year to address program leadership expectations, changes, challenges, and successes. Chairs and directors serve as liaisons between stakeholders (administration, faculty, staff, students, families, alumni, donors, and community members) to manage significant responsibilities (curriculum, schedules, budget, committees, recruitment, retention, assessment, professional development, strategic planning, and more), while providing vision, upholding morale, and resolving issues. This FLC will balance the needs and abilities ranging from new, incoming chairs/directors to seasoned pros, who may be transitioning back to the faculty or seeking additional leadership roles. The FLC takes a facilitated workshop approach to prepare leaders, transfer institutional knowledge, share best practices, problem-solve issues in real time, and provide a safe, collegial community of leaders. We also schedule meetings with the President and Provost monthly.

Facilitators:  Yuki Okubo, Psychology; Haley Cristea, Instructional Design & Delivery; Casey Stratton, Communication;

For the past three years, DJAM serves to connect faculty, staff, and students across campus to promote belonging. We encourage opportunities to foster growth and connection, by hosting informal meetings to build community strength by sharing our personal experiences, values, and world views informed by differences of culture and circumstance, as well as sharing success stories and modelling ways of successful inclusion. We advocate for equal access, opportunity, and advancement of all students, faculty, and staff as we collaborate with other groups on campus, such as the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Office of Access and Accommodations, and the Center for Student Achievement, to identify barriers and solutions that make an impact. We welcome all to attend our informal meetings as we continue to expand our network and lend our voice to important campus initiatives.

Facilitators: Catherine Jackson, Fulton School of Liberal Arts; Janice Orcutt, Instructional Design and Delivery;

The FLC–GenAI brings together faculty who are developing or planning to develop courses that explore the role of artificial intelligence within their disciplines. Membership is open to instructors at all levels of experience—whether experimenting with a single AI-enabled assignment or designing an entire AI-focused course. This inclusive community values both novice and advanced users, recognizing that all contributions help shape our collective understanding of AI in higher education. Through regular meetings, research, and partnerships (such as CAFÉ, the AI Task Force, and Instructional Design & Delivery (ID&D)), the FLC will serve as a hub for innovation, resource sharing, and campus-wide insight. Each semester, the group will highlight and celebrate innovative course designs and activities that thoughtfully integrate AI. Together, members support informed experimentation, foster shared learning, and contribute to a dynamic and evolving academic conversation about AI at Salisbury University. Faculty, staff, or graduate students interested in participating in this FLC, can register for membership.

Facilitators: Stephen Habay, Chemistry

Green chemistry is defined as the design of chemical products and processes that reduce and/or eliminate hazardous substances. It is considered a pro-active approach to addressing pollution and hazards in the design phase of a product life cycle. Green Chemistry requires chemists to use their skills to bring sustainability into their practice. There is a growing demand for scientists with green chemistry training as the green chemicals market continues to grow. There is projected growth in green chemistry jobs and companies are aiming to achieve their sustainability goals through chemistry research and development. As a result, the Department of Chemistry at SU has signed the Green Chemistry Commitment, a formal movement aimed at growing the green chemistry workforce and creating positive change in chemistry education.

The purpose of the Green Chemistry FLC is to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate green chemistry and sustainability into the chemistry curriculum. Specifically our FLC aims to: (1) provide students with a working knowledge of the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry, (2) Use case studies to demonstrate to students the interplay of chemical, environmental health, regulatory, and business considerations that dictate chemical processes and product design, (3) Give students the opportunity to assess chemical products and processes and design greener alternatives when appropriate, and (4) teach students to understand and evaluate the environmental, social, and health impacts of a chemical product over the life cycle of the product, from synthesis to disposal. 

Facilitator: Shane Hall, Environmental Studies; Lindsey Ward, Career Services;

The Green Futures Faculty Learning Community provides professional development opportunities for SU faculty and staff committed to preparing students for meaningful careers in the rapidly expanding green economy. Through monthly meetings featuring guest speakers from Career Services, regional green economy professionals, alumni, and fellow faculty and students, the FLC builds participants' capacity to mentor students toward career readiness in fields such as conservation, sustainable agriculture, environmental law, environmental justice, corporate sustainability, and green start ups. This initiative directly supports the GFP's mission of creating "comprehensive, inclusive, and sustainable pipelines for students into the green economy" by ensuring faculty across all disciplines have the knowledge and resources needed to guide students toward impactful careers that serve both people and planet.

Facilitators: Belen Vicens, History

This FLC is designed for Humanities scholars to meet two to four times each semester to workshop work in progress and discuss our research agendas. Over the years we have built a supportive community that has been instrumental in helping members on top of scholarly projects, despite the challenges. As Elizabeth Tandy Shermer argues, “it always takes an academic village to bring [one’s writing] to life” in a publication. The Humanities Writing Group FLC aims to be one such village.

Facilitator: Christy Harper, Education Leadership; Ryan Weaver, PACE;

The Lead FLC is for faculty and staff interested in the study and application of leadership on campus and in the community. We aim to connect leadership opportunities at SU and in the community. The Lead FLC invites leaders across academic units to collaborate throughout the academic year to sharpen our skills as leaders while also sharing University-wide leadership initiatives, challenges, and successes. This FLC will also take the lead on developing and applying to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for Salisbury University to be recognized under the Classification for Leadership for Public Purpose. In addition to this effort, the Lead FLC will continue working toward offering robust leadership minors and majors at SU and even a proposed Center for Collaborative Leadership & Innovation housed at SU.

Facilitator: Chrys Egan, Fulton School; Melissa Bugdal, English; Shane Hall, Environmental Studies;

From 2018-2022, SU supported Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) cohorts through FLCs and University Analysis, Reporting & Assessment (UARA). This year, with the restructuring of SU’s Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellent (CAFE), the University of Baltimore’s Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT), invited CAFE to partner over the next two years on their existing “Teaching Scholars Program.” Both at UBalt and SU, these SoTL programs emerged from conversations with faculty who expressed a strong interest in conducting SoTL research, but faced barriers such as time constraints, limited capacity, and uncertainty about navigating the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process.

This partnership provides the necessary support for faculty to complete a SoTL research project from start to finish. Inspired by the University of Virginia’s SoTL Institute, this scaffolded cohort model offers sustainability and institutional impact. This model also breaks down disciplinary and institutional silos, which is a key priority, ensuring that faculty could collaborate and learn from one another across different fields.

Facilitators: Bibiana Koh, Social Work; Becky Anthony, Social Work;

The Social Justice Book Club, a new topic-based Faculty Learning Community (FLC), brings together faculty and staff who are committed to social justice. Using social-justice themed books as a vehicle for critical thinking, discussion, and community building, this FLC will read one social justice themed book each semester. Book discussions will include critical reflection on advancing social justice in the members' roles to benefit students and our community.

Facilitators: Derya Kulavuz-Onal, English; Mou Chakraborty, SU Libraries;

The TwINS FLC (Teaching with International Students) began its first year of activities during the 2019-2020 Academic Year. Our main focus is to explore pedagogies of teaching in the college classrooms where there are international students, especially those for whom English, the medium of instruction at SU, is a second/foreign language. Since September 2019, as members of the FLC, our goals have been to learn more about the different groups of international students, and the processes that international students go through before and during their studies in the United States; to better understand their needs, struggles and successes during their studies; to provide guidance and support in their acculturation process; to engage in advocacy for international students and international faculty on campus and beyond; to provide opportunities for community and career engagement for international students; and most importantly, to collaboratively enhance our college-level teaching pedagogies and differentiated instruction for international students in order to help them succeed in our classes and develop an enhanced sense of belonging on our campus.