Why I Teach: Conversations with ETSU Faculty

Mathew Desjardins, a member of the College of Business and Technology, is overseeing ETSU's innovative new BlueSky Tennessee Institute. This groundbreaking program provides Tennessee students the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree in computing and a job offer at BlueCross in just over two years. Podcast Transcript:  Professor Mathew Desjardins Because the end goal is when they are done with our degree in 27 months and they graduate and they shake your hand and they shake Dr. Noland's hand at graduation, they leave with a job offer. [Music] Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of our students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Mathew Desjardins from the ETSU College of Business and Technology. Matthew is part of our Computing faculty and is currently overseeing our Blue Sky Tennessee Institute. Enjoy the show. Professor Desjardins, welcome to our show. It's a pleasure to see you here today. First, I have to ask, did you drive the Tesla over today? Professor Mathew Desjardins I did drive the Tesla over today. Well, actually last night. I tried to come in the night before to get ready for an early day. So it's an interesting drive with a Tesla. You got to kind of let it go, its own control. But I, I trust it completely. It gets me from Chattanooga to here almost every week. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Now, well, I, I like how the Tesla is featured in, in a lot of what you do and the work that you do, so maybe we'll have a chance to talk more about that. Professor Mathew Desjardins Yeah, that'll be great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I like to start my podcast out with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what's one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Professor Mathew Desjardins Man, I remember my first day teaching. Dr. Kelly Price, a former faculty member in the department, she gave me a chance to, as a graduate student, to teach for her, and at that moment, I was like, "Yeah, this is what I want to do." She really encouraged me to get to where I want, but I was kind of strict, I won't lie. You know, when you're first teaching, you're like, oh, oh man, all my other teachers were strict, right? I have to be strict. So if I can go back to Old Matt or Young Matt, I guess, I would be like: Matt, give them some slack. It's okay. They're students. Remember how it was to be a student. So that would be my one major advice. This is where you should be, yeah, but definitely give them a little more leeway because students go through a lot, and we forget that, I think sometimes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Something I learned about you recently is that when you first attended as a college as an undergraduate student, things didn't go according to plan. You've been open about sharing the story. Would you tell us a little bit about that? Professor Mathew Desjardins Yeah. I came to school traditionally, right. Every student thinks, okay, you got to go to high school, then you come right out of high school and you're supposed to go to college. One major piece of advice is to listen to your mom. I should have listened to my mom. I left high school, coming to college, and I wanted to go into business. I, I love business; it's actually part of what I do in my current career in Computing. But my mom was like, "No, you're a Computing person. You do everything Computing, you have this very logical mindset." But I was like, "No, Mom. I want to go into business. I know better." So long story is I came to school, and business was not my thing. I don't think it was business or the classes. I think it was just my mindset. Some students don't realize the importance in higher education, and I didn't. I had no idea that I thought I knew better than everyone else. I thought that I can come and make my own life. I wanted to make money, so I ended up actually failing out my first three semesters, and I ended up coming back to ETSU because I wanted to better myself. But I also wanted to provide my knowledge to others and to give the opportunity to students to be like, okay, this is not for me. And now when I hear a student say that, I was like, well, I don't think that's the thing; it's let's find what it is for you. Maybe you made the same mistake I did. Maybe you ended up picking the wrong major. Maybe you just didn't connect with students; maybe you just need someone to say, hey, you can actually do this. I love my parents; they just didn't know or understand what college is. College is a full-time job; it's a job in its own, and if we come in the mentality like, hey, as faculty members we can help those students learn that school is a full-time job, that school takes a commitment, and school's not supposed to be easy. Nothing of value is supposed to be easy, and that's what I learned over those 10 years before I came back. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It sounds like those prior experiences really shaped you as a faculty member and shaped the way that you approach your students now. Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. I always say I wish I didn't do that gap, but without that gap I wouldn't be the person I am today. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I've heard you say many times that you learn as much from your students as they learn from you. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. I have amazing alumni, but I have a long list of these students that really inspire me to do better, anywhere from doing more research to improve my skills, introducing me to new topics, so these students push me. They challenge me to try new things. They challenge me to understand that, hey, they're human. But I also, through them, show them that faculty members are human, too. And so we have lives, we have interests. I'm down to go to a football game with the students. I had one of the Blue Sky students up here last weekend for the football game. Even though it was dreary, rainy, we still had a good time, 'cause I think allowing students to see that we're both human and understand that we want the same thing—to better each other. And so I learn that from my students, and every time I get in front of a classroom it's not me telling them what my knowledge is; it's also me taking a moment to let them tell me their knowledge and what they have passions for. Creating a learning community, it sounds like that's it. I don't have this like teacher-student; I have more of like, hey, I'm a guide. So I have this knowledge that I want to share to you, and let me guide you through these challenges of what life is called and see if we can figure out what is your best pathway. I used Dr. Dula a lot and you probably have heard Dr. Dula from many people around here, but Dr. Dula in one of his lectures he says college or a degree doesn't make you better; a degree just opens more doors. And I want to take that spirit of what I had when I had Dr. Dula and his lectures that I still watch to today about how a degree just opens doors, and I want to spread that knowledge. For me, the students are opening doors for me as we go through. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fantastic. So you work in a field, computing, that is constantly changing. How do you stay abreast of all the changes in your field? Professor Mathew Desjardins Our field changes daily. I feel like I talk with our faculty, I'm like, hey, this just happened or hey, this just happened. I would say definitely my colleagues—I want to thank every single person that I've worked with and now in the past—their knowledge that they passed on to me that our field is changing is what allows me to keep changing. I'm a person that doesn't like stagnation, so I definitely, I think I'm definitely in the right field because learning new things every day, seeing new challenges, changing our curriculum almost semesterly—you know, we have to change what we do, what we teach, what we are learning ourselves. So definitely our faculty, but our students—I think our students bring so much nuance. They come and they're like, hey, I heard this or hey, I play this or hey, I want to build the next self-driving car, right? And so we get these ideas from our faculty, we get these ideas from our students, and I think the combination of those two is what allows me to stay current to the point now where I love our curriculum development. So, you know, I'm definitely involved with our development at both the college and our department, but also at the University. So I like curriculum, for us, is what drives students to want to come to us, and I think curriculum is just as much like technology. In all of our curriculum, I know there's many changes that are coming through the university, which is a good thing. It means that we all as faculty are staying current and wanting new changes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So it's important to keep the curriculum relevant to help serve students and their future goals, right? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely, and I love that here at ETSU we have a range of everything, and what's really nice though is Computing is kind of central to it all. I always challenge my students: I'm like, all right, Computing is involved with everything—find me something that there's not a need for someone in Computing. You know, we're sitting here in a recording studio and there's a computer that's recording us and managing all this, and so from recording to rocket science to medical schools—you know, the robot over in Quillen—I think there's a chance for us to always be part of everything that's going on. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. So I want to shift gears a little bit. This is a momentous fall as we're launching a wonderful new initiative, our Blue Sky Tennessee Institute. So you have been spending a lot of time in Chattanooga recently helping to launch that Institute. Please tell us about the Institute. Professor Mathew Desjardins Yes. The Blue Sky Tennessee Institute—and I'll—Blue Sky has been my life since 2019, actually even before then. So Blue Sky is Blue Cross Blue Shield wanting to build our workforce development. I mean, they put a request out to Tennessee universities saying, listen, we have this need, and their need is tech people, and we want to partner with some institution to provide these ready people to come and work for them. So in short, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee has a shortage of tech people. You wouldn't know that an insurance company actually has the majority of their employees in technology, and they need those people to keep the business going, and they were like, hey, let's see if we can get a partner to produce the needs. So Blue Cross Blue Shield has been an amazing partners. I want to really stress that because they did a lot of the legwork. They said, okay, we need to internally look at our business and actually know what we need from our employees, right? And so, you know, I think a lot of times we as faculty look at learning outcomes for students, but we don't really do well translating what learning outcomes look like into what an actual business needs from that—sort of the core competencies of the workforce, right? And so, like, you know, we say a student when they can leave they can defend cyber security, but in a business they like, can you actually handle an attack? Can you identify an attack? And so trying to map what they need versus what is being done in schools, they did the leg work to that. They hired a company to help them identify what these core things they needed. When they put that out here, the Department of Computing, with thanks to Dr. Noland and Dr. Pittarese, Dr. Bennett, and Mr. Hendrix, we all together put together a proposal to Blue Cross Blue Shield saying, hey, these are the courses and here's the things we can actually do for you, and here's where we're going to need your help a little bit. The help turns into internships. So these students—they're going through our program—so they're going through a traditional Computing degree; they're doing the information systems concentration. So it's a degree that any student here on Main Campus can do. The only thing we did a little bit different is they're not getting the same breaks; we're ensuring all classes are lining up in the prerequisite order, right? So they're going fall, winter, spring, summer. They get a couple breaks. They're going to have a little bit of winter break, but they'll have to do just their online winter course, so they'll be doing one online. They'll get spring break. They'll get a little time in the summer, but it's just kind of continuous for 27 months. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle An accelerated process. Professor Mathew Desjardins It is. It's, you know, and sometimes we think accelerated as we're shortening credentials or we're trying to reduce the requirements, but they're getting the same education. It's the same time length; we're just ensuring that everything happens one after the other, right? They're also getting professional development. So again, going back to our amazing partners with Blue Cross, they are getting professional development, so the students are getting mentors from both their executive leadership team—so if someone at a vice president level or higher is actually mentoring them, someone actually has their CEO as a mentor giving them advice on how to go through—but then they're also getting what IT members, so the actual information technology folks that are in the workplace as mentors too. And so not only are they getting our education, they're getting professional experience, professional development. Because the end goal is when they are done with our degree in 27 months and they graduate and they shake your hand and they shake Dr. Noland's hand at graduation, they leave with a job offer from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. Professor Mathew Desjardins And instead of having to, like, figure out what they need to do over, you know, a year—'cause Blue Cross says it takes about a year for a student to transition from graduation to actual workforce—they've been doing this now for 27 months, so hopefully that time is much reduced, shortened. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle  So I am also very interested in the processes that you've built in to support students along the way. Can you tell us a little bit about the student support? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. Student support is number one. I'm a number one advocate for students, and which made me a very ideal candidate to go down there and represent ETSU in this partnership. I put students one, the department two, the university three, me last—but you know what's best for the students. Our students are our customers. Our students are our people that are coming to us wanting this knowledge, and so we need to do what's best for them. But we have other support. So not only me, we have the entire University supporting us. I have everyone from student life and enrollment; they have been down there many times. I can't thank them enough for all the work they're doing. Dedra Johnson in the CFAA having tutors ready on hand—she's been amazing support in that. But going back to our amazing partners, they hired a Student Success Specialist, so Melissa Graham—she's a Blue Cross Blue Shield employee. She works for the Blue Sky program. She's a former K–12 counselor, and so she knows what a traditional student coming out of high school would need. So she's looking at it from, you know, she's the academic support from ETSU and all of the services we offer—we got that—but Melissa is also coming in behind for crisis management alongside our Counseling Center. So she's identifying and meeting with these students, you know, every other week saying, hey, what's going on. Blue Cross is supporting them financially, you know, so this first cohort has a full last-dollar scholarship, right, which is really supportive. You know, money is not the most important thing, but it does make a burden on students which could cause stress, so some of our students can't live at home while they're doing this. So Blue Cross Blue Shield stepped up and said, hey, we can help with that. Our community foundations—the Benwood Foundation and the Community Chest of Chattanooga—have put in money towards this to help support these students, whether that's for food. All their books are being covered, all of their supplies; they're getting a laptop. These students have so much financial support. They're getting crisis management. They're getting social interaction by our cohort model, where it's a little bit different. You know, the people who are listening to this are like, oh man, this sounds amazing—how are you getting it done? Well, we put through some restrictions, right? So they're here treating it as a job, right? So they're in class 9 to 3. Do I teach that whole time? No. I teach my normal time, but then we have general education that's online, so we give them online time blocks. We have people come in for tutoring and support. We changed higher education slightly. You know, it's not the you-build-your-schedule-try-to-get-everything-in-on-like-a-two-hour-time-and-if-you-don't thing. We're very hybrid K–12 but with all the college courses built in around it. So it's fantastic. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What's the interest been among prospective students and their families? Professor Mathew Desjardins So we're in the process of interviewing for our next cohort of students, right? So we got 32 students, and let me—maybe this will put in perspective—we were originally only wanting to do 15, and the out—we had ended up last year having 96 people apply. Out of those 96 we chose 32. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. So that was really, really amazing return—there's strong interest, absolutely, from the local community around Chattanooga and beyond. Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. This year we're about 10 times larger in interest, so the initial applications coming in are about 10 times from what we were last year. The questions, the amount of tours and interviews that we've been doing with students and talking with students—it's grown exponentially. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fantastic. Professor Mathew Desjardins And I really do believe this is, you know, it might not be for everyone, and we do an interview process because we want to select the best candidates. And the best candidate is not academic; the best candidate is do they have an interest in our field, do they want leadership potential, do they have some interest in Computing. Because a lot of people think Computing is one thing and Computing's not another thing, and so we ask these interviews and we want, you know, if a student says, "Hey, I want to come to this program but I also want to do marching band," well, we don't have a marching band down in Chattanooga, so let's see if we can get you up to main campus and join our marching band up here because that would be a better experience for them. We don't just say yes to everyone. We take the best candidate that wants to complete something in 27 months and get a different college experience—a good one—but it'll be different. But if they want a traditional one, we try to get them up here. We have a student right now for whom it was better to go the traditional path, and we got him up here and he's loving it and he's killing it. And I love that it was best for him, and he's going to be a good case to say, hey, if we do this for this type of student, you know, we can see a good outcome for those. That's great. You help them with other kinds of off-ramps. Any student that I get to interact with, whether they get taught by me or they get taught by someone else—we need a better workforce; we need better people. Our future is in our students. Our future is not us—no offense—it's not us. Our future is who we're teaching. And if we can, you know, set a good foundation and a good groundwork for them to want to do exactly what I'm doing, then I did my job. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What's been the most impactful part of this experience for you? Professor Mathew Desjardins Oh man, the students. I mean, that's such a—oh, he's going to say the students—no, it really is the students. Dr. Noland recently came by and visited with Trustee Grisham, and those two people are just amazing people and I want to thank them very much for coming down. But you know, they were asking, I was like, why did you come into this program? Why did you do this? And every single one of the students was like, well, we really like the 27 months. You know, that was definitely a drive for them, but they liked that it was close by; they liked that it was ETSU because we are not a nameless institution, which is great, right? But they said the family, right? And for the past few days I've been hearing Dr. Noland talk about family. I've been hearing other faculty talk about family and staff members talk about family, and it's something that I talk about all the time: ETSU is a family. So I would say the most impactful is growing our family—being able to have these 32 students. I have a different interaction with these 32 students than I've had with any of my students ever. I could make those close interactions with a few of my students in the past, but I have these students five days a week, you know, eight hours. Some of those students are there from 8 in the morning till 11:00 at night; they don't want to leave, you know. And being able to go out to dinner with them and their families or go to lunch with them just to have a side conversation—I played a video game the other day with them—the interaction between these students has made me a better person. And so my biggest impact in this whole experience is being able to interact with these students on a different level that I think some of our faculty miss. I can build those personal relationships and I, I love it. I love every part of it. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I read on your social media recently that this has been the highlight of your teaching career so far. Professor Mathew Desjardins It has. I love teaching. You know, I told Dr. Countermine, the former chair of our department—he was the one who initially hired me into ETSU and I thank him for that—and that was a highlight in my career at that moment. And every time I teach it was always a highlight, and a highlight, and I love teaching. Last year, you know, seeing some of my students who had gone through the pandemic and didn't see them for almost a year and then got to see them and graduate—just that excitement of graduating. Well, I saw that excitement when I went to these 32 Blue Sky students' high school graduations. I walked in and they're like, "You came," and I was like, "Absolutely, congratulations, you came through high school." So now in 27 months we'll do this all over again, but it'll be blue and gold, you know, and they were really excited. And that moment where I had the ability to impact just one student—yeah—or now 32 students—a chance to get the degree that they want, a career that they want, a pathway in life that they want. Really, when I wake up every morning it's not, "Oh, I have to go to work," it's, "I can't wait to get to work," and that experience has been really great for me. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, your enthusiasm and excitement are evident. It also reminds me of a book that many of us have read over the last year, which is called Relationship Rich Education. It talks about the impact that these kinds of relationships and experiences have on student success, and it really highlights the importance of the student and faculty relationship and feeling like the student knows that he or she can rely on a faculty member to help sort of be that support system to get them through and the impact that that has on student success. The last question I have for every guest: what impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Professor Mathew Desjardins Oh, that's a really deep question. You know I think students if students can just find what they're truly passionate about I found my passion and I don't plan on that passion Ever Changing uh I just want that passion to grow so if a student can find their passion they will naturally leave their mark on the world so if a student can go in and take the same passion I have to whatever they want to do whether that's in Computing whether that's in photography as fun or building a self-driving car or boating or just having a family if they can take the same passion that I'm trying to express to them and just know that people are people and we all are human and if they can go to the world like that I think that would be a what I would love my students to to leave with. It's great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Mathew. This is truly an exciting time for you, for the Blue Sky Institute, and for our Computing program at ETSU. Thank you for all you do for our students, and I wish you all the best for a successful wonderful fall semester. Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information on Professor Desjardins, the Blue Sky Institute, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu. Or you can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts. [Music]

Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle sits down with Dr. Randy Wykoff, founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health, to reflect on his decades of leadership, teaching, and service. From building Tennessee’s first accredited school of public health to preparing students for real-world challenges through hands-on learning and community engagement, Dr. Wykoff shares lessons from a career dedicated to improving health across Appalachia and beyond — just months before his retirement. Find out more:  ETSU College of Public Health: https://www.etsu.edu/cph/?utm_campaign=College-of-Public-Health Podcast transcript:  Dr. Randy Wykoff We believe from the beginning that we had to be world-class. I think it's critical for students to see how what they've learned works in the community. So all of our public health students, environmental health students, health admin students have to do an internship. And that's basically a semester-long opportunity for them to take what they've learned and see, "Oh, wait a minute, this really does work. I really can go out and help this agency do what they're doing." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, I speak with Dr. Randy Wykoff, the founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health and the longest-serving dean of public health in the United States. Under his leadership, the college became the first accredited school of public health in Tennessee and central Appalachia and has tripled its enrollment since 2006. During his tenure, the college has secured more than $50 million in research funding and earned national recognition for teaching, research, and community service. A Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of the U.S. Surgeon General's Medallion, Dr. Wykoff has made a lasting impact on public health education, and practice across the region. Earlier this year, he announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. So before he retires, I wanted to make sure to feature his wisdom and his insights on "Why I Teach." Enjoy the show. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Wykoff, welcome to the show. This is a bittersweet episode for me as we're just a few short months from your retirement, which seems like a good time for reflection. You've spent more than two decades leading the College of Public Health. What originally drew you to public health, and what ultimately brought you to ETSU? Dr. Randy Wykoff No, that's a great question. Thank you for having me today. I always tell the students that your career isn't a river. It doesn't always flow in the same direction. So I started out to be a tropical pediatrician. That was my goal. That's what I ... I'd lived in Africa as a kid, and I planned on going back. And so I went to med school, did a pediatric residency, did a residency in preventive medicine and tropical medicine. I got a certificate of knowledge in tropical medicine. I got a master's in public health in tropical medicine. And in order to go to med school, I took out a National Health Service Corps scholarship. And after interviewing at various places, for reasons that I don't quite understand, they sent me to run six county health departments in South Carolina. So two aspects of my career happened at once: one, shifting from medicine to public health, and the other was into a leadership position. So after four years, I left that and went to the FDA, where I spent a decade. I spent some time on Capitol Hill and then went to an international nonprofit. And when it became clear to me that I needed to move on from the nonprofit, I had no academic experience. I had no published research. I had no funding. So I thought, "Why not become a dean of public health?" And I saw the ETSU ad, and I had never been in East Tennessee, other than briefly to travel through it. And my wife said, "Well, if we're going to live in Tennessee, we have to live on a lake." And I said, "There are no lakes in East Tennessee." That's how little I knew about it. So that's what brought me here. I just happened to see a job. I don't know that I was qualified for it, but they gave it to me. So that's it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle When you look back at the early days of the college, what was your vision for what it could become? Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, when we were accredited, we were the 43rd school in the country. And we were the newest, the smallest, the least well-known, and actually the least respected by at least one metric. And we realized that we had to do something different. We weren't going to be Johns Hopkins South, right? We had to figure out a way that we could be small but world-class. And if you want, I'll talk about the hotel analogy and how that played out. But we believed from the beginning that we had to be world-class, because we had to compete with these other 42 schools. All but one of them was at a large private institution or a state land grant institution. Two things I did that I'm kind of proud of. One was the hotel analogy, which was this idea that schools of public health are like hotels. Your five-star hotel has a gold elevator and doorman and uniform and a Cartier distributor and a Michelin star restaurant – more than you could possibly use in any one hotel stay and at a premium price. But large schools of public health were like that. Then your mid-sized schools of public health are like conference hotels. Good facilities, nice part of town, one nice restaurant. And your small schools of public health are like Motel 6s. They have clean washcloths. They have soap in those little plastic containers. They meet all the minimum accreditation requirements. But no matter how well you run a Motel 6, it's still a Motel 6. So our idea was there's actually three ways you can be small in the hospitality industry and be world-class. One is a bed-and-breakfast, which is about relationships. One is an adventure, like a barefoot cruise or base camp. And the other is a destination, like a safari camp. And we thought, okay, we can be all three of those. We can be one that's really known for how we treat students and how we treat each other, one that allows students to do things they wouldn't do anywhere else, and then promote Appalachia. Don't hide from it, promote it. It makes us unique and different. So that was the one thing. The other thing I did that I think was the only other thing I'm proud of, I've always had this idea that once someone shows you they can do their job, the best thing you can do is let them do whatever else they can do. And you see that you see people just absolutely go well beyond what their job description is if you empower them to do things. And that's worked really well for us, especially as a small school. We had to have people that could step up and do things that we didn't expect. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Well, two of the secrets to the success. Dr. Randy Wykoff That's right. That's all there is. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle The College of Public Health has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum and teaching. How do you help students connect what they learn in the classroom with real-world health challenges? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think public health is somewhat unique in that while it is an academic field, it's an applied field. And so the students from the beginning know that they're going to learn skills that will be relevant in the workplace. And my personal theory has always been that when I'm teaching, my job is to prepare the students for the career that I had. None of them will have that career. But whatever I've learned on the way is what I should be preparing them for, because anything else is a little bit artificial on my part. I know a theoretical approach, but if I talk about here's how federal advisory committees work, here's how you work with media, the skills that I had to learn along the way. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What teaching approaches have you found most effective when preparing students to work in communities across Appalachia and beyond? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think it's critical for students to see how what they've learned works in the community. So all of our public health students, environmental health students, health admin students, have to do an internship. And that's basically a semester-long opportunity for them to take what they've learned and see, "Oh, wait a minute. This really does work. I really can go out and help this agency do what they're doing." So that's important. And then what we do at Valleybrook is, again, it's applied skills. When we're teaching students how to make a water filter or a water pump, they're probably thinking initially, "I'm never going to do this in the rest of my life." But the reality is what we're teaching them is the process, the logistics, the ability to take what you've got and get an outcome that you need. And that's really important in public health, especially when you get to disaster response and things like that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As someone who's mentored faculty as well as students, and since public health professionals are educators in their own right, what advice do you give educators who want to become effective teachers? Dr. Randy Wykoff That's a great question. I used to look at all the SAIs (course evaluations), and I discovered that there were three things that you always see in a positive SAI and two things that you always see in a negative SAI. The three things are know the material, care about students, enthusiastic. Everybody knows their material. If you don't care about students, you probably shouldn't be in a higher ed. And if you're not enthusiastic, you're not thinking about how cool what you're doing is. On the downside, the two that come out are disorganized and unfair. Usually unfair is, "I didn't get any grades before midterm, and now I have no way to get my grade back up," and then disorganized is what it is. But in the College of Public Health, we have great faculty. We've won the teaching award, I think, five times. It's a real pleasure to watch people take their own natural approach to life and apply it in the classroom. You have people that are very systematic. I don't know if I can mention names, like Patrick Brown with POGIL (Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning). He's very systematic. We have others who are very hands-on and applied, like Mike Stoots. And we have others that are old-school, that get up and lecture, others who have interactive. But that's less important than knows the material, cares about the student, and is enthusiastic. Anyone who can do those things works out. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I'll mention that right after we record this podcast, you're headed to your own class that you teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff I am. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I'm assuming you use those approaches in the classes that you continue to teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff I do. And what I've tried – I co-teach it with Hadii Mamudu. And what we try to do is he teaches leadership from sort of the academic side. What's the literature show? I try to walk students through, again, the career that I've had. And the whole idea is to teach the application of the skills through doing. So that's my general approach. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great that you continue to teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Oh, yeah. Dr. Randy Wykoff I mean, you'd be crazy to be at an institution of higher ed and not do it, right? That's the great payback, is dealing with students. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. Dr. Randy Wykoff Not that I don't like dealing with everyone else, but students are the high point. They're the highlight. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's right. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you helped lead the creation of educational videos and public outreach. In many ways, that was teaching on a community scale. What did that experience teach you about educating the public? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think it reinforced something that is in public health and in a lot of fields. You have to speak the truth. Speak as you know it and recognize when things are unknown or evolving or changing. But with COVID, there was so much information going out. Some of it was accurate. Some of it wasn't. So I just tried to use my updates to say, this is what I believe is true at this point now. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I think that was the way I first got to know you was through your videos, through COVID. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yes. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Do you want to tell us what the tagline was for those? Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, that was "The Most Interesting Dean." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That one. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah, that was, again, it was an effort to make the messaging more fun. And what we discovered was that that ad campaign had ended in 2016. And there were a whole lot of students who had no idea what I was doing. And one of the people who works for me was like, "Why are you talking in that funny accent?" But the idea was make it entertaining, get the message out in a way that isn't offensive to people. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, it drew people in. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And you were the most interesting dean in the world. Dr. Randy Wykoff For a few short weeks. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As you prepare to retire, what reflections do you have about the impact teaching has had on your own career and life? Dr. Randy Wykoff Oh, it's been, I can't think of a better way to end your career than teaching. You're taking everything that you've learned and you're passing it on to a new generation. It's incredibly rewarding. It gets a little bit awkward because my dad said that when I became Dean, my jokes would be a lot funnier. And it is a little bit awkward that people accord you this status above and beyond what you feel you've earned. And I think teaching does keep you humble a little bit because you're sitting there and every time you're teaching, you're thinking, “What don't I know about this subject? Why am I comfortable talking about this issue?” And the same with the weekly updates. I almost always have to do some research. I can't just spontaneously do them. But it's incredible. It's incredibly rewarding to be a teacher. And it's amazing to be at a place like ETSU that has focused on this community. I talk to other deans at other schools, and many of them have no real deep relationship with their region the way we do. The President says it all the time. We were created in 1911. And we went from education to business to health to the arts. We really touch everything that matters in this region. And in public health, that's what it is. Public health is everything that helps people live healthier, more productive lives. And I wouldn't want to be a dean anywhere else. And especially at a place that values esoteric research over the difference that you make in your community. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, looking back, what do you hope your former students remember the most about learning from you? Dr. Randy Wykoff I hope that they are progressively proud to have come out of ETSU. I think five, 10, 15 years from now, a lot of the hierarchy in higher ed will be falling away as people start really looking at quality and realizing that ETSU really is an exceptional place. I hope they're proud of that. I hope they believe that they were prepared for a meaningful career. And I hope some of them become wealthy benefactors in 40 years. We often say that. We're creating alums for 40 years from now. I'm not opposed to alums giving back right away. It's important that they feel that they got a good education, that prepared them for the workforce, and that they can say with pride, "Hey, I went to ETSU." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Wykoff, thank you for joining me and for sharing your reflections on teaching, leadership, and public health. Your commitment to education and service has had a profound impact on ETSU, on your students, and on communities throughout our region and state. We're going to miss you. Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, thank you. I'm glad I'm going to stay around. I'll just have a different relationship with the university. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Wykoff, the College of Public Health, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.    

In this episode of “Why I Teach,” Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), sits down with Dr. Kevin E. O’Donnell, Professor of English and recipient of the 2024 Stephen L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Appalachian Studies Association. With more than 30 years of experience teaching literature, composition, and environmental writing, Dr. O’Donnell shares insights on storytelling, writing pedagogy, the impact of technology in the classroom, and the power of honesty in writing. He also discusses teaching The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, Appalachian literature such as Serena by Ron Rash, and his upcoming book, The Woodlands of the Mind: Rambles Through Campus Forests. Find out more: ETSU Common Read: https://www.etsu.edu/provost/common-read.php ETSU Festival of Ideas: https://www.etsu.edu/festival/ ETSU College of Arts and Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/cas/ Podcast Transcript:  [Music] Dr. Kevin O’Donnell I love John Green's writing for one thing. It's really accessible. His voice draws you in. He starts with these quirky topics. He'll be writing about Super Mario Kart. Within a few pages, he's talking about community and luck versus skill, and these bigger issues. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will sit down with Dr. Kevin E. O'Donnell, Professor of English and recipient of the 2024 Stephen L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Appalachian Studies Association. A native of Northeast Ohio, Dr. O'Donnell earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and has taught at ETSU for more than 30 years. His courses include Advanced Composition, American Literature, Literary Nonfiction, and Environmental Writing. He's the author of numerous publications, including Seekers of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, co-authored with Helen Hollingsworth. This year, he looks forward to the release of a new book, co-written with his ETSU colleague, Dr. Scott Honeycutt, titled The Woodlands of the Mind: Rambles Through Campus Forests. Enjoy the show. Dr. O'Donnell, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day as a faculty member at ETSU, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Well, it's a great question. I have to think back and see if I can remember 30 years. It's half a lifetime ago, you know. But if I could give myself advice, I would say, young Kevin, trust the process. With writing, it's so challenging. You get papers from the students, especially in the first-year classes on the first day. And they've got all kinds of issues, and the first thing you see are the problems when you read them, and you want to fix everything. But just trust the process. You know, if they've got 15 weeks, if they get four or five good writing experiences, including revision and feedback, and over the course of 15 weeks, you can do a lot. Yeah. Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Reflecting on your 30-plus years in the classroom here, how has your approach to teaching literature and composition changed over the years? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, that's kind of a related question. I don't think my philosophy has changed, but a lot of the technology has changed. I mean, I kind of developed the belief in grad school that you learn to write by having an audience, writing for audiences. But 30 years ago, typically, students would print one copy, and if you were lucky, you could circulate it, do some group work and stuff, but you couldn't publish it. And then with the development of the internet, making easier access to the internet available, I started publishing my students' work on the web, and then they started publishing their own, and you get it out in front of an audience a lot more. And that's great for writing pedagogy. And then multimedia, doing this kind of stuff, like the Whisper Room over in... We were talking about that earlier over in the Innovation Commons. Yeah. I've had my students doing that, so that's part of writing now, I think, is multimedia. You can't just think of it as words on a page. Typically, anything, it's words on a screen, and then the spoken word component, recording. So that's changed how I teach a lot. I'll have my students do an audio piece and then post it on YouTube, say. That's what they did last semester. They must enjoy that. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell The response to it was great. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle   How do you see the connection between storytelling and how we understand our environment, culture, and region? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, storytelling, I mean, it's... You could argue that all understanding is narrative. Like, people understand things in terms of people in places doing things, which is character-setting-plot, you know? So with the Environmental Studies minor, there's a required course that's environmental writing. We get students who are being trained in science, like biologists, who take that minor, and they come in and read some environmental literature, and you've got these science writers using narrative to make sense of the science. So I think it's a crucial component. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Which literary work or author has been especially rewarding for you to teach over the years, and why? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I love that question. There's been a lot of them. I'm teaching a book this semester, a 2008 novel by Ron Rash called Serena, which is a super well-written, super fun novel, but it takes place in Haywood County, North Carolina, in the 1920s when the Smokies were being logged. So it's set against the backdrop of this huge natural resource extraction story that shaped Appalachia, the logging of the great Appalachian forest. But it's also really dramatic. It's got these tightly written chapters. There's some great villains and some shocking murders, and it's a great book. And Ron Rash is coming to our literary festival in April. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Fantastic. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell So students are reading that novel, and I've taught that four or five times over the years, and it's a great, great book for an environmental writing class. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Is he a regional author? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell He's at Western Carolina. He's down in Cullowhee. He's probably about ready to retire, but he grew up in upstate South Carolina. And yeah, he's a great writer. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It must be great for students to connect to a book that's about the region. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, and a lot of students didn't know the story that it tells, and people know the area, recognize places where scenes take place. Yeah, so it's great. That's a good one. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Earlier this year, you presented an outstanding lecture to kick off this year's Common Read, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. What about that book resonated with you, and why do you think it was a good fit for ETSU's campus community? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I think it was a great fit, or it seems to be getting a good response from students. And part of it, for 15 years or more, I was a fan of the Vlogbrothers. They do their YouTube science stuff. And the format is, it's basically the essay format. You've got two, 3,000 words. I love John Green's writing, for one thing. It's really accessible. His voice draws you in. And he starts with these quirky topics. Like he'll be writing about Super Mario Kart. And within a few pages, he's talking about community and luck versus skill and these bigger issues. And so I like that they're inviting, these essays are inviting and they draw you in. They're really accessible. You can read one in 15 minutes. And the five-star review format is kind of fun. Like that, my students want to write those. You give that as a writing assignment. Here's an essay, you're going to make it ostensibly a review of something. That you're going to give five stars. So your job is to evaluate. Students like it. So I think it was a good choice. I'm excited about him. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great, yeah. I know, as you said, a lot of students are excited. They've connected to his work for a long time. Students who've said he taught them what they know about history, for instance. As you know, we are excited to be able to welcome John Green to campus in just a few days to speak at the ETSU Festival of Ideas. From your experience, how does engaging with an author and hearing them talk about their work deepen students' connections to a text compared to just reading it in a classroom? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I think it's a big deal. It can change your relationship to the text. It sure humanizes it, you know? One thing about reading, even if you're reading for a class, reading seems like a really solitary activity. You go to your quiet space and you're sitting by yourself. But then these students are going to come together and see hundreds of other people who have also connected with the same text and see the author. It just makes it very visceral, the sense of how social reading is, even though it feels solitary in some ways it is, but it's a deeply social act. And I think one of the things I'm excited about is it's fun seeing other people who are excited about writing that you're excited about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right, yeah. Feels like you're in a community of readers when you watch an author talk about their work. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Right. Yeah, yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As I mentioned in the introduction, you have a book coming out this year. Will you please share a preview of The Woodlands of the Mind and a bit about what inspired you and Dr. Honeycutt to write the book? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, thanks for asking about that. So it was really inspired by the ETSU campus. We've got, well, you know about University Woods south of the railroad bypass there. We've got 30 acres of, couple dozen at least ancient oak trees up there. And it's a really special place. And Scott Honeycutt and I, for years we'd been taking our students over there to do classrooms and to do awareness stuff and to do walks. And back in 2018, I think it was before COVID, we wrote a small grant and brought an author to class, author to campus rather, Joan Maloof, who is a biologist from Maryland who's also written some very good books, including one that Scott and I are fans of called "Among the Ancients" where she goes around and visits different old, remnant old growth forests and writes about them, but also writes about regional history and natural history. So we brought her to campus. It turns out she's the founding director of the Old-Growth Forest Network. And long story short, she came to campus, did a public nature walk with people over in the woods and then did a talk in the evening at the old East Tennessee Room and generated a lot of excitement, which led to us forming an ad-hoc committee to see if we can get the University Woods to be part of the Old-Growth Forest Network. As a community forest, Dr. Noland, our awesome president, was very supportive of this. So long story short, later that spring, Joan came back on her own dime for a dedication ceremony we did where Dr. Noland spoke and read a little poem on some other people, and we designated it as a community forest. So that experience, Scott and I to look around and it turns out a lot of universities have often old-growth remnants, which are rare attached to their property, partly because of the history of universities and land use, especially in the East. So we started learning about these places. So we thought, well, no one's written about this. So we've selected 15 places from Rome up to Maine, some small colleges, some bigger schools, like Virginia Tech and Penn State. And we split them up and we went around and wrote, kind of inspired by Joan Maloof, these travel essays with history, natural history, and we package them together and sent our proposal to the University of Georgia Press, and the editor called us back the next day and said she wanted to publish it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Congratulations. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, thanks. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Look forward to reading it. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Awesome. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What books do you have on your to-read pile and do you have any favorite books or authors that you'd recommend for consideration for future common reads at ETSU? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Right. Yeah, my to-read pile is pretty big and half of them I never get to. I own a lot of books I've never read. I'm glad to hear that it makes me feel less guilty. But something about owning them, I hope that maybe I'll soak up. I don't know. And even better if you put them on your bedside table to look at you, yes, yeah. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yes, one I was thinking about that I read recently is Beth Macy who is, she wrote a book called Dopesick that the Hulu miniseries starring Michael Keaton was based on, was pretty much directly from that book. And it's a great book. But more recently in the fall, she came out with a book called Paper Girl. It's sort of a memoir she tells about growing up underprivileged in rural Ohio and then goes back there now and finds a version of herself and to look at how kids don't have the same opportunities, basically, young people. And in the process she's also talking about being a journalist and how people respond or don't respond to journalism and conspiracy theorizing has sort of moved into the vacuum where journalism has moved out of and which sounds all serious, but it's a fun book and it got a lot of attention in the fall. That one, she lives down at Roanoke. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Interesting. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell We should get her up here. That would be a good one. But my dream author would be Elizabeth Kolbert. She's a New Yorker magazine writer who probably about 10 years ago she published a book called The Sixth Extinction which won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction which is an amazing book. It's about the planet that is currently undergoing a major extinction event, which is a grim topic. But she writes these essays where she goes around and talks to people and they're really engaging. She's the best science writer I know and she's a best seller. I think there'd be enthusiasm about her. She's got a new book, which is a collection of her New Yorker essays. So Elizabeth Kolbert--I don't know if we could get her. I don't know if she does campus visits but she'd be a good get. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Great suggestions. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Gosh, that's a big one. Been thinking about that a lot now that I'm 30 years into this. I would hope when my students leave my class they understand that good writing is about honesty. Because I think students come in and when they're supposed to do academic writing they feel like they need to adopt this persona that's the voice of authority. And they don't feel confident in that authority. So they put on a role. And that, as much as anything, leads to tangled sentences and unclear writing. But if you can be honest about your relationship to your material and your audience, and in a simple way, not like deep profound, doesn't have to be deep profound honesty, but that's honesty is what good writing is about. That's, I would hope students would leave my class with that understanding. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. O'Donnell, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on teaching, literature, and the Common Read experience. Thank you for the way you engage your students with literature. I'm looking forward to adding your new book to my reading list this year. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. O'Donnell, the College of Arts and Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts. 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In this episode of Why I Teach, Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle sits down with Dr. Aaron Polichnowski, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine and recipient of the university’s 2025 Distinguished Faculty Award in Research. A nationally recognized expert in hypertension and chronic kidney disease, Dr. Polichnowski shares how curiosity-driven research, teaching medical students, and mentoring future scientists are deeply interconnected—and why helping students ask the right questions is at the heart of his work. Listen to more episodes of “Why I Teach,” where Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle explores stories of impact and success of ETSU faculty. Subscribe at https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/.   ETSU College of Medicine: https://www.etsu.edu/com/ Department of Biomedical Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/com/dbms/ ETSU Health: www.etsuhealth.org Podcast transcript: Dr. Aaron Polichnowski I like explaining how it is rewarding to be able to ask a question that no one else has asked, to design an experiment, collect interpret data, and maybe shed some light on some pathophysiological process that we didn't have a clue about before. So that is a really rewarding process. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Aaron Polichnowski. Dr. Polichnowski is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at ETSU's Quillen College of Medicine and the recipient of the university's 2025 Distinguished Faculty Award in Research. Dr. Polichnowski is nationally recognized for his work on hypertension and chronic kidney disease. His studies have advanced understanding of how blood pressure, genetics, and environmental factors influence kidney injury and disease progression. In addition to securing nearly $2 million in external research funding, Dr. Polichnowski is deeply committed to mentoring future scientists and physicians and has directed ETSU's Medical Student Summer Research Program since 2017. Today, he joins us to share not only what he studies, but why he teaches. Enjoy the show. Dr. Polichnowski, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Well, first, Provost McCorkle, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I would actually tell myself two things if I had to go back to my first day of teaching medical students here at Quillen. One, I'm not going to know the answer to every question they ask, and it's not going to be perfect. One of the things that I've really appreciated with the opportunity to teach medical students is they ask really good questions that push me, that push my boundaries of knowledge. I learn something new every year from the questions they ask, and I don't know the answer to all of them. So that's something I would tell myself is to relax and just let that happen. And not being perfect -- I think a lot of us in research tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist. And like everything else, teaching is a learning process. You get better at it each year. And so I would just tell myself again, relax, just enjoy the process. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you. Great advice. You built a nationally recognized research program in kidney physiology and disease. What originally drew you to teaching alongside research, and how do you think the two inform each other? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski It's a good question. And I would actually say I think it was probably my experience teaching fellow classmates when I was an undergrad student that probably drew me into research, because it's such a logical process when trying to understand something. So I do think it was my passion for learning overall that got me excited. I had a strong interest in teaching fellow classmates material we were learning, especially when it came to how the human body works. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And that was as an undergraduate. Dr. Aaron Polichnowski As an undergraduate, yeah. But the two very much go hand in hand. Running a research lab is like running a small business. How successful your lab is is going to be how successful your team is. And a lot of that is training and teaching. Teaching them why we do this research; how to do things appropriately, correctly; following a process; teaching them techniques. And on the other side of the coin, being a researcher makes me a better teacher. I think one of the things that I like doing for medical students is providing a logical process. When I see something in a textbook that's not very clear to me, I will try to make those links for students. And my knowledge in research, I think, makes it easier for me to do that. But they really do go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. And the research makes you a better teacher in all places. For sure, yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You mentor students at every level, from undergraduate to medical students and early career scientists. What do you see as your responsibility as a mentor, and what do you hope students gain from working in your lab? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski My role as a mentor is going to depend a bit on the level of the student, undergrad, medical, someone who wants to do a Ph.D. But what I want to convey to all students is the importance, as a mentor, I think it does depend on the level of the student, the undergraduate, medical, someone who wants to do a Ph.D. But for all students, I want to convey to them the importance of what I'm doing in the lab and how it may impact patient populations, especially in this region; the importance of what I do, why I do it. But also the research process, I think it is this black box for a lot of people, including students. And so I like explaining how it is rewarding to be able to ask a question that no one else has asked, to design an experiment, collect interpret data, and maybe shed some light on some pathophysiological process that we didn't have a clue about before. So that is a really rewarding process. On the other hand, it's also very complex. Business research has a lot of moving parts. It can be frustrating. It's a slow process. A lot of the experiments we do, you're not going to lead to some groundbreaking result. They're going to be what we call negative data. And it's hard to interpret or determine where to go from results based on that study. But it's all part of the process. And the last thing I like to tell students is the value of collaboration. I would not be where I am today without collaborators here at ETSU, other institutions, and importantly, the mentors that I had. I mean, I'm so grateful that I picked labs that I did. And it was not all that happened on purpose, some of it by chance. But I am very fortunate that I worked with people I worked with. I got just spectacular training, especially in my postdoc career. I worked with clinician scientists. They were nephrologists, but also basic scientists. And that really helped me view research from a basic science to clinical perspective, translation perspective. I mean, they were asking big questions that the results could directly impact patient care. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Your research bridges basic science with real-world clinical implications. How do you help students see the connection between what they're learning in the classroom and its impact on patient care? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski This is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching for me. Physiology is what I'm trained in, and physiology is medicine. So, you know, I think I mentioned before that if I read a textbook that I assign them, you know, I give them a section of a textbook to read. And if something's not clear to me, it's certainly not going to be clear to them. And so my knowledge of physiology research, physiology concepts, I like to illustrate things with graphs. I like to help students with their understanding and what they need to know when it comes to treating patients. And I think that's the beauty of physiology. A lot of what I teach is very translatable. That's going to be knowledge that they will absolutely use when they're treating patients. So very rewarding part of my job. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You said that fascination with the kidney’s complexity hooked you early in your career. How do you spark that same sense of curiosity and discovery in your students? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, in different ways. You know, I will frequently tell students, "Here's what we're doing in the lab, and this is why it matters." And again, another thing, nice thing about physiology. A lot of the things that I do in my lab are things that when we go to our annual physical, we're going to get, you know, in the report, blood pressure, indices of kidney function, indices of kidney disease progression. A lot of the things I measure in my lab are exactly what's measured with patient, you know, the patient care world. Other things I like telling students that there are things that happen, you know, to the body in different procedures that we still don't have a great understanding about. I mean, for example, when someone donates a kidney, the remaining kidney in them will take over about 70% of the kidney that was donated, not 100. What are the signals that tell the kidney to stop growing? What are the signals that tell the kidney to start growing? These are things we've known for a long time, but we don't have a good understanding. And it's those type of big picture things that I like telling students that you can go read literature about this and see what other people think about it. And the last thing is getting back to textbooks. You know, a lot of what's written in textbooks, you know, you gain a lot of knowledge from it, but it's not all fact. It's based on research that was interpreted by different people, and it may not be based on solid data. So drilling down through references and textbooks or papers and really pushing yourself to have a better understanding of why the statement is made in the textbook. I mean, those are all things you can do. I think it's just a curiosity-driven aspect of my job that I like. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What is one piece of advice you would share with students who are considering careers in research, medicine, or academic science? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, and this spans everybody. Be passionate about what you're doing. You're going to be doing it for the rest of your life. If it's research, if it's academic science, if it's medicine, patient, you're going to be doing it for a long time. So be passionate about it. Take what you do very seriously. Go about your job in the correct way. Learn from what you've been taught. But don't take yourself too seriously. Be humble. Don't develop a big ego. And especially in research, I mean, everybody in research is wrong a lot of the time, but you still see people with big egos and stuff. And I think it's very important to be humble, and that allows me with my collaborators to push each other, to challenge each other when we're trying to interpret data and to not feel like you're right all the time. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've had on your students? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, I play a small part in training of medical students. For example, I hope they look back on my lectures and say, "Yeah, Dr. Polichnowski played a small part, but he was a really important part of me being successful in medical school." That's really all I can ask for. I mean, you know, it's with a Ph.D. student, I hope they go on and have a great career in research. I hope I provide them with all the skills that are necessary to have a career. But I teach a lot of medical students, and I get them for mainly the first, second year, and I get to primarily teach physiology to them, but also get to help them get involved in research. I just hope they look back and say, "Yeah, he maybe played a small but very important part in me being successful here." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your time, your insights, and your passion for both research and teaching. Your commitment to discovery, mentorship, and student success truly reflects the spirit of ETSU and the heart of why we teach. We are grateful for the impact you make on your students, your field, and our university. Thank you for listening to “Why I Teach.” For more information about Dr. Polichnowski, the Quillen College of Medicine, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.    

Join ETSU Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle in this inspiring episode of the “Why I Teach” podcast as she speaks with Dr. Kyle Leister, Assistant Professor and Program Director of ETSU’s new Master of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics program – the first in Tennessee and one of only 14 nationwide. Dr. Leister shares his unique journey into rehabilitative medicine – from treating NHL athletes with the Pittsburgh Penguins to working on Paramount Studios' medical team – as well as his passion for student mentorship and the human side of prosthetic and orthotic care. Listen to more episodes of “Why I Teach,” where Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle explores stories of impact and success of ETSU faculty. Subscribe at https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/. Other resources: ETSU College of Health Sciences:  https://www.etsu.edu/chs/ ETSU School of Clinical Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/chs/clinical-science/default.php ETSU Master of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics: https://www.etsu.edu/chs/rehabilitative-sciences/orthotics-prosthetics/default.php ETSU Health: www.etsuhealth.org   Podcast transcript:    Dr. Kyle Leister Probably the most important part of this question is why orthotics and prosthetics at ETSU. And I think that we can tie that directly back to ETSU's mission statement, the ability to be able to serve the people of the region and beyond. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Kyle Leister. Dr. Leister serves as Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Orthotics and Prosthetics Master's Program at East Tennessee State University. One of just a handful of experts in the world holding both a clinical certification in orthotics and prosthetics and a doctoral degree, he brings a uniquely broad background to his role. Originally from Pittsburgh, his academic and professional journey has taken him from serving the Pittsburgh Penguins as an athletic trainer, to working on the medical team on Paramount Pictures' lot, to earning degrees from Northwestern University, University of Houston, and finally a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Since joining ETSU in 2023, Dr. Leister has spearheaded the launch of the university's M.S. in Orthotics and Prosthetics, the first such program in Tennessee and only the 14th nationwide. Under his leadership, the Karl Fillauer Learning Center opened in June 2024, outfitted with leading-edge fabrication labs and collaborative clinical facilities at the Quillen VA campus. Enjoy the show. Dr. Leister, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Kyle Leister So first of all, thank you for having me and allowing me to be a part of this. I listen to a lot of podcasts. This is actually the first time I've ever been a part of one. So thank you very much for that. Jumping right into your first question. So this is actually pretty fresh on my mind because it wasn't that long ago that we finally had students in our program and that I had the opportunity to actually get in front of them. So that day is actually pretty fresh. So I remember waking up that morning, making sure that my shirt looked good, that my socks matched my jacket, and I was ready to go out there and literally deliver the State of the Union address. I had my slides memorized, my coffee, the whole deal. So I went in and I was really focused on the time of making sure that I was nailing all my slides. I was providing all the information that the students would need. But in retrospect, I may have been forgetting about that collaborative nature, that connection that I needed to be building with the students, especially as a new program and their first time going, a lot of them going from undergrad into the master's level of learning. So while it was a valuable experience, and I think that I hopefully did a good job despite probably sweating through my shirt there at 9 o'clock in the morning, the valuable lesson that I learned from that was that it's more about the collaboration and the connection that you're building with those students, rather than the information and the depth of that information that you're trying to provide right off the bat. That will certainly come by being able to establish that initial connection is something that if I could rewind the hands of time, I would have told myself, "Try to be a little bit more focused on that than some esoteric statistic that a student may never remember whenever they go into clinical practice." So that was probably the biggest lesson that I learned and something that I wish that I could inform myself if I could rewind the hands of time. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's excellent insight. Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You've had such a fascinating journey from working with the Pittsburgh Penguins to movie sets in Hollywood. What led you from athletic training to orthotics and prosthetics? Dr. Kyle Leister Yes, so I'm sure there are listeners out there that just heard you read that description are wondering what the connections are. Yes, and it certainly is a nonlinear road that I've taken to get where I am right now. There are some central driving factors that have been present in all of my educational experiences and my clinical experiences along the way. So starting out first with my experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I graduated from Duquesne University in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in athletic training, as you mentioned, and I was fortunate enough that my first job right out of undergrad was with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I'm not sure how many hockey fans we have here in this part of Tennessee, but in Pittsburgh, hockey is huge. I grew up being a huge hockey fan, playing hockey and enjoying everything about the sport. To be able to land a job with a professional hockey team was a big deal. That was made even sweeter by the fact that we ended up winning the Stanley Cup in the 2008-2009 season, and it was Sidney Crosby's first Stanley Cup victory. Those of you who don't know Sidney, he's widely regarded as one of the best hockey players of all time. So to be a part of that and seeing the determination and the grit and the collaboration between the players was wonderful. It was truly inspiring. During that time, the theme that kind of became apparent to me was that no matter who you are, whether you're performing at the highest possible level, where these professional athletes were, or an individual who may have a sprained knee or something like that in your everyday daily life, there's this common link that if something is wrong, it's disrupting your ability to perform. We want to do everything that we can to get back to that baseline, back to that homeostasis. So after wrapping up my time with the Penguins, I moved out west and was performing a similar role on Paramount Pictures' lot. So I was working with a lot of the talent and the executives on that lot in a medical capacity. They had everything that you could imagine on that lot. Again, the theme remained the same, that any sort of disruption to our everyday lives in terms of injury, illness, or disability – that becomes paramount. So that fact became really, really interesting to me and something that I wanted to dive into deeper and explore at a deeper level. And that's where the human connection of orthotics and prosthetics came in around that same time is being able to work with these individuals that are performing at the most highest level. What happens whenever you have somebody that's got a profound disability and needs to get back to their baseline? So it's that human factor that really drew me into orthotics and prosthetics initially. And then once I got into the field, I realized that there's this whole other realm to it. It's the fabrication. It's the material science. It's the physics behind these devices work that really kept me in the field of orthotics and prosthetics. So I think that that was kind of a roundabout way of answering your question, but I hope I touched all of those points that you were looking to have addressed. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. And what fascinating experiences to have just out of undergrad. Dr. Kyle Leister Absolutely. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Orthotics and prosthetics is such a specialized field. For those who aren't familiar, can you explain what these professionals do and why their work is so important? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, absolutely. And I think the best way to sort of start out this discussion is providing some sort of an operational definition for what is an orthosis versus what is a prosthesis. And that'll sort of set the stage. So in the practice of orthotics, we are really designing devices, whether they're custom or off-the-shelf or custom fit to the patient, that are really designed in order to supplement a weakened or injured or a deformed body segment. So the key word is that the body segment is still there. That differs from prosthetics, where we're trying to craft a custom device in order to replace a missing or a deficient limb. So that's the big distinguishing factor. We use similar biomechanical principles to guide our decisions, both in orthotics and prosthetics. But really the difference lies in is the limb there and just deformed or weakened or needing some sort of support, then we think orthotics. Or is a limb absent, do we need to replace that limb or supplement that limb? Then we think about prosthetics. So the reason why I feel this work is so important is because as orthotists-prosthetists, we are very often faced with a patient that has just gone through one of the most traumatic things that a human could ever encounter, whether it's a mother and a father that just gave birth to a child that has cerebral palsy Yeah. and needs an orthosis in order to be able to learn how to walk properly and remain mobile or a patient that just lost their limb, whether it was through trauma or some sort of a surgical procedure, we're being tasked with being able to manage that patient, as well as their caregivers, through this incredibly difficult time through an intervention that we're directly applying to them. Another thing that I think that's interesting and important about what we do is that orthotics and prosthetics is a field that we get instant gratification for the devices that we provide. We can immediately see that the tangible, the measurable outcomes that we're able to provide our patients, whether it's a patient coming in in a wheelchair and then being able to get up and walk out of that clinic because of a prosthesis that we've been able to provide them, or a patient with a spinal cord that just wants to be able to stand up and do the dishes by themselves. We can design and fabricate devices that are able to facilitate that for the individuals, and that's instant gratification whenever we see that it works properly. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for that. So we recently received the excellent news that ETSU's Orthotics and Prosthetics Program received full accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. Congratulations. Our program is the first of its kind in Tennessee. What inspired the creation of this program and why now? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. And first and foremost, I mean, getting the initial accreditation was certainly a labor of love. Going into it just to provide a background of how the accreditation process works in O&P, students who graduate from either an MPO, a Master's of Prosthetics or Orthotics, or an MSOP, Master's of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics, must graduate from an accredited program. So that means that if we don't have that accreditation and we make it through the two years of the program and the students matriculate and go off to do their residencies, they're not eligible to sit for their boards. So there was a great deal of, I don't want to call it pressure, but responsibility on my part to make sure that that happened for the sake of my students. It meant a lot that our initial 10 students had the faith in me that I was going to be able to do that and get that done well in time for them to be able to graduate. And that was really my motivation to make sure that I did it at the highest possible level in collaboration with the rest of my faculty as well as ETSU leadership. So now on to the second part of your question, the why, which is probably the most important part of this question is why orthotics and prosthetics at ETSU. And I think that we can tie that directly back to ETSU's mission statement, the ability to be able to serve the people of the region and beyond. So if we look at the evidence base, we're consistently seeing that people are living longer, which is going to result in the need for orthotic or prosthetic intervention just due to the natural progression of age and pathophysiology that comes along with that. But we're also seeing a rise in metabolic diseases, things like type 2 diabetes and peripheral vascular disease, which are the number one cause for amputation in a lot of the patients that we see. As a result, the demand for our services is currently far outweighing the supply. That's compounded even further in the fact of where we live in the eastern part of Tennessee, which is considered more rural than a lot of the other city centers that may have multiple O&P clinics for patients to be able to travel to in order to get their services. So I think, and I've heard this quite a few times in my time here, that this program was created to be a very mission-centric program. And I think that what that means is this program was created to give us the opportunity to sort of allow our students to go out into the community and be able to provide this service at a high level. And it's our job to make sure that we're training them in order to do that. So I think that answers the why question. Why is this program part of ETSU? And I think that by the time our first cohort graduates and then beyond, we're going to be able to serve that mission. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So tell us a bit more about what it's like to build a program like this from the ground up. Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, yeah. So in short, it's not an easy thing to do. And I can provide a little bit more context behind that. So looking at my timeline, rewinding the clock almost two years from now. So I finished my Ph.D. in, or I defended my dissertation on August 15, 2023. By August 20th, I had my whole life packed up, including my wife and at the time a three-year-old and a six-month-old child driving from New York to Tennessee. And by August 29, I was in my office staring at this big, empty space wondering, what am I doing? And I would be lying to say that I was 100% confident that I was going to come in and be able to knock this out of the park on my first try. Again, fortunately, I had people behind me that were willing to support me. Dr. Jeff Snodgrass, who's the current dean of the College of Health Sciences, who was instrumental to this. Dr. Lynn Williams was also a great help during this process. I've been in the field of orthotics and prosthetics for quite a while now. I've worked in a lot of different clinical scenarios, a lot of different clinics and laboratories. But those laboratories have always just been there. I never had to really worry about how to build a lab. What tools do we absolutely need? What equipment needs to be there? So that was probably the biggest hurdle that I needed to first overcome. Based on that, one of the things that I learned during my Ph.D. training and my time in clinic was by definition, the Ph.D. teaches you how to think. And when you realize that you don't know an answer to, it also teaches you how to go find those answers and be able to apply what's already been done to your scenario or your situation. And while I didn't know exactly what I was going to do right off the bat, I had the skills necessary and the resources necessary to build what we have right now. And I'm very, very grateful for all the support that we've had all the way from the top at ETSU in order to build and establish the program here at East Tennessee State University. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, it's amazing to think that what you've done in under two years, yeah, that's congratulations again. Dr. Kyle Leister It's pretty wild to think about that in retrospect, you know, going from, again, walking in with very little established with the curriculum, the students, the faculty, the lab space, to go from that to now having, you know, 10 very, very ambitious students in the seats progressing through this program. It is pretty wild to think about that. Our current cohort, we have students coming from across the country to be a part of this, to be a part of the program and what ETSU has to offer. It all started with an interview for most of the students. And I think after that initial interview, they were all sold on the ETSU community as well as our program. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So you also have the opportunity to be housed on the VA campus. Can you tell us a bit about how that location may assist in program development? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, the VA, we look at that as being a very, very valuable asset to us and our program. So the VA, not just in a clinical standpoint, has a lot of great opportunities from a research perspective. So being able to collaborate with them in terms of patient care and research is an avenue that we definitely look to explore and very fertile ground for us. I mean, we could be in the physical therapy and the rehabilitation space within the VA in under a 10-minute walk. So we really are looking to build upon that relationship. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle ETSU's O&P program also shares a building with our occupational therapy and physical therapy programs, creating a space that's ideally suited for interprofessional education. How will ETSU's approach to interprofessional education benefit our O&P students? Dr. Kyle Leister So that's a great question. And in my time in this role, I've already given quite a few tours to prospective students, parents, people that are interested to see what we're seeing, what we're doing in our building and in our department. And one of the ways that I always start off my tours is right there in the lobby where we've got the O&P center to my right and the OTD, the occupational therapy program, on my left, and the PT program running directly above us. And that's where I always start my conversation, letting people know how unique and advantageous this is to have all three programs under one roof in such close proximity. Going back to my experience as a clinician, I worked in the clinic for about eight years before entering academia, and it was almost a daily basis that I was working with an occupational therapist or a physical therapist. And while most of the time those conversations and those relationships were great, there were instances where I found myself thinking, "I wish that we could be speaking the same language. We're all in it for the same reason, to make sure that our patients are getting optimal treatment and optimal care." But there always, not I don't want to say always, but there were times where I felt that there were disconnects between the three professions that again are very, very closely related. I see this as an opportunity now to narrow that gap, to make sure right off the bat that our students are working with the physical therapists, are working with the occupational therapists, so that when they go out into clinical practice, we are all speaking the same language. So not only does it align with this idea of multidisciplinary care and interprofessional education, but it's going to certainly translate to whenever our students go out into clinical practice, as well as the students in these other programs go out into clinical practice. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle With all the technological advances like 3D printing and AI, how is the field of orthotics and prosthetics evolving? Dr. Kyle Leister I think the short answer to that question is it's evolving very rapidly. A lot of the ways that it's evolving, we're well set up to be able to expose our students to this new technology. The first thing that you mentioned was 3D printing. Our laboratory space, whenever we were designing the initial layout, we wanted to make sure that we had an ample room, an ample space for additive manufacturing or scanning, 3D printing, and then manufacturing a device that can be provided to a patient in an educational standpoint. 3D printing, while it's not necessarily a novel technology, the things that have been coming a long way are the materials. I remember earlier on in my career when 3D printing was really starting to take off, a lot of the applications were mainly reserved for our upper extremity individuals, specifically because we didn't have materials that were robust enough to allow a patient to consistently weight bear through. For the upper extremity application, we don't necessarily have to worry about those materials failing and resulting in an injury or a fall. Well, that's all changed. We now have materials that are certainly robust enough to allow for a patient to be able to utilize as a definitive prosthesis. The sort of evolution that we're seeing now with 3D printing is that we're in a position now that our materials are commensurate with a lot of different amputee activity levels. That gives us the opportunity to be able to get in there, take a digital impression of the patient's residual limb or body segment, and then be able to print a socket and kind of cut out a lot of the extra fabrication time that typically is more of a laborious task that results in a lot of waste, a lot of things that can really slow the process. We're seeing a trend now that additive manufacturing is becoming a lot more prevalent in the field of orthotics and prosthetics. Interestingly enough, I was recently at a conference in Stockholm, a global orthotics and prosthetics conference, and I was sitting in a keynote, one of the keynote lectures, which focused on osteointegration, which is another technique that while it's been, I don't want to say commonplace, but it's been more common in European countries and places like Australia, it's starting to show a lot more in the United States as well. So in osteointegration, I'll back up one more time, the bane of every prosthetist's existence is getting that comfortable socket fit. The socket is the connection between the patient and the machine. It doesn't matter if we have the most state-of-the-art technology that the patient is walking on in terms of a microprocessor knee unit or a microprocessor foot unit. If we don't get that socket interface done and done at a high level and comfortable, that's just going to be a very, very expensive paperweight for the patient. So osteointegration is a technique where an insert or an implant is actually placed inside the long bone of the residual limb. So say if a patient has an amputation above the knee, that insert would go into the thigh bone or the femur bone, exit the residual limb, and allows an amputee then to be able to attach distal componentry right onto that insert or that implant that's exiting their skin. This completely forgoes the need for that socket. Now, there's still a great use for the prosthetist in order to be able to manage that type of patient from an alignment and a biomechanical standpoint. But this is technology that, while maybe more prevalent in other parts of the world, is definitely making a presence here in the United States more common in something that our students need to know about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. What about AI? Dr. Kyle Leister So AI definitely plays a role in orthotics and prosthetics too. And the way that I look at AI is that I want it to be our friend rather than our foe. And one of the best ways that I think that we can harness that energy and that technology is by allowing it to be able to be a part of our clinical documentation strategies. So by doing this, and of course, obviously checking whatever it's putting out, it allows the clinician then to have more one-on-one time with that individual. Because a big part of their day no longer needs to be in front of a computer in an office typing up clinical summaries. That's one way that we're leveraging AI in orthotics and prosthetics. And I think that's probably pretty similar across the board in medicine. Specifically for the opportunity to be able to decrease on the computer work and being in front of a computer in more time in front of the patient, the tools that AI is able to provide us. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle For students or listeners interested in health sciences, what advice would you give them about finding a meaningful path in a specialized field like yours? Dr. Kyle Leister So I think the best way would be for the students to ask their own questions. Obviously, what we do is not as apparent as what a physical therapist or an occupational would do. an occupational therapist would do. We're not as widespread out there. I think in the entire field, we maybe have 3,000 practicing clinicians in the United States. So as a result, students that may be aware of this field need to do a lot of their own research to determine if this is the path that they want to go through. Another way that I would recommend is reaching out to your local clinician, seeing if you can get into the clinical practice and do some shadowing hours. You don't know until you're actually in there what the day in the life of the orthotist-prosthetist looks like. One of the things that's very unique about our field is that not only are we working with amputees or individuals with limb loss or limb difference, we're also working with a myriad of individuals with a lot of different pathologies that are treated with orthotics. So being able to decipher the difference between orthotics and prosthetics and asking those questions is probably the best way to start. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Kyle Leister So I think that story is still yet to be written, considering how new we are as a program. But I think if I were to answer that question right now, so new into this role and with such a new program, I just hope that I'm able to relay how excited I am to be a part of the greater picture and be able to have the opportunity to train the next generation of O&P clinicians. I love this field very much. I take what I do very, very seriously. And I hope that my students are able to realize that whenever I'm trying to relay these concepts over to them. I want them to know that there will be difficult days. And what we do is very challenging. To be able to be a competent orthotist-prosthetist, you have to know a lot. And I hope that they know that I'm going to be there with them every step along the way. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Leister, thank you so much for joining us today on "Why I Teach." Launching a new program in a short amount of time is no small feat. I sincerely appreciate your work and wish you well as you begin your fall semester. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Leister, the College of Health Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.  

In this inspiring episode of Why I Teach, Dr. Christy Lawson, a trauma, critical care, and acute care surgeon at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine, reflects on her journey from a rural community in Georgia to the operating room and classroom. Blending stories of family, mentorship, and personal growth, Dr. Lawson reveals how formative experiences—from learning through storytelling with her grandfather to assisting in surgery during a mission trip in Honduras—ignited her passion for medicine and teaching. She discusses the emotional complexities of surgical training, the power of individualized mentorship, and the importance of nurturing students as whole people. ETSU Quillen College of Medicine: https://www.etsu.edu/com/ ETSU Health: www.etsuhealth.org ETSU Department of Surgery: https://www.etsu.edu/com/surgery/ ETSU Great Lecture Series: https://www.etsu.edu/etsu-news/2025/01-january/great-lectures-feature-handy-herrmann-lawson.php   Transcript:  Dr. Christy Lawson Just knowing people is one of the most important parts of teaching. When you know them as an individual, you can help them tap into the things that renew them. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Christy Lawson. Dr. Lawson is a trauma, critical care, and acute care surgeon and professor of surgery at ETSU Quillen College of Medicine. She was born in Ringgold, Georgia, and grew up learning the values of faith, integrity, hard work, drive, passion, and service to others from her family. Her mother went back to nursing school when she was in high school, and she remembers doing her homework during night school anatomy classes. This influence, a few key teachers, and a strategically placed surgical mission project in Honduras inspired her to work hard and open the horizon of medical school. Dr. Lawson obtained her college degree at Berry College, and then attended the Medical College of Georgia before landing in surgical residency at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She trained there for residency and fellowship, and spent the first several years of her surgical practice there prior to moving to Johnson City and finding her home at ETSU in 2018. She was recently part of the ETSU Great Lecture Series, which is a celebration of our amazing faculty who have recently been promoted to full professor. Her lecture was inspirational, and I really look forward to my conversation with her today. Enjoy the show! Dr. Lawson, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what's one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Christy Lawson That first day was so different than anything that I'd really experienced before. And I was nervous because I'd never really left the place that I trained. And I think I would have told myself to just be myself and to not compare, because I think that was the hardest part for me, was coming in, not knowing what to expect and sort of comparing it to what I had done in the past. The students are different. The environment was different. The patients were different. The people that I worked with were different. And so I think that would have probably been what I would have told myself. Just take a breath. Don't compare and be yourself. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Great advice. Let's start with your story. You grew up in Ringgold, Georgia, with a powerful example of service in your family. Can you share how those early experiences shaped your decision to pursue medicine and ultimately teaching? Dr. Christy Lawson Actually, teaching came first before medicine. I grew up in a very rural farm community. My grandfather had cattle. I was sent to dig post holes for punishment. So that's kind of how I grew up. My grandfather was my first teacher. I remember walking with him through the farm and he was a great oral storyteller. And I don't think I identified storytelling as teaching then, but it was a way that he kind of would talk through things with us. He would teach us how to do things. He would teach us the names of livestock, how to take care of them, the names of the trees that we saw. And over the course of years, just walking with my grandfather through the farm and doing hard work with him, I learned that storytelling was teaching in that I love knowledge. And so honestly, that was really where it started for me. In high school, I had some fantastic teachers who were really able to see my potential, because while I loved knowledge, I didn't love school, and they saw that I was sort of floundering, and that I would read paperbacks under my desk. And I had a chemistry teacher in particular, who was just excellent at seeing the potential in individual students and pulling it out of the individual. And it wasn't this cookie cutter, "This is what you have to learn." And that really hit home for me -- that individualized learning. And so from that point forward, I just wanted to learn. And so I went to school pursuing zoology. I love being outside and I love my love of trees and flowers and plants and animals and living things came from my grandfather, and found myself in science classes. And then my mom wanted me to have a career that actually had an income, because I was going to do grant writing and research on Steller sea lions. And she said, "You know, how about you go with me to Honduras and learn some things about surgery or medicine?" And so I went with them on a surgical trip, and I was a first assist in surgery in San Pedro Sula, with a surgeon who actually graduated from Quillen and did his residency here at ETSU. And then I was hooked. I was like, "I can do this forever. This is really what I could do with my life." And that's kind of how I found my way into medicine -- sort of like an afterthought. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. How old were you when you went to Honduras? Dr. Christy Lawson I was 19. So I was a junior in college, and one of my roommates had been working on med school applications, and it wasn't until after that trip that I thought maybe I could do this. And fortunately, all the prereqs that science had given me positioned me well for med school. All I had to do is take physics. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Oh, that's all? Dr. Christy Lawson That's all. It almost killed the career dreams, right? Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you. You were recently featured in the ETSU Great Lecture Series where you talked about the power of mentorship. Will you share with us some of those powerful mentorship moments you've experienced throughout your career, either as the mentor or the mentee? Dr. Christy Lawson There are just so many of these. This is really what compels me the most about teaching is the relationships that you get to develop, both with the people who teach you, as well as the people that you teach. My greatest surgical mentor was my program director and chairman when I was a resident, Mitch Goldman. And he was one of those teachers, too, that could see you as an individual and know what it took to motivate you. And I know I had a trouble with confidence. And so he had this unique way of sort of sitting back in the background and letting me do things, and then would insert himself when he knew that I needed help. But he always watched, and he was always there. And so just having that support in the background, knowing that he believed in me, that mattered to me so much, and that really helped me build the confidence that I needed to be a good surgeon. I remember on a Saturday he was busy, he was doing paperwork, I was running around seeing patients, and I didn't know the answer to a question. And rather than reprimand me, like so many of my other faculty did, he called me to his office and I thought, "Well, this is it. I'm about to get fired." And I go up there and he sat me down and he opened a textbook, and he shared with me his knowledge of what I had gotten wrong, and he taught me how to think about it in a different way. And I will never forget that day. It was Saturday at like 2:00 in the afternoon. And at first, I was thinking about how busy I was and how much I had left to do. But him taking that 15 minutes out of his day to teach me was really impactful. And then one of my students – this was probably my favorite mentee moment -- she was a resident, and she came in, very young. She was younger than everybody else, so it was a little bit like a fish out of water. And so we sort of bonded over that. And she became a really good friend over the course of her training; went into trauma and critical care; left UT and went to UT Southwestern, where she did fellowship; and then one of my current residents, who's about to graduate, did an elective with her in practice. And I have this picture of me and her -- her name is Sneha Bhat -- I have a picture of us operating doing an abdominal wall reconstruction together. And then 10 years later, she sends me a picture of her doing the same operation with my current resident. So for me, that was just a really neat, full-circle moment. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Well, speaking of that, I thought one of the most powerful parts of you the day you were delivering the lecture was having some of your mentors in the room. Dr. Christy Lawson Yeah. For me as well. It was really neat to see that they came to hear me speak. And that, to me, means a lot about our relationship. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that was nice. I also appreciated your perspective on work-life balance. As a surgeon and an educator, you have both a demanding and a rewarding career. What advice do you have for our students or resident physicians who are just beginning their careers in medicine? Dr. Christy Lawson This is really hard and was very challenging for me. Medical careers can be all-consuming. It's almost what we're taught to feel about them. It's a calling. It's not just a career. This is part of your identity. It's very easy and insidious to find your identity in your career. All of us struggle with that. And so, I think my advice to them would be, remember what your priorities are. Yes, your priority is to learn how to take great care of patients, how to be an excellent physician, and to learn the vast amount of information that you have to do, have to learn, to be able to do that well. But also, if you set your priorities and your intentions when you start and you make sure that you stay true to who you are and what is the most valuable thing to you, that will help. And balance is a myth. Some days it's always going to be tilted one way or the other. So, there are days where I don't see my kids because I'm on call for 24 hours. They know that I love them. I kiss them before I leave, and then I tell them I'll see them the next day after school. They know Mom works hard and takes care of patients, and they're always, they always know that I'll be back. And then the next day when I'm off and I'm post-call and I may be tired, but I'm all there. So wherever I am, I have to be all there. And so when I'm with my kids, they have to know that they're the most important thing to me in that moment. And I think keeping that intention, whether I'm at work or whether I'm at home, that I'm 100% where I am, I think that's helped me. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you. When you're teaching students or resident physicians, what do you most hope they take away from your example or your lessons? Dr. Christy Lawson Honestly, I hope they take hope away from it. Our world is hard. What we do is hard. The environment around us is difficult to navigate sometimes. There's always emotions and fears or concerns or what ifs swirling around, and that interplays with us in all areas of our life. And so if you can have hope, not only that what you're doing for your patients brings hope to them, how you're teaching the students around you brings hope for their future, how you live your life gives you hope for that it's going to be better, that you're going to be able to make an impact, that you're going to be able to make a difference -- I think if they can take that away, then I've done the calling that I've been called to do, and I think that's the most important thing. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Are there any "Aha!" moments you've seen in your students that have really stuck with you? Dr. Christy Lawson I love this question. There's so many "Aha!" moments when you teach. especially when you're doing new skills acquisition. But for me, watching the process work for residents is amazing. They come in, new doctors, they've been doctors for five minutes, and they're learning all of this new information -- how to take care of patients, how to see them, who to operate on, who not operate on, the science of surgery, the bureaucracy of medicine, how to navigate a system. And then they go to the operating room, and at first it's just they're so excited to be there, but they have no idea what they're doing. And then watching that process unfold over five years and then getting to operate with a chief, like they're a partner, where you just operate in companionable silence. It's very rare that I have to move their hands or help them see something in a different way. They can just do it on their own. And watching that excitement turn into pride and a sense of accomplishment and ownership -- that, to me is the neatest part about training surgeons. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great. How do you prepare students to navigate the challenges of medicine and surgery? Dr. Christy Lawson There are several things that go into this. The first is like we just talked about -- the "Aha!" moment, watching someone develop the necessary skills and competence to be able to work in this high-stakes area. So one of it is just making sure they have the foundation, the knowledge base, the technical skills -- all of those things become muscle memory. Having that foundational background is really, really important, because invariably, we are all going to do something, whether it's by active omission or active commission, to hurt someone. And that is really, really difficult to deal with emotionally. We are all humans, and we are frail, and we make mistakes. So having that foundation, that background knowledge, is critical and why it's so important to be a good teacher of both surgical science and medicine in general. But beyond that, helping them figure out how to deal with that inevitability, how to handle stress, how to navigate the complex emotions of mistakes and medicine, of the stress of the job, of the changes that we all have to face and navigate, even the frustrations that a system that doesn't know the knowledge that you know, that tells you how to practice medicine -- all of that is very stressful. And so figuring out what it is about each student that they can tap into that helps with stress relief is super important, and that goes along with mentorship. Just knowing people is one of the most important parts of teaching. When you know them as an individual, you can help them tap into the things that renew them. For me, it's prayer, meditation, my family, and exercise. For somebody else, it might look completely different. And so being able to kind of help them figure that out for themselves, to give them the tools to deal with this long term will help not only them in the immediate time while they're my students, but also keep them in their careers for forever. Because you don't want a burnout. Burnout's a very, very high risk for our career. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As you know, the Quillen College of Medicine was recently recognized as second in the nation for medical schools, with the most graduates practicing in underserved areas. In what ways do you see Quillen preparing our students to make an impact in this area? Dr. Christy Lawson This is the Quillen identity. This is who we are. And I love that about ETSU and Quillen College of Medicine. You find that vein of wanting to serve the underserved in pretty much any group of people that teach or work at Quillen, that or ETSU that you talk to you -- that vein of wanting to serve sort of bonds us together and brings us together as a family, and so that becomes our identity. When you see things like Remote Area Medical, when you see volunteer projects like during the Helene disaster, the global impact that we're able to have through the surgical fellowships and the work that Dr. Wood and Dr. Feltis are doing with the international medical work, you watch how that really changes the way people treat patients. The knowledge that people come from austere areas, that they have limited access to care, learning how to navigate fear of health care -- there's a lot of distrust, especially in Appalachia, about organized health care, really organized anything -- and so seeing how our residents really lean into that, and a lot of our residents and students come here because of that identity as well. They have a strong desire to serve underserved. And so, Quillen has done a fantastic job of identifying that as who they are, and that that's a core belief, and seeing that translated into real time and how it really impacts and interplays in patient care has been really amazing. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Christy Lawson This is difficult for me to answer because I just want to have made some impact to make them the best version of who they are. I think in the history of surgical training, we've tried very hard to make people fit a certain mold. And you come in and you sort of sublimate or subjugate who you are so that you can fit a certain type. And surgeons have a type, right? Where there's a typecast, there's a generalization of the angry surgeon or the surgeon that's a workaholic, or the surgeon that that eats, breathes and sleeps the operating room and doesn't care about anything outside it. And that's not true. Inherently, we are deeply passionate people, very driven. We do care about all aspects of patient care. We tend to be stressed. And so I think that comes forward with that, that mentality of anger or short-tempered. And so what I hope to impact the most is creating whole people, because I think when we are the best versions of who we are designed to be and we're humans, then we're better at our job. No matter what job we do, when we remember who we are, and we're able to really plug back into what feeds our soul or what is most important to us, and we're able to prioritize and not just be our jobs, we're better at our jobs. And that's what I hope. I hope to be able to make that kind of impact on my students, and also on the surgical field as a whole. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Doctor Lawson, thank you so much for joining us on "Why I Teach." It's truly been an honor to hear more about your journey and the incredible impact you're making here at ETSU. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Lawson, the Quillen College of Medicine, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode of “Why I Teach,” Dr. Flo Weierbach, a seasoned nurse and professor at East Tennessee State University’s College of Nursing, talks with Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle about her journey from providing direct care to teaching the next generation of nurses. With over 40 years of experience, Dr. Weierbach discusses her research on caregiver health, the challenges of rural health care, and the importance of interprofessional education for nurses. She also provides a snapshot of her experience with the Nurse Narratives Initiative. Transcript:  Dr. Flo Weierbach So when I think about what's most important that I want my students to learn is: how to be kind, how to share, how to listen, and how to meet people where they're at. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Doctor Flo Weierbach. Dr. Weierbach is a Registered Nurse and professor at East Tennessee State University's College of Nursing. She has over 40 years of nursing experience in providing direct care to individuals and their families in community settings. She has served as the nurse on multiple interprofessional health care teams and has conducted research focused on caregiver health. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship focusing on rural communities and chronic health conditions of rural residents at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Additionally, she was a Rural Health Fellow from 2012 through 2013 for the National Rural Health Association, a member of the American Nurses Association Public Health Scope and Standards Workgroup, and as the founding president of the Rural Nurse Organization Appalachian Region Tri-State Chapter. Enjoy the show. Dr. Weierbach, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Flo Weierbach I think the biggest thing I would say is that I need to relax. When I first entered the building, it was hard to find my office, and I was like, "Where is this?" It’s not what I remembered. And the first day I was in the classroom, I left my jacket in the classroom. So I would say, relax. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle   Yes, always great advice. You've had an extensive career in nursing with over 40 years of experience. What first drew you to the field, and how has that passion for nursing evolved over the years? Dr. Flo Weierbach My mother was a nurse, and she always wanted me to be a nurse. I didn't want to be a nurse, but I was working in a nursing home, going to the community college for a different degree, and recognized how important it was that I was there. And I knew I could do more as a nurse than as an aide. Over the years, I've evolved to discover and to care for people where they live. When I left the hospital after about eight years, after I got my bachelor's degree, I never looked back. I’ve been in the hospital since then, but very infrequently. So I would say really meeting people where they’re at. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What inspired you to transition from direct care to teaching at ETSU College of Nursing? Dr. Flo Weierbach I, like I said before, when I was in the hospital, it was one at a time that I was providing care for. Then I moved into the community setting, and it was a family home. Then I further moved into our community action, and it was the community. What pushed me to teach was the ability to impact students so that they could provide care to individuals, families, and communities. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Your research is focused on caregivers, especially those caring for individuals with chronic health conditions. What inspired you to dive into this area and how has this research impacted your teaching? Dr. Flo Weierbach When I first moved out of the hospital, I entered the home health arena and at that time it was not like it was now, and we provided care for everyone. And over that decade, things changed and it was harder to do it. When I was in my Ph.D. program, I was talking to a coworker from Home Health and she Dr. Flo Weierbach said to me, "Go find out what people need in the community." That led me to my dissertation work, which told me what I already knew, but I didn’t know I knew in that way. The caregivers were the most important thing. Yeah, but at the same time, what I saw was that caregivers would die, and we wouldn’t know what to do with their loved ones. Yeah, and that was the call. I hated the absolute most. And all the caregiving work at that time was around stress. So I decided to look at it differently and to look at it through health and through physiological, physical health and mental health. So that’s kind of like what led me to that. I developed a model. I tested the model. When I tested the model, we saw changes over time in both mental and physical health, which was a little unusual. We weren’t expecting that. How it's been able to impact my teaching is I teach a graduate-level theory concepts to our master students, and both with, and with our PhD students, that I met her. I've been able to show them how a model works and how to develop a model. So I think that's how I've been able to use that with my teaching. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, I imagine this is an area of research that's interesting as well to students. Dr. Flo Weierbach I think it is. I think what's interesting, too, is demonstrating how important the community is, demonstrating how important it is that we address health holistically. And in addressing health holistically, we are looking at the entire person, and the model includes four components to health being attitudes and beliefs. So why are we doing it? Why are we providing care? Oh, it involves tasks that we do as caregivers, such as bathing or feeding or grocery shopping, and involves needs that we have as caregivers, such as help with the lawn, help with finances. And then it also addresses what we as caregivers do for ourselves to maintain healthy. Do we eat healthy? Do we exercise? And what was most surprising when I looked at it was how important spiritual care was. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You were recently able to participate in a wonderful project called the Nurse Narratives Initiative. Will you please share what that project is all about? And a bit about your experience with it? So the Nurse Narratives project is, it's very interesting, I love it. It brings the arts into the classroom, and it also brings storytelling into the classroom and allows nurses to share our stories about memorable events that have happened throughout her career. I know for myself, when I was trying to decide on which story I, after 40 years, I have a lot of stories. It was challenging to think about it, and it was also challenging to think about what did I want to emphasize? So I finally settled on a story that was a home health story that involved very few visits, and I highlighted one aspect of a visit. But it really demonstrates what nurses bring to the table on the farm. It talked about skills. It talked about relationship building. It talked about what you can do with not a lot of resources. And it talked about a health outcome, both for the individual that I was providing care for and also for the husband. Yeah. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So I understand that many of your colleagues in the college have also participated in the project. Dr. Flo Weierbach Yes. And that that was also lots of fun to be able to work with people that I've not worked with in the past. I really have enjoyed that aspect of it. Feel like I learned from them and they learned from me. And the team is just, the nurse narrative team is so good at getting us to focus on what was most important. Yes. I really enjoyed the first kind of presentation of that, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of the narratives. It's great. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What type of work are you currently doing now at ETSU? Dr. Flo Weierbach So currently in addition to teaching... So I teach across programs. I teach undergraduate community health, which I just absolutely love. It's great fun to see students realize that there's health care outside of a hospital setting. I teach graduate master students and then Ph.D. students, but in addition to that, I've been doing some research work. We had a legislative meeting last August with the Tennessee Nurses Association, District Five. And out of that, a topic came up that the legislators were interested in and that was looking at workplace violence for nurses. Yeah, nasty topic for real, and at the same time, workplace well-being has become very important. So a bunch of us that are nursing faculty, we are working with the Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement on a research project identifying well-being and workplace violence in the state, which is just phenomenal. We've contacted the legislators that are there. They are interested in it. They want to know what's going on. They can't do anything with policy until they know what's going on. So I'm really proud of that work. We have a Ph.D. student working with us. And then the other that I've been working with is the ALS clinic I've been working with. And the social worker and I have been working on a project looking at my health model for caregivers, using secondary data to identify needs of caregivers. Those are two fun projects, along with the continual work that I'm doing with the Interprofessional Education Center with Dr. Brian Cross. In addition to the work that I'm currently doing with interprofessional practice, I'm also working with the team to develop a pilot study that will hopefully be funded. We're going to put it in probably late summer, early fall, addressing frailty and elders. And that's an interdisciplinary team involving two disciplines out of the College of Health Sciences, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Public Health, and myself. So excited about that. I love doing interprofessional work. So lots of fun stuff in addition to teaching. Oh, it's great. I look forward to hearing about those projects. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Rural communities often face unique health challenges. What are some of the most pressing issues you've encountered in rural health care, and how is ETSU preparing our nursing students to deal with those challenges? Dr. Flo Weierbach I think the biggest challenge I've seen is transportation. Access is always important, but if you have a health care center in a rural place, that's great. But if there's no transportation, they can't get there. So I would say transportation, and along with transportation, is the regionalization of specialties. If people have to drive long distances, they probably don't know where they're going. They're a little scared of the big city, even though this is not a big city, they're a little scared of it. And there are ways that we can bring people into the community, and bring health care into the community through churches, through work in clubs. And I would like to see a little bit more of that, that we reach people where they're at instead of making people come to us. But I would say the biggest challenge I see is transportation. And then right next to that is what we consider to be deserts. We see food deserts where there are no grocery stores. And we also see pharmacy deserts where there's no pharmacy. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And I've observed that our students tend to be very interested in working to address those challenges. Dr. Flo Weierbach Yes, they do. We've had students, undergraduate students in some of our distant clinic sites for the College of Nursing, and it's my understanding we have that again. A few years ago, we had our graduate FNP students, we had some scholarships that addressed that. A lot of our students want to work in their communities. We have a graduate course right now that clearly addresses underserved communities and underserved populations, which have been a focus of the college in our state for a long time. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle The College of Nursing also maintains a number of nurse-led clinics in rural communities. Can you tell us a bit about that work? Dr. Flo Weierbach So our clinics are phenomenal. A couple of years ago, I was the project director for a HRSA grant and we took our senior undergraduate students during their clinical practicum, the last course they take, and we put them into the clinics. The students loved it. They shadowed the nurse. No, they didn’t shadow. They were the nurse. Oh, in the clinics, the clinics embraced them. The outcomes that we had from that were phenomenal. Our NCLEX pass rates were higher than the class average. And some of the other programs that had this grant, they cherry-picked their students. We didn’t. We just had some really great students. They wanted to be in the program. They wanted to do the rural work. And what's more important is we've had great outcomes out of that. So we had, I can't remember exactly how many students that were in that program. But I do know that our outcomes are: We've had at least two FNPs, who have stayed in rural practice and at least one, if not 2 or 3, that went into our Family Partnership program. Our Nurse Family Partnership Program is an evidence-based program that helps at-risk mothers with newborns. And they follow, the nurse, follows the mother and the child up until two years of age. We have the largest rural footprint in the country with that program. Yeah, our clinic, we're just phenomenal. We have our master students in there. Oh, our psychiatric mental health program, we always have a lot of students that are interested in that. It allows us to have placement for our students and allows them to look at it in a professional team, especially those that are in the Johnson City area who serve the homeless population at the Day Center. And after our community center, because there are large interprofessional teams in those areas. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle How do you teach nursing students the importance of working in teams, especially in rural or underserved settings? Dr. Flo Weierbach I already mentioned the interprofessional education that we do. Our nursing students, our undergraduate students, work with the on-ground model of interprofessional education, which is our team-based. So not only are they learning about how to work in teams, but they're also in a team. Then for our graduate students, we have an asynchronous, completely online model. Again, they're working in teams. Yeah. Oh, and we also encourage our students to attend the ALS clinic with me. Which is awesome when they do, because not only are they seeing a team of professionals practicing, but there's also other students there. So they learn that also. So, all of our clinics focus on teamwork. Oh, and we focus heavily on teamwork within our graduate program, which is what I have more experience with than our undergraduate. For our Ph.D. students, we have them work on research teams. And I know the research teams that I work with are interprofessional. I just also finished up and I'm finishing up a project that involved three different colleges at the university: Arts and Sciences, the Appalachian Center, Clemmer College, and Nursing. We looked at the role of the school nurse along with Public Health, because we included vaping, around the transition from middle school to high school. Interesting. Yeah. So IP is really woven throughout the curriculum of nursing, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And we're increasing that, bringing more of our students on board and looking at how we can include everyone in the college. In the fall, we are going to take our nursing education students, our graduate nursing education students, and have them work with faculty in the IPE program to mentor them, to demonstrate how to teach IPE. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Yeah, I had not heard about that. Really interesting. Dr. Flo Weierbach Yeah. We've piloted this year with some of our public health students and the public health faculty, but we're going to roll it out in the fall. I'm one of the IPE liaisons. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Fantastic. Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Flo Weierbach Gosh, I think that this was one of the most challenging questions for me. Yeah. As a nurse, I think the most important thing to do is to listen and be present. So when I think about what's most important that I want my students to learn, it is: how to be kind, how to share, how to listen, and how to meet people where they're at because not everyone is at the same place. But if we can, as nurses, figure out where they're at, we can meet their needs. Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Weierbach, thank you so much for joining us today on "Why I Teach." Your wealth of knowledge and dedication to nursing, caregiving, and rural health is truly inspiring, and it's clear that your work has made a profound impact on both the communities you serve and the students you mentor. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Weierbach, the College of Nursing, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU.edu/Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.  

In this episode, Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle talks with Dr. Joe Moore, Director of Athletics Bands, Associate Director of Bands, and Associate Professor of Music, about the incredible ETSU Marching Bucs. In 2014, Dr. Moore was tasked with revitalizing the Marching Bucs, which had been dissolved a decade earlier. Under his leadership, the band has grown in both size and prestige. In 2024, the marching band became the first collegiate marching band from Tennessee in over 60 years invited to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Transcript:  Dr. Joe Moore So, I actually began applying in 2019. 2020, they did not have the parade. It was virtual because of COVID, and then continued applying and, then got the word that we were selected. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us “Why I Teach.” In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Joe Moore, Director of Athletic Bands, Associate Director of Bands, and Associate Professor of Music. Dr. Moore joined the ETSU faculty in 2014 and was tasked with revitalizing the Marching Bucs, which had been dissolved a decade earlier. Under Dr. Moore's leadership, the group has enjoyed explosive, exponential growth year-to-year, from a membership of 165 students in its 2015 debut season to well over 300 active members at present, continually and consecutively breaking the record for the largest band in ETSU history. Along with a surge in membership, the Marching Bucs have quickly established themselves as a premier marching arts organization with national recognition. The group was chosen to represent the state of Tennessee in the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the first time a collegiate band from Tennessee has been featured in over 60 years. Enjoy the show. Dr. Moore, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Joe Moore   Thank you for having me. Yeah. I remember at first feeling a little overwhelmed with the idea of totally starting a program from scratch, basically because it had been dormant for so long. But what I would go back and tell myself now is enjoy the process, document the process. I think I was so fixated on the goal that I didn't always appreciate and enjoy the stepping stones along the way. You know, talking with students for the first time who were excited about the program starting back, and they were sharing their stories with me and things like that. So, I think just if I could go back and just soak all of that in rather than being fixated on creating a product. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, I have been looking forward to having you here. What a year. The ETSU Marching Bucs just had what I would call a historic season. I had the privilege of cheering on the band at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I know from an observer's perspective, it was exhilarating. So, I can only imagine what it must have been like to be leading your students along this journey. Will you share the story of how the band was selected to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? What was the process like for you and the students? Dr. Joe Moore Sure. I've watched the Macy's Parade as long as I can remember. Growing up, my family knew we couldn't have Thanksgiving dinner until after the parade was over. When I joined band, I thought, oh, that would be really nice to be in it someday. And then I became a band director, and I thought, oh, I would love to have a group in it someday. And so, it kind of progressed. And then I guess I had sort of put that idea on hold for a long time. And, then when I came to ETSU and I started enjoying the work ethic of the band and seeing the progress they were making and I just realized it was almost like a duh moment. It's like you should apply for Macy's. And so, I began applying for it. It's a very stringent process. There are, there are worldwide performance opportunities for bands. But usually if you've got the money then you can go. In fact, we were actually invited to come and march in the Lord Mayor's New Year's Day Parade in London. But I had knew I had applied for Macy's and so I was like, oh, I'm going to wait and see if Macy's works out. So I actually began applying in 2019. 2020, they did not have the parade. It was virtual because of COVID. And then continued applying and, then got the word that we were selected and, you know, we had to provide videos. We had to provide photographs with the band of, of each uniform, of each different section, letters of recommendation from people in the marching arts, a band resume. It was a pretty extensive process. And then in 2023, usually they had said they would let people know, you know, by February. And, you know, February came and went. And then it was March, and I just resigned myself. Okay, we haven't been chosen. And I got a message from the coordinator of the parade asking if I could do a Teams meeting with them. And I thought, I've messed something up on the application, or I left something out or something. And so we had the Teams meeting, and this was in early March, and, you know, it was a very pleasant meeting. And he just, he was asking things about the band and, and there were things I'd already answered on the application. So I was a little confused why he was asking those. And then he started talking about the band and, asked me about some things I included things like, you know, during, during the COVID shutdown, we actually had band members, we formed a whole ensemble to go play for the shift change at the hospital for the health care workers. You know, I talked about, you know, our engagement with our audiences, like, in the Christmas parade. You know, that we don't just, I mean, we're disciplined and we're regimented, but we let our kids interact with the audience because I think that's important. And, and he started talking about things like that, and, you know, how much that mattered. You know, the things beyond just the musical things. And then he started talking about, the videos that we had submitted, of our halftime shows. And he liked that our shows told a story, that they engaged the crowd so that the crowd wasn't always just spectators, but actually participants, you know, they were drawn in and, and he explained that, you know, a lot of people look at Herald Square as what Macy's Parade, the Macy's Parade is, but that's actually at the end of a two and a half mile parade route where millions of people are lining the streets. And he said it's very important to us that those people are entertained. And, you know, and he said, we like what you all do. And he offered the invitation for us to be in the 2024 parade. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. So as the director, how did you prepare the band for such a high-profile performance? Dr. Joe Moore It was pretty intense. They, they knew the significance of it. We, and, of course, we don't practice during the summers or anything. So really, we could not start practicing until this past August when we came in at the end of the, end of the month for band camp. I knew that endurance would be something we would have to work on because you know, other than the Christmas parade, we don't really do parades. And, the Johnson City Parade And so, I knew endurance and, you know, and of course, you never know what the weather's going to be. I looked through literally decades of YouTube videos, and the weather was everything from sunny to almost blizzard conditions. So we knew we, we couldn't anticipate that. And I knew it would be a long time of playing along the parade route. They actually have a rule that, you know, you can only do percussion cadence in between songs for so long because they don't want the audience, you know, a little further down to not hear music. And so, I wrote our fall show a little more difficult music, a little more demand on their playing. We had more demand in the, in the marching to try to build that endurance up for the parade and also, thematically, I knew I wanted to do something that would make people happy, would make them smile. And so, I chose the theme of "Happy Together." And our show was all about happiness. And, actually, I wrote it so that the first minute and 15 seconds, which is what we're allotted of our show, is what we would do in Herald Square. Some of the kids initially had said, you know, oh, they didn't want to get burned out on it, but, but then I talked to, you know, other people and they say, they said, you know, towards Thanksgiving, you know, they're getting ready for finals and they're tired and to have to learn something brand new. It's not necessarily, you know, maybe the best idea. And, you know, I talked about it and as I mentioned, with my own self, wanted to make sure that when I started here that I was sort of in the moment. I wanted the kids to not be stressed about a performance, not be stressed about learning something new this year. I wanted them to be able to enjoy being on that street, looking up at the skyscrapers and seeing people cheering for them. I wanted them to be relaxed and confident enough that they could soak all that in. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So this was the performance that you gave during the football games throughout the fall semester leading up? Dr. Joe Moore Yes. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. That's great. Dr. Moore, do you want to tell us about some of your favorite memories from the parade? Dr. Joe Moore Sure. There are so many, a couple that stand out. I, along with Timothy Loman, who's our Associate Director and our head drum major, Matthew Jones, were invited to a luncheon with the Macy's committee on Tuesday, the week of the parade. And during the course of that, and I didn't know this existed or happened, we were actually presented with an award, called the Rollie Award. And it, the purpose of it is to recognize people or organizations that exemplify the spirit of the parade. And I thought that was a great testament to our kids, that they're not just, you know, musicians or good marchers, but that it's an overall spirit and how they contribute to the audience and just lifting people up. Of course, the performance itself. It was horrible weather and we, we were moving along at breakneck speed and, I was worried by the time I got to Herald Square that, you know, that we might be tired or distracted, and I didn't actually get to see the performance because they funneled us behind the cameras, but when I was able to get beyond that and they turned the corner off of Herald Square, I could tell from their faces how well they had done. How well they, you know, they knew they had given their very best and that, that was amazing to me and, and just the opportunity to then share Thanksgiving dinner with them that night and as many as there were, it still was like having dinner with my family. It's really special. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. And, and I'll say, objectively, we all knew that they were the best band. I mean, it was fantastic. Someone asked about the decision that that you made, sort of for them not to wear protective, you know, kind of from the rain protection from the rain that really stood out, that they were just marching in this in the rain. And they did so well, did not seem to be impacted by it. Dr. Joe Moore Yeah. Macy's actually, I'm sorry, NBC actually does not allow you to wear raincoats on camera. And you know, there was if we had ponchos there would be nowhere to, to dump 360 ponchos on the side of the road before we turned into Herald Square. And so, I knew the weather forecast going into. All along, I've been looking for a couple of weeks and it, you know, it always changes. But it had been consistent that Thursday it was going to rain. And so, I was talking to the kids about it. And so, I just looked at them and I said “What rain?” And I think we adopted that attitude “What rain?” We, you know we want to perform. We have a job to do. We're going to do it. And yeah. Yeah. They just, they were soaked. That’s the wettest I’ve ever been in my life. So yes, they, they were so resilient. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. It's fantastic. So marching bands often have a reputation for fostering a strong sense of camaraderie. How do you build and maintain that sense of community within the band, especially in a university environment? Dr. Joe Moore I was actually asked that question when I interviewed for the position here. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Really? Dr. Joe Moore And I taught high school for 16 years, taught high school band and the thing that I recognized is, for instance, a high school student may have an English teacher their ninth-grade year, and they never have that teacher again. With band, they have the same teacher all four years. And they spent a lot of time before school and after school and on weekends practicing and going to competitions. And so, there's a sense of family and whether it's a band or a choir, an orchestra, you know, when you have that common goal of performance and you're spending time working together, it naturally develops into a family atmosphere. And I wanted to establish that here right away. I wanted the students to feel like they had something to be a part of, that they could belong to. And that they were proud of. And even with the growth of the organization, we still really foster that sense of family. And so, I think that's what draws students. And I think that's what keeps students here. If it was only a recruitment, we would only have freshmen in the band. They would drop out their sophomore year. But we have students who have been in band their entire college career. And we actually had a few students who delayed their graduation this year so they could go to Macy's. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I heard about that. Yes. In your experience, how does participation in the marching band contribute to students' personal and academic growth beyond music? Dr. Joe Moore It's absolutely an organization that teaches teamwork as well as independence, self-discipline, and being part of a team, working towards a goal, the give and take, dynamics of working with other people, people of different ability levels. You know, sometimes you have to mentor other students and your peers, and one thing that I love is seeing leadership qualities develop within a student who may not have exhibited those otherwise. The thing is, you know, with some organizations, there are like starters who are the elite, and that's who performs or plays, and the others are kind of on the sideline. But in band, everybody's a starter. There's nobody on the sideline. And so, they get that opportunity. They get the opportunity to perform. Maybe they would be too shy to do it on their own, but when they're part of a group, they get that chance to experience a standing ovation or, and so I think it just prepares them for many things, you know, not only academically, like organizing their time and things like that, but just in life, and I really hope we help make better citizens.   Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes, it's always fascinating when you look at over 300 students in band, and they represent all of the disciplines across campus. How does that sort of come together when you're working with that many students who are from a variety of disciplines? Dr. Joe Moore It's always the challenge at the start of a year, because not only are they from a variety of disciplines, but they all come from different high schools and each high school has their own style and way they do things. And so, we have, you know, usually we come out of a week of band camp and then have a football game. So, we have to transform all these different thoughts and ideas and styles into a cohesive unit. But, they just have such a great work ethic and attitude, and they want the group. They want to be a part of something successful. They want to be a part of something good. And they realize it depends on them. You know, if a student in a class doesn't do well on a test, it only affects that student. It doesn't affect the class. But someone in a performing ensemble, if they don't do well, yeah, it affects everybody else. And they can feel that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. What is the most fulfilling part of your work as a professor and a director of bands? Dr. Joe Moore Seeing them develop, as musicians, obviously, seeing them develop as leaders, seeing them develop as people. Every year, our first meeting in band camp, I talk to the students about that college is a chance for them to reinvent themselves. You know, I'll say, okay, if you're shy, we don't know that. Reinvent yourself. And, and I've seen students do that and they will come back and they'll bring that back to my memory. Remember when you said, you know, when I talked to them about how, how far they've come and. And so that, that's really satisfying. And then just people appreciating the group, you know, the audiences and spectators and alumni, and, and people just giving praise to the kids. I love that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's nice. Yeah. Well, it brings up another question to the thing that people talk about a lot is the dedication of band parents. Talk about the dedication of the parents to the band, especially the Marching Bucs.   Dr. Joe Moore You know, in high school they have band booster organizations where the, you know, the parents help with fitting uniforms and work concession stands and fundraising and, and you know we don't have that here. You know, a lot of the students are far away from their families, but, we have found, it's really difficult, for parents just to turn that off and understandably so. I mean, my parents couldn't. I mean, my parents even, in my adult career would drive. I was teaching high school in Georgia. They would drive 4.5 hours to come to a concert because they just missed it. And so, we find that especially when we start in band camp, of posting pictures on social media, they are so happy to see pictures of their, their child, of their student, you know, and then, I think a significant amount of football ticket holders are actually band parents who, who come and support. They want to see their students. You know, they will, sometimes I'll get an email that says, you know, we're driving in from, you know, six hours away. We want to make sure we catch the pregame show. What time will it start? And so, their support is absolutely still there. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. That's great. Finally, what impact do you hope you've had on your students? Dr. Joe Moore Sometimes I, I tell them I'm giving them homework and they look at me at the end of a practice. I'll say, if somebody has crossed your mind lately, I want you to go call them. Or if you haven't talked to your grandparents lately, I want you to go do that. Put down your phone and smile at somebody walking across campus. Or hold a door for somebody. Basically just be good people. Even. And I hope that that resonates and sticks with them. Because they're great people. But, you know, sometimes we're so isolated, you know, staring at our phone or, you know, we, we don't have to interact with human beings. We can order everything online. We can have food delivered, groceries delivered, go through a drive-through or just watch Netflix. And I'm really, I really try to push them to, to engage more, just engage with people out. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Joe. I will never forget seeing our ETSU Marching Bucs in the parade. I appreciate the vision, the dedication, the hard work that it took to get to this national stage and to receive this national recognition. And I look forward to continuing to watching the band grow. Thank you for listening to “Why I Teach.” For more information about Dr. Moore, the College of Arts and Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU provost's website at ETSU dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to “Why I Teach” wherever You Listen to podcasts.  

In this episode, Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle talks with Dr. Melanie B. Richards, interim director of ETSU’s new School of Marketing and Media, about how her experience in the corporate world led to a career in academia – and how she is harnessing that experience to make sure her students get hands-on, project-based learning opportunities in her classroom. Dr. Richards also discusses how she incorporates AI in her instruction and recommends a book that she has used to guide her research and teaching in this area: Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick. Listen to more episodes of Why I Teach, where Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle explores stories of impact and success of ETSU faculty. Subscribe at https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/. Dr. Richards’ Bio: https://www.etsu.edu/cbat/media-communication/facstaff/richardsm.php  ETSU’s Master of Arts in Brand and Media Strategy: https://www.etsu.edu/cbat/media-communication/academics/graduate-programs/brand-strategy.php School of Marketing and Media News: https://www.etsu.edu/etsu-news/schools/marketing-media.php/ ETSU’s Approach to Community-Engaged Learning: https://www.etsu.edu/teaching/teaching_community/cel_qep.php   Transcript:  Dr. Melanie B. Richards I hope that students leave my classroom with technical skills, critical thought ability, problem-solving, and creativity in how they approach problems, and that ability to make ethical decisions. But beyond that, I really hope that my students know that I care about them. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi. I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Melanie B. Richards. Dr. Richards is an associate professor in the ETSU Department of Media and Communications Brand Communication program. This fall, she was appointed interim director of ETSU's new School of Marketing and Media. She also serves as the graduate program coordinator for the Master of Arts in Brand Media Strategy. She's been working in the research, analytics, and account planning world for over 20 years, and prior to ETSU, spent the majority of her career working for both Fortune 500 companies and major nonprofit organizations in various marketing leadership roles. Her academic research primarily focuses on brand experience, particularly regarding the intersection of AI and other new technologies, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning. She's the co-author of the department's published Experiential Approach to Teaching and Student Learning: The Applied Marketing and Media Education Norm. She's also published a breadth of research regarding cost-based communication, public health communication, and intergenerational communication and dynamics in the workplace. Enjoy the show. Dr. Richards, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Provost McCorkle. I'm really excited about this opportunity to share my experiences and kind of what I've learned over the time that I've been here at ETSU. So when I reflect back on my first day at ETSU about eight and a half years ago, I remember feeling a great sense of imposter syndrome. At the time, I had had a generous amount of industry experience. I had led teams in the workforce, but teaching felt like a very different kind of challenge. And I knew that I didn't have the wealth of experience that many of my colleagues had in the classroom. I was very focused on getting my syllabus perfect and trying to practice and practice these different pedagogical strategies and being able to deliver those really effectively. I critically kind of looked at everything I was doing and really thought about, you know, where could I be doing better? And I worried a lot about that. I think too much when I should have just gone in and, if I could go back and tell myself to do this, focused on the relationship building. Because that's the same in the classroom as it is in a professional work environment. If I had focused on that and built those connections, created an environment where students want to be there and want to learn, empowered them to do that, supported that learning, and gave myself the flexibility to adapt as needed—I think that first semester would have gone even smoother than it did. Fortunately, I had a lot of wonderful students that gave me a lot of grace as I made those adaptations, and I think that it went well in the end. But if I had started with that footing, I think it could have gone even better. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for that. That's a great story and a reminder about relationship building and how important that is to teaching. Dr. Melanie B. Richards Right. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What inspired you to transition from the corporate world to academia? Dr. Melanie B. Richards So my favorite part of my industry role, no matter which position I was in, was always the mentoring aspect. So building a team and then mentoring those individuals to be able to achieve their professional goals and develop their skill set and really hone their craft. And I wanted to really dig into that even more. And I felt like teaching gave me that opportunity to do that to this next generation of marketing and media professionals that we see coming into the program. And I really feel like it has given me that ability to empower those students to be able to mentor them, both with the knowledge and skill set, but then also that ethical responsibility that I think they need to have in place as they're going into the industry. And enabled them to make a meaningful difference in their career, in their lives, and in the world around them. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So tell us a bit more about how you incorporate the extensive industry experience into your teaching methods. Dr. Melanie B. Richards So my industry experience is pretty critical, I would say, in the approach that I take when I'm teaching. There is kind of the basic application, so I'll bring in examples from my career, from the American Cancer Society, Teach for America, Delta Airlines, different stops I've had along the way, and talk to students about here's how we approach this problem or how we developed this understanding of our audience. When we were confronted with this situation at those different organizations, and I do that, you know, in my typical discussions with students, and as we're thinking about how do we apply different principles? I typically teach our research and analytics courses at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. So I can actually bring in examples of where we've applied different kinds of research in those industries' roles, and talk about the challenges that those helped to inform and solve. The other way I incorporate my industry experience is through the development of two learning models that I've been very fortunate to work with some great colleagues and develop while I've been at ETSU. The first was the Applied Marketing and Media Education Norm, which I developed with Dr. Stephen Marshall, and that was early in my career at ETSU, when I first came here. And then more recently, I co-developed the Artificial Intelligence for Service Learning and Experiential Education Model with Dr. Chelsea Dubay. And so both of those incorporate industry partnerships within our approach to experiential education. And so I'm able to bring in not just my historical experience, but very current experience working with industry partners into what the students are working on as far as projects in the classroom. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. And do these models then kind of work across the department? So are your colleagues kind of using those as well? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Yes. And broader, is what we're seeing now, which is really exciting. So the Applied Marketing and Media Education Norm is our department's general approach to how we partner with regional organizations and community organizations, and how we teach students in an applied way, very practical, hands-on skill set. But in that environment where they're facing challenges that may not be on your creative brief and they're having to navigate and adapt to those, we see that model being applied across a lot of courses within our curriculum, which is exciting. And then the Artificial Intelligence for Service Learning and Experiential Education Model, we call it, is also being adopted more broadly, which is exciting to see across the School of Marketing and Media and across the broader college as well. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great. So as mentioned and as you know, the recent academic restructure that was implemented this year, as part of that, ETSU created a school structure in several colleges. So you're now serving as the interim director of the new School of Marketing and Media. I know you're excited about interdisciplinary student learning opportunities across departments, as you just said, and that this school will help facilitate some of that, the ability to be able to do that. Will you tell us about some of these opportunities that you're most excited about with the school structure? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Yes. So, as you referenced, those interdisciplinary student opportunities, and faculty opportunities, are extremely exciting to me. I think we're seeing that start to play out in a few different ways. Project-based learning, as I mentioned, is a very core part of our department's approach, but it's also a very core part of the other two departments that are in the school in their approach to learning. So, within the school, we have the Department of Media and Communication, the Department of Digital Media, and the Department of Marketing. All three of those areas have very exciting opportunities to work with different regional partners together. So that's what we're starting to see happen a little bit more. We have plans in place to create a more formal student agency to be able to help support those partnerships in a more formalized way with deep subject matter expertise and skill sets. So you may be working with a cross-disciplinary team of marketing students, digital media students, and media and communications students. Or you may have a more focused engagement with specific students with certain skill sets. But we want to bring that offering to the region to better support our community organizations, our business partners, and to be able to do so in a way where they don't have to go to Knoxville or go to Nashville to find an agency partner that is going to be able to support what they're looking for, for their organization. They can do it right here in their own backyard. We're developing those students' experience for their portfolios, and we're meeting the organization's needs at the same time. So I'm very excited about that opportunity. Another thing we were looking at, too, is to increase our national competition presence. We already have a great student team that works together, from digital media and media and communication for the National Student Advertising Competition. We want to bring in more marketing students into that opportunity. And we're also looking at offerings from the American Marketing Association as far as competitions they offer, where that cross-disciplinary team would do really, really well. So those are a couple opportunities that we're very excited about, and I'm looking forward to building out more in the spring. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I'm just thrilled to hear about all of that. I know there is a lot of excitement across the campus about this new school, and I think adding all of those opportunities across these departments that have already been so strong and very student-focused, I think will be really beneficial. Dr. Melanie B. Richards Yeah. Thank you. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So you've been doing work around AI and its impact on teaching. What challenges and opportunities do you see with AI technology in the classroom? Dr. Melanie B. Richards So I know when we came in, I had asked you if you had heard of this book that I'm holding here. It's Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick. I'm a big fan of Dr. Mollick's work. He's at the Wharton School in Pennsylvania, and he suggests four principles to how we should work with AI. So, when Dr. Dubay and I were developing our model for education within the classroom, we leaned into a lot of what Dr. Mollick had suggested. First is invite AI to the table. So, let's not be afraid. Let's dig in. And in my daily practice, when I'm working, I typically have ChatGPT 4 open the entire time. I use it as a brainstorming partner, for idea generation, for evolving work that I'm currently putting forward. Really it is that kind of thought partner and also a provider for critical feedback that I can then incorporate and edit. So I ask students to do the same thing. I also have built, because I didn't have course assistance in a human way, I've built course assistance in a chat-based way for my courses. So I will load my course documentation into a chat portal, where I basically have created a private environment that students can engage with any questions they may have on my syllabi. Questions they may have on my course content. And that's a resource to students that may be a little bit easier to engage with and more comfortable in a conversational way for them to engage with. I've also asked students to bring it into project incorporation, again, to that, invite AI to the table. We talk about how can we be applying AI as we're developing better research questions, or we're thinking about application of different methodologies. How could AI potentially help us with qualitative content analysis? We look into those applications and how can we maybe do things better or differently, but still in an ethical way as we move forward? Mollick's second rule is still to be the human in the loop. So we talk a lot about that. When we talk about ethical application of AI, it's not just I'm going to set it and forget it. And that oversight, his other two roles as far as AI is to assign AI a role. So we talk a lot about the formal term, which is prompt engineering, and how to effectively treat AI like a human while keeping in mind that it's not. Ask it questions and give it direction that is well-informed and gets to what we want to see as far as outputs. The other thing I remind students is his last principle, which is that the AI you are using now is the worst you will ever see. Just in the time that he wrote his book, published in early 2024, we've seen so much change and increased capability. What I'm primarily speaking to is what generative AI can do and how it can play a role in our daily lives and our work. Just keep thinking about that incorporation and be thoughtful about the different ways it may be able to help you in your work and potentially in your life moving forward. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fascinating. A really good overview of ways to use it. What's your student response been so far? Dr. Melanie B. Richards They're first a little timid, I think, because they're not sure, "Okay. Wait, is this okay? Am I really being given permission or encouragement even to be able to use these tools?" I think that's because of the way we saw generative AI kind of roll out. The important thing, though, is those ethical guardrails. That's something actually that Dr. Trena Paulus and I have been doing research on as well. There's a lot of capability that AI gives us, but without being that human in the loop, without really understanding the application, things can go off the rails pretty quickly. Once students have those ethical guardrails in place and they understand that, yes, it's being encouraged, but we're going to use it in a very principled way—and here's how you do that—then they get really excited. I had one student I saw at Starbucks, actually at the Culp, the other day, and she said, "Dr. Richards, I assumed you would be okay with this, but I wanted to let you know I did use AI in our qualitative analysis with the community partner data that we were working with. It was de-identified data. I felt good about it, and I think it was really helpful." I said, "Of course, I'm okay with that. I love that you're exploring that. That's really exciting." We talked about what she had learned and some of the recommendations they were able to make for the partner because of that. I think students, once they feel like they have permission, are very excited about the potential. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great. Are you assigning the book as part of the class? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Yes. I've learned something about myself: that if I really want to read a text, the best way I can do that is to assign it as part of my curriculum. So I did that with that textbook. I assigned it within my graduate course to those students, and then some excerpts for my undergraduates. As I mentioned to you, I'm excited. I've had the book and have not had a chance to read it yet, but I suspect, based on your good analysis, it might be something we want the campus to engage with. I think the campus community would really enjoy the text. It's a very approachable read. You could really cover it in a weekend, and I think it's very worthwhile. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. You're also an advocate for ETSU's Go Beyond the Classroom Community-Engaged Learning Initiative. In what ways do you incorporate community-engaged learning into your classes, and what have been some of the results you've seen so far? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Yes, I am a very big proponent of community-engaged learning. I'm originally from this area. I grew up on the border of Carter County and Unicoi County, so I'm deeply entrenched as far as my connections to this community. If we can serve the community in the work that we're doing, benefit student learning outcomes, and benefit community partners, while providing a really exciting environment for them to learn and improve their engagement with the content and application of their skills, then why wouldn't I want to do that? I incorporate community-engaged learning in pretty much every course I teach. In all of our research and analytics courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate level within our department, we work with different partners across the community every semester. Students get the ability to challenge themselves because things don't always go to plan. Sometimes you have to navigate unexpected situations. One example, just this semester, was when one of our clients we were working with was Main Street Elizabethton. At the very start of the semester, we discussed a project that would do some research into what community members want to see in the downtown area to help revitalize and encourage the growth that they've already had. You know, new business ideas. Are there new dining options, things of that nature? Then Hurricane Helene hit. And so we had to very quickly kind of pivot and understand what the current need was. Did we need to adapt some of the questions that we were going to be asking to be sensitive to the fact that there was this natural disaster that had affected a lot of those community members that we were going to be speaking with their lives very directly? So I think it was a great experience for the students again, to kind of build that flexibility, and have that real-world project experience where they had to navigate some unexpected challenges. The exciting part of that community-engaged learning experience then came at the end when we were presenting back the results to the client. Where things may have felt a little off the rails to the students in the middle, they saw it all come together at the end. And to watch that recognition as they were presenting and seeing the impact they were having on the community partner, you can't beat that. You can't get that in other types of learning models or pedagogical applications. And so that's why I love it so much and believe it's so impactful on our students. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. That's a great example. What unique elements does the brand and media strategy program offer to its students? And how do you ensure that it stays relevant in a rapidly-changing industry? Dr. Melanie B. Richards Oh, good questions. So, the Brand Media strategy graduate program, I think is unique amongst some of our other offerings within the school and more broadly within the university. We are an on-ground program, primarily very hands-on, very experiential. So students are learning how to develop content at a very high-quality level of expectations. They're shooting and editing brand videos. They're creating digital ads. They're building social media campaigns. They answer real partners' challenges. And so they're developing that, again, content production at a very kind of high level of quality and level of expectations. But they're also getting the theoretical connections as far as why we do what we do and why we are approaching it in certain ways. We're staying ahead of industry trends, I think, in a few different ways. One I'll highlight specifically is within the research that is coming out of the program. So the program is also unique in that it offers either a capstone experience in a project-based way in the second year or a thesis. So students can choose, you know, which path makes the most sense for their career trajectory. Do they want to go on to a Ph.D. program? Are they wanting to go directly into an industry role? And the research that's being completed by our thesis students is really pushing us, I think, to stay on top of those industry trends. So just a few examples of current thesis students that I'm chairing right now. I have a student that is looking at virtual reality and augmented reality and application, and how that affects brand perceptions. I have another student who's looking at AI incorporation and content production. And how does that evolve how we potentially teach those methods of content production? It's really exciting because it's a beneficial thing to the students as far as their research output and then where it sets them up for a next stage in their path. But it also helps us as a department because then we can bring those learnings into our curriculum. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, it's nice. What's the most fulfilling part of your work as a professor? Dr. Melanie B. Richards I believe I would say the growth that happens that you see just over the course of a semester. So I mentioned the Main Street, Elizabethton project earlier, but in any of our community-engaged learning projects that we do, you see the students come in and they're initially a little hesitant, and, you know, if a challenge comes up, they're not sure how to navigate it. And just a little unsure of themselves. But to watch that confidence build as they are applying what they're learning in the class and they are, you know, gaining that self-assurance, and watching them be able then to come to the end of the semester and present that in a very confident way, and know that they are not just applying it to that course, but it's something that will likely stick with them and they can apply broadly in life and in future work environments. That really is exciting to me. And I would say it's the most fulfilling aspect of what I do. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Melanie B. Richards   So I hope that students leave my classroom with technical skills, critical thought ability, problem-solving, and creativity. The best feeling that I have, from, you know, the experience is when a student comes back to me a year or two later and has just asked to have coffee or says, "Hey, I'm running into this issue within my job. Can you help me think through this?" I love those lifelong connections, and it's something that was kind of unexpected to me coming into this role. How often that would happen. So that is, I would say, the impact that I hope I have. It's not just the technical aspects or the skill-based aspects or even the critical thought aspects. It's the connection piece and that they feel comfortable coming back to me for that support and guidance along the way. I really want them to know I care about them. And especially, as you know, I was a first-generation student myself. I think that you may not have that in other areas of your life. So if I can be that to our students and not just while they're in the classroom, but beyond. I want to do that. So that's how I would answer. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you. Thank you, Melanie. I enjoyed our conversation today, and I appreciate your deep commitment to community-engaged learning at ETSU and your work and student success. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Richards, the College of Business and Technology, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot EDU slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts.

This episode features Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler, Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Design at East Tennessee State University. In addition to his work in the classroom, Dr. Fowler is an active collaborator on several international archeological projects and serves as the chair of Johnson City’s Public Art Committee. In this episode, he shares how these experiences impact his teaching, as well as some interesting observations and insights about incorporating hands-on learning and interdisciplinary approaches in his classes. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler I want to create culturally fluent, persuasive, compelling communicators; people with keen eyes who can be discerning; folks who are inquisitive, who value truth, and know how to identify right to make that distinction between fact and fiction. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Hi. I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us “Why I Teach.” In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler. Dr. Fowler is an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Design. He also serves as affiliate faculty in the Classical and Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies programs. An art historian and classical archeologist, Dr. Fowler specializes in the art and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean and West Asia. He has earned master's degrees in several disciplines, including a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, an M.A. in classical archeology from Tufts University, and a Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy from Columbia University. He also completed his Ph.D. in art history and archeology from Columbia. In his teaching, which ranges widely across the history of art, Dr. Fowler is interested in introducing students to the diversity of visual cultures around the globe, and to the critical role that arts continue to play in expressing, shaping, and responding to peoples’ ideals and realities. Dr. Fowler is also an active collaborator on several international archeological projects. Locally, he is a commissioned member and chair of Johnson City's Public Art Committee, where he assists people with various projects aimed at integrating art into the everyday lives of people in this region, beautifying ETSU’s hometown, and building community through collaboration. Enjoy the show! Dr. Fowler, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler It's a wonderful question to begin with. And but first, let me just thank you for the invitation to join you today on the podcast. I'm really glad to be here. The piece of advice I would give myself on my first day is actually a piece of advice I would give myself every day of my career to the present and beyond, and that is never to forget how that first day on the job feels. The excitement of introducing new material to students who've never encountered it before, and making sure that enthusiasm and excitement carries over into your fifth, 10th, 15th, 20th year. Because my students respond to that enthusiasm and energy. They see my passion for the subject and it inspires them to want to learn more. And I would say another thing is that a lot of us teach the same courses, you know, several times over our careers, and it can feel a little routine and you can fall into losing that excitement. So trying to maintain that fresh perspective on the material every time you walk in the classroom really helps. And it also helps you remind yourself that, what it's like to learn the material for the first time and making sure you're scaffolding and approaching material from the perspective of a first-time learner in the discipline that we never as experts, lose the novice perspective. So I think that applies equally to my first day on the job, as it does on my current and future days on the job. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Excellent. Excellent advice. What initially drew you to the fields of art history and archeology and how did your academic journey evolve across different disciplines like philosophy, religious studies, and classical archeology? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler So, I was ultimately, I mean, I arrived at art history and archeology fairly circuitously and late in my academic training. What ultimately drew me to art history and archeology are the kinds of questions that are possible to answer from an art historical, and archeological perspective. Art history preserves. Visual art is humanity’s oldest form of communication that survives. Of course, human beings, our earliest ancestors, tens of thousands of years ago, had other forms of communication: dance, music, language. But art is the most enduring form of that communication that crosses through time, crosses geographic cultural boundaries, and it's nonlinguistic. So it's a really inclusive way of studying those ideals and realities of humanity throughout history in a way that doesn't privilege cultures, that, leave text for, for instance, not every culture is a literate culture. So, if we want to be inclusive and then most, in the broadest sense, to study human beings through our history, I'm really drawn to art is that, that form of communication. And archeology preserves all kinds of information in the archeological record that doesn't necessarily privilege the elites, who on the art historical side, on the literary side, a lot of what our students encounter are things made by and for the more privileged groups throughout human history, and archeology preserves a lot of evidence that permits us to investigate classes of people, groups of people who might otherwise have been, unacknowledged or more difficult to identify in the more elite forms of material culture. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Oh, thank you for sharing that. I understand that you co-designed a study abroad course in Greece that combines art history, design, and cultural heritage management. How do you think that experiential learning in a real-world setting changes the way that students understand and engage with art history? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler Fowler: So traditionally, when I went through my art historical training, art history has this rap for being relatively passive, sitting in very dim, dark rooms with slides being projected. And why I liked getting students out abroad in Greece is partly that it reminds students that art and architecture are contextual, that they're embedded in spaces and cultural context, and getting them to actually move around and within these different spaces and actually get a first-hand experience of how actually art and architecture, archeology, is part of the lived experience of people. But also the class was designed around concrete case studies that were presenting not just mock problems for students to solve, but these are actual problems that still confront the fields of cultural heritage and museum studies as it concerns how do we make our sites, our museums, our monuments more accessible in the sense of physically accessible, accessible to different kinds of bodies, but also accessible, I mean, I should say inclusive in the sense of, what stories are they telling? What kinds of meaning might these different collections, might these different buildings have for folks? So it's enlisting students in making art history and archeology, architectural history, more accessible, more inclusive, but with those real-world problems that they're solving, it's also reminding them that, like, art history is all around them and that these fields have really concrete skills that they can actually apply in the real world, and it reminds them that actually art history is this big, broad field, and there's actually a lot of opportunity on the horizon for them. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle In addition to Greece, have you taken students to other cities, even cities in the U.S.? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler I do make a habit of taking students on field trips to all kinds of museums where I can get -- usually I do really long drives to museums within five, six hours of the campus. So we've been to museums in Southwest Virginia, Middle Tennessee, North Carolina. We have a trip coming up soon to Atlanta to go to the Carlos Museum. So that's also part of this, getting students in proximity to art. Right? So that's not represented flat with pixels on a screen, but actually being in a space where you get a sense of the magnitude of an object, you get a sense of the way that that object aesthetically impacts you. But, why I like the study abroad, is that there can be that tactile, kinetic kind of spatial dimension that museums, for as much as I love them for preserving and presenting objects from all around the world in a convenient place, there's really nothing that replaces environments where you're actually moving within and interacting in ways that more approximates the ways in which art historical objects were actually used and experienced through history. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle So you use other creative teaching methods like student exhibitions and problem-solving in art and design. What advice do you have for faculty who are looking to bring more hands-on learning and interdisciplinary approaches into their own classrooms? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler So I'll start with the hands-on learning. And I would say to start small or that it doesn’t have to be big, right? So, your question referenced my mounting of a collaborative class exhibition at the William King Museum, which, of course, is a really large project that required a year out of planning, a lot of scaffolding, a lot of different stages. But that’s, of course, a really highly visible and impactful way of getting students to experiment and apply their knowledge. And of course, gets actually a CV line and exposure for their work out of the process. It doesn’t have to be that big. It can be small, right, projects, experiments, hands-on exercises that you integrate into the classroom. For instance, I have small-scale museum reproductions of objects that I will occasionally incorporate into the classroom for people to handle and pass around because, again, I spoke about the tactility, the sense of scale, the sense of weight, and it’s different to interact with an object like that and answer questions about it when it’s not this out-scaled, enormous, digitized thing on a screen, so that’s an example of something that’s small that can make an impact. And I would say also to make time for hands-on learning. It’s going -- to do it well, it requires some of your time in your lesson plan, and a lot of us came up pedagogically being trained that content delivery is so important, but skill development and opportunities for application and knowledge transfer are also important, too, and so you have to take time if you’re going to plan a bigger project, but you also have to create time in your lesson plan and be okay with the idea that maybe you’re going to deliver a little bit less content, but the payoff is that the students are probably going to retain the knowledge better when they have a tactile, hands-on way of actually learning the material. As far as the interdisciplinary approaches are concerned, a lot of folks, myself included, although I did have a really interdisciplinary background, which you referenced, earlier in the podcast, but a lot of folks come up through their training, graduate school, where we get increasingly narrow in and specialize in a field and in some cases even a subfield or subdiscipline thereof, and so being interdisciplinary can be daunting, challenging, scary, for professors, for instructors who are trying to incorporate material, theories, methods from areas that they were not necessarily trained in. So it’s, it can be -- so part of is the advice is, is to take that courageous leap to incorporate, interdisciplinary training, knowing that it’s going to take some time to get familiar with some of those materials. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to need to iterate, through that and to decide what kinds of materials work best, but also, we’re blessed for being in a university that has so many different departments with those areas of expertise, and I have leveraged the knowledge and expertise of colleagues in social sciences and humanities for advice on what readings might be relevant or cognate or complementary to the goals that I have from the art, historical or archeological perspective. So, also draw upon the expertise of your colleagues. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Those are such good tips. It's true. In your bio, I read that you're an active collaborator on several international archaeological projects, and you also serve as the chair of the local Public Arts Committee. How does this work outside the classroom impact your teaching? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler So for the archaeological one, I'll point out briefly that I have encouraged students who are interested in hands-on training in the field to accompany me to Greece, and in fact, I have taken a student in a recent summer using an undergraduate research grant that she won to accompany me to Greece to actually get that kind of training that you just -- you can teach archaeological theory, you can teach archaeological method, but you can't really understand the process of actually excavating and how archaeologists approach studying a site unless you're actually on the site. So I do try to get students who are interested abroad with me, whether it's in the context of the course that we already discussed or even in those more personalized internship capacities. As far as public art is concerned, we -- public art has two different ways of actually putting art in public space. One of them is our own sponsored programs that we identify, we plan and develop and execute, and the other are community-initiated projects, where any individual or group, constituency in the community can come to the Public Art Community Committee and present an idea that they have, and we can either consult them and help them along independently, or it could be something that we adopt and we actually shepherd along. So in one of my classes "The Monument in History," the students are tasked -- their project is to design a monument to a person, a cause, or an idea to be set up in a particular context, and they have to go through several stages of the project where they're doing the research, they're doing the design, they're making considerations about the different kinds of constituencies in the community that might be interacting with the monument, and they have to present it to the class at the end of the semester and be questioned. So in some ways, the project and the monument in history, even though we're not really doing monuments in the public art realm, we tend to steer away from that for a variety of reasons, but that process of getting students in a class to practice what a proposal development for a public-facing object would actually be like. So it's simulating, again, that process and by then they've gone through a lot of theoretical readings about the various dimensions of monuments, the various pitfalls, problems, opportunities of monuments in history, and so they're applying all of that knowledge, and really, I can see them thinking critically about all of the various ways that actually putting something in public space is a really gratifying but challenging task if you're really doing it sensitively, inclusively, thoughtfully. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle So, what's your favorite class to teach? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler I would say usually I joke and say all of them, because one of the things that my job is required here, being one of a cohort of three art historians, is being a generalist, which of course kind of resonates with my previous discussion about interdisciplinarity, is that I came here as an expert in ancient Greek and West Asian art, and in archaeology, but I teach everything from prehistory to 1750 roughly, and all around the world, and I've had to acquire that facility. So, through that process, I really learned to love and appreciate the various classes that I teach, but I will say I do have a soft spot for thematic classes, classes that take a concept or a phenomenon in human history, like monument building, which cuts across time and space. I teach a class on violence in the visual arts -- violence, another human phenomenon that has been with our species for a very, very long time, and is where we have violent media all over the place, so it allows me to approach an important issue or theme using case studies from a variety of historical and cultural contexts, so it gets students to think about an idea of ways in which cultures and contexts relate to one another, but also developing an appreciation for understanding, appreciating diversity is not just about finding similarity. It's also being comfortable with and appreciating and embracing differences. Right, so distinctions are also important in comparative method. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle How has your teaching style evolved over time and what continues to inspire you in the classroom today? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler I would say my teaching style has pretty much remained constant. I tend to be, I don't have the "sage on the stage" approach, even in a lecture format class. I make time for questions, discussions, breakouts, activities of different kinds. I would say my teaching has evolved a lot with respect to content and assessment. Content, although I still teach these very conventional art historical organizations of time into periods or to geographic or cultural context, I just referenced the thematic classes that I really like teaching, and part of why I like teaching them is it's pushing back and breaking out of the mold of a particular way of approaching art history, where we put these boundaries and silos around different people and their art and their architecture, and it creates these kind of arbitrary divisions, when in reality, the world, even in the ancient world, is a globalized, interconnected place where cultures are mutually influencing one another through a variety of contacts. So these thematic classes allow us to embrace the permeability of those kinds of taxonomic boundaries that get set up in the discipline and enable us to think on a kind of anthropological, more human level about issues that I think my students are also thinking about. Right. We're in a time where we're debating as a society what kinds of monuments should represent us, what monuments may be out-of-date and need to be revisited. Violence, right, is something we're living right in a world where we've got a lot of conflict happening around the world. So, students are really drawn to those issues and getting them to think about how humanity has dealt with, has explored those over time is really helpful. Assessment-wise, I've moved away from the traditional research essay. That is not to say that I don't incorporate research and scholarly writing into my assignments. I still think that is a critical skill that students need to develop here. But I don't think a lot of my students are necessarily going to exit the university in careers or jobs where that's going to be the primary form of the product that they're going to produce. So I've referenced the exhibitions, the monument designs. I have students curate exhibitions. Next semester when I teach "Art in Appalachia," we're going to be in the Reece Museum, making use of the teaching collection, but also engaging in training on how to how to actually catalog, photograph, examine objects from a curatorial perspective. So I try to use those writing and research skills, but to channel them towards a variety of activities that represent things that different career tracks actually require. So they do, can actually speak to a job interview and say, "Actually, in one of my classes, I've done cataloging," or "I've actually mocked -- created a mock exhibition on a topic," right? Dr. Kimberly McCorkle I'm certain students find those relevant and also helpful. Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler Yeah, I -- the feedback I get suggest that's the case. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle That's great. Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Michael Anthony Fowler I hope, I mean, I would say I'm a first-generation student, came from a, you know, working middle-class family, and so I see a lot of my own background and experience in the students that I have in the classroom. And so that really is one of the major draws to higher ed for me is how transformative it can be for folks. So the impact I really hope that I can help students get to where they want to be, right, and to approach my teaching and mentorship in a personalized, individualized way so that it's not a kind of one-size-fits-all. Yeah. On a broader-scale impact, I want students -- I want to create culturally fluent, persuasive, compelling communicators; people with keen eyes who can be discerning; folks who are inquisitive, who value truth, and know how to identify, right, to make that distinction between fact and fiction. And I think these are really important not only for being an active and productive contributor to and member of a 21st century workforce, but it's critically important to promoting institutions and values in a democratic society. So I'd say good citizens is also something I hope I'm helping impact. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Nice. Thank you, Dr. Fowler. I've really enjoyed learning about the scope of what you do, the ways that you've developed your teaching craft, and how your work impacts your teaching and your students. Thank you so much for your contributions at ETSU, and also to our community for your work with the Johnson City Public Art Committee. Thanks for listening to “Why I Teach.” For more information about Dr. Fowler, the Department of Art and Design, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSUProvost. And, if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to “Why I Teach” wherever you listen to podcasts.  

This episode features Dr. Scott Jenkinson, Assistant Professor in Clemmer College of Education and Human Development and a faculty fellow for Community-Engaged Learning at the ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence.  He provides a wonderful snapshot of some of the ways in which community-engaged learning impacts our students and shares about his experiences with the ETSU Alternative Breaks program and some of the foundations for student success that he incorporates in his classrooms. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Scott Jenkinson Assistant Professor So critical reflection is the linchpin. It's the linchpin in any sort of community-engaged learning experience. It really creates the learning. You know, we can have community engagement all we want, but the reflection is where it transitions from just an experience to actually something that changes who you are. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Host/Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Scott Jenkinson, Assistant Professor in the Educational Foundations and Special Education Department in Clemmer College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Jenkinson earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He joined the ETSU faculty in 2015 as a clinical instructor, teaching and supervising pre-service teaching students. He is a strong supporter for community-engaged learning, serving as a faculty fellow for community-engaged learning at the ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence. He was also instrumental in the development of our Go Beyond the Classroom QEP. In this episode, we will hear about his work in the classroom and beyond the classroom through community-engaged learning opportunities he facilitates. Enjoy the show. Dr. Jenkinson, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Well, Dr. McCorkle, thank you so much for inviting me to join you on your podcast. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about teaching. I talk about teaching all the time in my career with pre-service teachers, so I love to talk about it. So I apologize if I kind of go a little lengthy with some things. But taking myself back to that very first day, I think a couple things come to mind. You know, presence, being present, being there to enjoy it, you know, being human and being not some artifice of what I think a faculty member should be, but actually being a real person in front of my students. I remember very vividly coming from the high school where I taught for 10 years, coming into the college classroom thinking that I was supposed to be one way. I was supposed to have the tie on, and I was supposed to be rigid, and I was supposed to be sarcastic, and that sort of -- I had this perception of what the faculty member was supposed to be, and I remember that causing me a lot of problems and causing me a lot of moments of identity and questioning who I was supposed to be and how I was supposed to be. So if I were to go back into that first day, I would just say, "You know, relax, take a breath, be there, be present, be human, and make mistakes and talk about your mistakes." And I think that would have helped me and my students become -- have a better relationship and become more attuned to the space we were in. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Kind of that authentic self, and they can connect to that, right? Dr. Scott Jenkinson They can, yeah. I think our students are really adept, and high school students and college students very much so are adept at seeing through that facade. And when we put it up, they know, you know, they're aware that that's not who you really are. So I think, you know, telling myself then to just be, be you, be who you are, and the dad jokes and the whatever comes out is part of you in that space. And so be that.   Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you. So will you share a bit about your journey to becoming an educator and tell us what inspired you to pursue a career in education? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Absolutely. So this question, I love thinking about it. I love thinking about those – it gives me a moment to pause and reflect on those experiences. So I never intended to be a teacher, ever. That was not the plan. The plan was biology. My father's a biologist, so I was going to follow in his footsteps. Anthropology was on the agenda for a little while. And then English, and I was going to be a writer. All of those things were kind of swirling. And it wasn't until my junior year of college that my partner, who's a wonderful, a mirror for me, she really just kind of said, "You know what? You've been teaching people all your life. You just have never acknowledged it." And then when she said that, it really dawned on me. That's really true. I was a Boy Scout from age-- I was a Cub Scout until I was a leader at age 23. I was in the Boy Scout system for that long.   Wow, that's great. Dr. Scott Jenkinson And the ethos of being a Boy Scout in our troop was, once you learn something, you teach somebody.   Share it, yeah. Dr. Scott Jenkinson Yeah, and so that's really where it started. I remember vividly at age eight, you know, learning how to tie a knot. And someone taught me how to do it, and I turned to the right and taught somebody else how to do it. And that, as I think back on those moments, it just happened again and again and again, and that's how I ended up learning, interacting with the world. Feeling present in moments was by finding a piece of information and connecting it to a real experience and talking to people about it. So that just became where I felt grounded and where I felt at peace with who I was and the person that I was supposed to be. That authenticity was founded in that. Yeah, my partner gives me a hard time. Anytime we go to the beach, if somebody catches something in the surf or an animal, I'm running over there like, "Oh, well, did you know this? Did you know that?" Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle A teaching moment. Dr. Scott Jenkinson Exactly. A teaching moment even on vacation, you know. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Scott Jenkinson But again, that's just how I'm there, I think, is that. So it was never part of the plan, but it ended up being, I think, the place that I've really found a home. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's a nice story. Dr. Scott Jenkinson Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I mentioned your role as a faculty fellow for community-engaged learning. What does community-engaged learning look like for ETSU students? Dr. Scott Jenkinson So ETSU, I think, has, ever since I heard of ETSU, the bonds that ETSU had in the community were apparent. So we moved, my partner, I moved up here so that she could go to school to become a physical therapist. And in the physical therapy program, they were engaged in the community. They were out there. So it was always part of the ethos of ETSU, always part of what ETSU was to be connected in the community. And so what it really looks like on our campus is that our students are intentional about taking what they learn and moving that beyond just the fixed confines of the campus to the community that they're in. So what it means is our students are out there. They're putting theory into practice. They're trying things out. They're connecting authentically with community partners. They are learning from our community members. They're taking in the nuances and the gray areas and the "weirdnesses" that are happening out in our community, and they're developing those further. They're using our community space as an opportunity to grow and change and be different and become engaged citizens and engaged individuals. And that comes through a process that is hard. It takes work to reflect. It takes work and time on the part of our faculty and our staff to facilitate that reflection. I have to admit, one of the greatest joys I have as the faculty fellow is I get to work with faculty who are and staff who are interested in their teaching and their learning doing something more. I've had, I can't tell you how many cups of coffee or tea I've had with faculty and staff that are just excited to get their students engaged and out and thoughtful about what it means to change and be impactful in their society. An example that comes to mind is I worked with a faculty member in our Sports Management Program who her students are working with Bristol Motor Speedway and Speedway Children's Charities. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Scott Jenkinson And they're in a course around corporate responsibility. So what do corporations, how are corporations responsible for giving back to the community at large? And this group of students are working hard with Bristol Motor Speedway and Speedway Children's Charities to develop events and develop experiences that talk about that mission outwardly and try to get more corporations involved and get more people involved in charitable giving and developing connections to community. And seeing that happen in real time and seeing those students reflect on it and talk about how, "Oh, this thing I read in the book in week one, I saw reality right here in week 10 and now I can see a difference. I can see something I've done." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Scott Jenkinson With that. And I think that leads to just the importance of the critical reflection piece in community-engaged learning. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Can you tell us a little bit more about kind of critical reflection and its importance? Dr. Scott Jenkinson So critical reflection is the linchpin. It's the linchpin in any sort of community-engaged learning experience. It really creates the learning. You know, we can have community engagement all we want, but the reflection is where it transitions from just an experience to actually something that changes who you are. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Scott Jenkinson And Patty Clayton, who we had on campus, has shared a lot about this idea of critical reflection as a pair of sunglasses. It creates a new lens for us to see an experience from. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Dr. Scott Jenkinson So with our students, what we're doing is we're providing them an opportunity to pause, pump the brakes a little bit, and look at what's happening in a real way and ask, "Why is it happening? How is this fitting in with the community? How is it fitting in with me as a person?" Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Scott Jenkinson "How is it fitting in with the reality that I understand?" And then the most exciting question I think, is, "Okay, now what? Now what are you going to do with that? Who are you now?" That idea of your change to something else, somebody else, that's exciting to me when I really think about it. And critical reflection is that tool that does that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Great. That's a great explanation. You've also been involved in ETSU's Alternative Breaks Program. Will you please tell us about that program and its impact on our students? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Absolutely. Alternative Breaks, I absolutely love. I've been able to go on four Alternative Break experiences now to Chicago and then three times to New Orleans with our students. And the Alternative Break experience really gives students the opportunity to lead. So we have student leaders that work with faculty partners. And then those faculty partners and the students work with our Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement under Joy Fulkerson to develop the experience. Who are we going to meet with? Which community partners are we going to work with? What's it look like to travel in a 15-passenger van for 10 hours? All the facets of the experience. So the students really get to take ownership of creating an experience for their fellow students, for their peers. And then once the trip is developed, we go. We go to a location that's different from what they, the norm, different from what they know, to experience and look at a very particular topic in that place. So for example, when we go to New Orleans, we're looking at education and youth development. What does that look like in the Louisiana Delta? And how might that compare to the Appalachian Highlands? How are those environments similar? How are they different? How are their histories distinct? And how do those histories influence the experiences that youth and folks have in education there? And the students, I think one of the most powerful things for our students is the student leaders and then their peers they're working with are actively engaged in that process of reflection the whole time. The whole time. It starts at 4:30 in the morning when you get in the van and we're tired, but we're still driving 15 or 10 hours. It starts then. And seeing students progress through that experience and work through that experience and talk to each other in real powerful ways is really endearing and amazing. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's great. What are some of the most rewarding teaching moments you've experienced? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Well, right off the bat, I would absolutely say that the Alternative Break experiences have been very rewarding. I have had the chance every time I've gone, I've had current or former students go with me, current or former students of mine go with me. To see those students really grow from where they began as undergraduate students to now in some cases graduate students and see them take the reins of challenging topics and facilitate those experiences so that they have objectives in mind and they're working with this idea and they're creating experiences and knowing those right moments to ask the right question that's tough, that's a little messy and a little uncomfortable, but they're identifying what it means to be engaged, to be there, to be present. And to see that happen, that is amazing. Two students I had this last time, Mallory McClelland and Taylor Cooper, are two students that are leaders in New Orleans most recently. And just both of them flourished as teachers, as leaders and learners, and they were engaged every moment of every day we were there and asking questions, but working with their peers to have a really amazing experience. That was fulfilling for me as an instructor to see students that I had worked with that I had helped facilitate their experiences to now share that on in the future. You saw the transformation of that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. Dr. Scott Jenkinson Now we talk about, in community-engaged learning, we talk about transformational versus transactional learning. And the idea that the learning that I want to invest in is that transformational learning where students are becoming somebody new and they're changing and challenging themselves to be something new, someone new in a new world. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I love those examples. So you teach or have taught several key foundation courses at ETSU, including "Foundations of Education" and "Foundations of Student Success." What are some of the most important foundations you try to establish for your students to help them succeed? Dr. Scott Jenkinson So, well, a couple of them I think we mentioned. Your presence, authenticity, you can't learn something unless you lean into it. And so the idea of being there, being in it, being in that moment is I think a big part of it. I think those times where I think back to educational experiences that I've had that I learned the most from, it's because I wasn't paying attention to other things. I was really there about that thing, whatever it was in front of me. I couldn't be distracted by it. So that presence, I think, is a muscle, something we train for. And so I think that's a big part of the foundational piece, is training yourself to be present. And I think as a tool for that, one thing that I want to encourage my students to do is reflect. Is take the time and take the energy and take the effort to think back and understand the why behind whatever it is you're doing. You may not like whatever that Gen Ed course is, but it's there for a reason. I was an English major, so that first chemistry course that I took in college was like, "Whoa, no. What is this chemistry thing all about?" But understanding after time that, "Oh, that chemistry thing actually helps me understand some of the literature that I'm reading. Or helps me understand the world that I'm interacting with." Or this question that my eight-year-old has now around why this thing happens -- that comes back to that chemistry class that I got a C in, that I didn't really feel like was useful at the time, but it really was. Yeah, there's connections between the learning and... Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. Can you share a book, a podcast, or another resource that has influenced your teaching philosophy? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Oh, man. You're asking an English major to recommend books about teaching. Well, the first one that comes to mind is a really...it's a heavy...I would say a heavy philosophy, but that's okay. It's Paulo Freire and Myles Horton. "We Make the Road by Walking" is what it's called. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Excellent. Dr. Scott Jenkinson And one of the things I love about this book is they spoke the book, and they're very intentional about that. Paulo Freire traveled in to visit Myles Horton in New Market, Tennessee, and they recorded the book. So they recorded a conversation over three days, and then they edited it down to this really insightful, philosophical, and ultimately humbling kind of understanding of how their philosophies about interacting with people were similar and different all at the same time. I like that text because both Myles Horton and Paulo Freire bring such nuanced perspectives from their own lived experiences, and I think those perspectives and those experiences are really valuable. And then the second book I would suggest is "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. And I was so excited to get a chance to shake his hand and meet him at the Festival of Ideas last year. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Delightful. Dr. Scott Jenkinson But the "Tuesdays with Morrie," I promise I've read that book 20 times in my life.   That's great. Dr. Scott Jenkinson I used to read it out loud to my students at the high school level. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Did you really? Dr. Scott Jenkinson Yeah, every semester. That was the book we read over the course of the semester was that one. And I like that book a lot because it comes back to a lot of those same principles of presence and honoring the humanness that we have. And understanding our roles as teachers is more than just delivering content. It's about who we are as people. I tell my students every semester, teaching is an inherently human act. It's something that human beings have to take part in. And when we take that human out of it, we lose something. And so the "Tuesdays with Morrie" and Mitch Albom's writing really takes me back to that idea often. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for sharing both of those. Dr. Scott Jenkinson Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Scott Jenkinson I hope that my students see themselves as unfinished and see themselves as individuals that can evolve with the world. And should, I would argue, but can at least. And that they're questioning, they're curious. They seek out experiences that might make them a little uncomfortable, but they're ultimately things that they are learning from and taking from. I've been thinking a lot about the language I use when I think about myself as an educator. The word that comes to mind so much now is a "facilitator of experiences." So I hope that out of my teaching, my students become their own facilitators of experiences. That they are empowered to think about how experiences can change them and impact them and really be embedded in the experience and be present and use the tools of reflection to really become something new after they have that moment. That's what I hope. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Scott. I really enjoyed our conversation today. And I also appreciate your commitment to community-engaged learning at ETSU and your work in student success. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Jenkinson, the Clemmer College of Education and Human Development, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, Provost McCorkle talks with Dr. Colin Glennon, professor and chair in the Department of Political Science, International Affairs, and Public Administration. Dr. Glennon also serves as the faculty sponsor of ETSU’s award-winning Mock Trial Team. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Colin R. Glennon Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science, International Affairs and Public Administration: I really feel like compared to so many other disciplines, we have an advantage here in political science, right? Our stuff's in the news all the time. Right. And it's out there. And that gives us a chance that I think is really neat to kind of explain what it means, how it fits in, and that can help get students excited. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them. Our incredible faculty at ETSU. You hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Colin R. Glennon, Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science, International Affairs and Public Administration. Dr. Glennon joined the faculty at ETSU in 2013 after completing his PhD at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and teaching at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He teaches courses in public law and American politics, and also serves as the pre-law advisor and coordinator of the Legal Studies minor for the university. Dr. Glennon’s research focuses on judicial behavior and judicial legitimacy. He has coauthored texts in the fields of constitutional law, American government, and American political thought. Dr. Glennon also serves as a faculty sponsor of ETSU's award winning Mock Trial team. Go, Trial Bucs! Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Enjoy the show. Dr. Glennon, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Alright. Great. Well, first, thanks for having me. I appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to our discussion today. Thinking back on that first day, I think I probably think two things. The first would be to plan a little bit less and maybe what the class free flow a little bit more now, based on students’ interest, right, and the subject matter that's really landing with them. I don't think you maybe as a young professor, you feel more need to show your brilliance, right? And yeah, fit it all in. And, I quickly learned, at least I think quickly learned that that wasn't the best approach. It was better to see how a lecture was going, feel it out, and let the students kind of dictate the pace of that discussion. And then I think the second thing, maybe that or the biggest thing I've learned is that the most important class that I teach is the Intro to American Government class. And when I started, I probably would have told you it was an upper division course. Right? That that was most important in the discipline. Right. I think I had it backwards as a young professor. You know, our majors are politically engaged and politically knowledgeable. And in the Intro course, that might not be true. That's a Gen Ed course where we get students from everywhere, right? Right. And so, the way I think about it now is for so many of these students, that's going to be the only political science they ever get. And I take that as a kind of serious responsibility. Yeah. If I'm going to hopefully share a community with these students for 40, 50, 60 years. Right. This is our chance to kind of let them understand some basics, get a background right, get some kind of bedrock knowledge about how the systems work and things like that. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: So I think those would be the two kind of biggest things that I've learned since I got started, to let students dictate the pace a little bit more, but also that, that, that class that sometimes I think is thought of or treated as as less important really is the most important class in our discipline I think. It's great insight. Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Last fall, ETSU launched the inaugural Great Lecture Series, which features ETSU faculty who've recently been promoted to full professor. You were among our great lecturers last year, and the series allows our outstanding faculty to highlight some of the memorable moments throughout their academic journeys on their path to full professor. I really enjoyed hearing your lecture. For those of you who were not able to attend, could you please give our listeners a brief snapshot of your academic journey, including what brought you into this field? Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Yeah. That's great. That was a really cool event. I was really honored to participate in that. I had a lot of fun. I've enjoyed hearing what other folks had to say. And sometimes we talk about, you know, oh, do you know X? And they say, oh yeah, she's this or he's that. Right. But really, people are so much more than that. Right? So, it was kind of cool to learn about the backgrounds of other people I worked with that I just would have never known without the Great Lecture series. As for me personally, I really probably got into this really for two ways. I grew up in Columbia, Missouri, pretty much grew up on the campus of the University of Missouri. Yeah, my mother worked at the journalism school there. We would go to concerts and events and sporting events and stuff all the time. Right. And it was just sort of even as a young kid, you could wrap your mind around the idea that the, the university and the campus was really the center of the community. Right. And so I was always sort of intrigued by that notion.  We lived in a place surrounded by professors and stuff, and they were all wonderful people. And so that maybe sounds a little Pollyanna, but in some ways that was my introduction. And then to politics specifically. Yeah. I grew up in and I think this is something  that made a lot of people laugh at the event. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: But I grew up in a, a, ideological divided household, right, with, with, parents who are on the opposite end of the political spectrum and would engage in these political conversations all the time. And I didn't know everything about it, but I just, I was fascinated. Right. And then how can these two people feel so differently about this exact same person or event? And you know who's right? I don't know, I was piecing it all together, so I was really interested in politics, from an early age. And, I like telling that story to the students as well, to tell them it's possible. Right? You don't you don't only have to to date or hang out  with people within your same ideological tribe. Right? My folks have been married about 45 years now, so, you can do it. So anyway, I combine those two experiences that led me to studying political science at Mizzou. Ultimately, I got my PhD down, down the road in Knoxville, and, it's been kind of kind of great. It's a good thing because I'm not sure I'd be good at anything else. I couldn't play sports past high school. I'm not very good at guitar. I worked at a grocery store and a construction site for a little while, but I don't think they want me back. So, this is good. And then I think the last thing is, I really enjoy trying to approach things from different angles and this really lets me do that and encourage others to do that as well. In that particular speech, we talked about the distinctions between statesmanship and partisanship. Yeah. And we use the example of of trying to change the electoral college. And one of the things I don't like about our current sort of political landscape is so much of it has become do everything you can do to get 50% plus one, and then punish the other side and power through what you got. And it's true of the right, and it's true of the left, and it's not what we should be doing. And I know that's kind of cliché. And this notion of statesmanship tells us that you have to make sacrifices, or if you have to make compromises, maybe that's a better word if people don't want to make sacrifices, but compromises. Yeah and, you know, we, we use the example of the electoral college and you, you're not going to get people to change their mind by yelling at them on social media, right. So, we've got to work better within that sort of statesmanship guidelines. And so that was that sort of gist of the Great Lecture series, which was again, really cool. And I appreciated being involved in that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: You gave an outstanding lecture.   Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Thank you, thank you. Thanks for sharing that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So, in addition to the Great Lecture series over the last couple of years, you've also been involved in another successful initiative at ETSU. And that's the founding of the Mock Trial team. Tell us about that group and your work with them. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Yeah, that's been really neat. It's been, a different experience than really anything else I've done. First, I got to give all the credit, really, to the legal team and the students they they've done, especially Lindsay Daniel, has done so much there. It's a really hardworking group of kids, and I've loved to see their commitment in, in some ways, outside of the actual mock trial stuff. It's been real rewarding for me just to see that group and see the time they've put in and the effort in the energy. You know, there's there's so many negatives we use as a society in describing college students right now. Right? Right. And to be fair, they've collectively they've probably earned some of that. Right. But but not all of it. Yeah. And not all of them. So, it's great to see that it doesn't apply like across the board. Right. And these students are driven, thoughtful, enthusiastic, hardworking, committed to a goal that's hard. Yeah. And seeing it through right. And that's given me energy and in a lot of ways to see them do that. You know we were you knew what we were doing. But you might have been the only one when we were getting started. Right. And so, I was pretty naive to all of that. It's been a fantastic learning experience, to come out of advance out of regionals and only year two. Really awesome. Just really proud of them. The future's bright of the program and it's been it's been cool to be involved with. And, the students have just been wonderful. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Well, thank you for the time that you've dedicated to them. It's a huge lift and your support has meant everything I think, for the success of the team. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Well, thank you. It's great. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: How do you describe your approach to teaching courses in public law and American politics? And just as an aside, it must be a very interesting time to be a political science professor. It is, you know, we we say, I think it's a joke. That's not a joke, that every four years, sort of outside interest in what we do goes up. Right? Right. We get more, more requests for events and things like that. But that's okay. That's that's when the rest of society is focusing in, in a lot of ways. I really probably to answer the question specifically, take kind of two different approaches. Sort of the American politics class is, again, to reference something like the intro. It's more conversational. So of course, there's going to be foundational lectures, as we call them. But nobody likes to just be lectured at, you know, for an hour or an hour and a half. We got to have some stuff, establish the basics of, here's the difference between the House and the Senate. Here's the difference between Primary and General elections. But I really like to encourage discussions where we pull in real world examples. And yeah, election time sometimes makes that easier in a lot of ways, because students are more acutely aware of the events you're describing. So, I would say that approach is kind of conversational. If you were going to put it in one word. In the public law case, we rely on the case studies method predominantly, right, where we use Supreme Court decisions to help illustrate points and teach parts of the Constitution and things like that. And I think it's really a great experience. I fell in love with those classes, the students, because of that kind of thing. I'd I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Dr. Richard Hardy from Mizzou. He really got me involved in that kind of stuff. It's great. But it really those classes are also kind of a they're an extension of our pre-law services here. And those classes, not all of them, but several of them are structured in really what you might call like a JV law school class. Right. Which gives the students a really great way of experiencing that. I always tell the students that, that I think making informed decisions, the most important part of deciding to going to law school and they're going is great and not going is great, right? They've got to decide it's the right fit for them and make sure that it's the right fit for them. And these classes, I think sometimes they can provide some assurances to students on the fence, okay, I really like this. Or maybe they don't like that class, right? And I say, look, I understand that wasn't a great three months in that course if it wasn't your favorite course, but we just saved you three years and $200,000, right? That that is a fantastic win. That was a good investment. Yeah. All right. That was so we make use of that method case studies in the public law courses. Yeah. And that's been really, those classes are fun to teach. I think they're fun to take. We get great feedback. So, yeah, that's kind of how we approach those. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I always remember my Comm Law undergrad class was my favorite. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Yeah, yeah. Me too. That's cool. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I see so many areas of your expertise play out in every day news headlines. How do you use current events and headlines to help your students better understand topics such as constitutional law and the judicial process? I really feel like compared to so many other disciplines, we have an advantage here in political science, right? Our stuff's in the news all the time. Right? And it's out there. And that gives us a chance that I think is really neat to kind of explain what it means, how it fits in, and that can help get students excited. It does require us to be committed to the idea that we're not going to shy away from kind of hard conversations or hard topics sometimes. But I think that's great. One of my favorite things is when we hear from a student. Right. I was really looking forward to class today so that I couldn't wait to see what you were going to say about "X" thing that just happened. Right? Right. What were you going to tell us this means? Because I think a lot of times what we end up doing now is educators in general, but especially in political science, right, is sort of filling in the blanks or filling in some gaps.  You know, we we all, but especially young people, I think receive and consume information in kind of quick soundbite, quick, quick tweets, quit Instagram stories. Right. And that eliminates nuance from so many of these discussions. But that I think is largely viewed as a negative. Then I understand why, but I think it also provides us an opportunity. Right. So, for a quick example, when, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in the Dobbs case. Right, right. We spent a lot of time in class talking about, you know, what that means. But the big flash in everyone's mind and I and on all your screens is abortion, abortion, abortion. Right. And of course, that's an important part of the discussion, but it works is a really nice way of telling students, you know, this is why it's so important to pay attention to your State Legislators, right? Because that's who's actually doing this. The Supreme Court makes a decision. Right? But if you feel passionately about the abortion issue one way or another, the way you're going to get your preferred policies put in place is at the state level. So pay attention to lobbying for legislation and legislators at the state level. Those things that students maybe pay attention to less, right? Right. Not just students. Society pays attention to less. Right? I don't know if this is a question you were going to get into later, but one of the things that political scientists are always so troubled by is these stats everyone's familiar with, where only X percent of the population can name their senator, yeah, yeah and it's always very low number. Right. Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Distressingly low. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: Yeah. It is. And so, we're working on trying to overcome those kind of statistics. Right. And sort of I sometimes think of it as we can use events in headlines, to direct those conversations towards things where individuals and in our case, students can actually make the changes that they want to see where they can participate in the system. Right. And so it gives us a real opportunity to do that. That maybe isn't the way the first piece of information is digested. Right? But it's the way we roll with it after that. Yeah. How exciting. So related to that, how do you engage your political science students in community-engaged hands-on learning? Yeah, I think we kind of start at the very simple level, right. Encouraging them to participate in various ways. They can volunteer, they can vote. Yeah. They can work in community, right. They can work for, campaigns and things like that. I think there are other ways that our department with, Dr. Michelle Crumley leads, like study abroad programs that, think is ways of getting involved. We also make use of some class assignments.  One of them we talk about is the Federal Register example. Right. And that any bureaucratic need for those listeners who are, unfamiliar, you can, visit the Federal Register and bureaucratic agencies who are considering new, directives that, of course, have the force of law. Yeah. Right. Right. You have an opportunity to comment on. Right. And, so many people don't do this, of course, or don't know. And I tell students all the time, you know, you guys should be dominating this. You guys love commenting on stuff online, right? Like this is right in your wheelhouse. Yes. So, you can visit in. And the other part is of course, if you if you're not participating, you know, think about who is, it's organized interest. Right. It's big business. And that's okay. I'm not anti-big business folks, but that if you just let them have the only say right, then they're going to have the only say, right. And so that's an example, I think, and we give an assignment, right. Go participate. Go visit the Federal Register. Right. Sort of following up on that, as are more, advanced students, it leads to things like internships in law firms. We've placed students in the DA offices, political campaigns with interest groups. Yeah. The Washington Center, one of the really cool programs we have in our department is the Tennessee Legislative Internship Program, where students would spend a semester in Nashville right now. The Legislature. That is that's cool stuff. Great. I'm jealous of our students to get to go do that. I think it sounds really neat. So, those kind of experiences that maybe don't come in your first year. Right? But once you've advanced a little further and we have a good idea about what you're interested in, right, we can kind of help facilitate those. What emerging trends in political science and public law do you find the most exciting or concerning, and how do you address these in your classes? Yeah, that's a it's an interesting question. I think to start with the positive, I think that a increase in interest in participation is exciting. Yeah. Sometimes we might think that other people's interest in participation is misguided in some ways, but that's okay. I think we can work with that in a lot of ways. Right. I love seeing stories about people who are politically engaged. Our students, others, right, that don't necessarily fit traditional molds. Right. I think it's exciting that this sort of next generation. And of course, you got to be careful speaking with these big broad brushes, but I think they're trying harder to break the like, binary Republican/Democrat thing than, than my generation did. Right. Or those before it. They're I don't know if it would be successful, but but they're trying right. They're trying to consider these other things are are not just fit in traditional molds. Right. And I think that's really neat. I think it's cool to read about small business-owning, gun-toting Democrats. Right. Like that. That's interesting to think about. Or, you know, young African-American gay Republicans. Right. It's interesting that and that this generation isn't putting themselves in the same political boxes. And I think that's exciting. What's going to come of it? I don't know. Right. Yeah. But but I think that's kind of exciting. Sort of politically in political science, I think we're at an interesting part, class kind of moment, maybe is the better word of trying to harness that. Yeah, right. And how do we help these students push forward with the things they want to do, while providing them with the foundation they need and the information necessary. Right. Dr. Colin R. Glennon: You always it's always fun to be outside-the-box thinker. But I think someone smarter than me came up with this idea that it could be an outside the box thinker, but you're still going to have to work within the box to get things to change, right? Right. And so, try to help kind of guide that from people who are trying to change up a system that many you find kind of stale, I think is exciting. Right, but kind of mysterious in some ways. Right. As far as what's discouraging, within our discipline and this is maybe a little wonky, that wouldn't be of too much interest to people outside academia or political, but there's a little bit too much, I think, working backwards from the desired result in terms of some of the research that's happening.  I would like to see, personally, returning to the idea of emphasizing what science means, right? There's a lot of determining the result ahead of time, and then you come up with fancy methods that lay readers have no idea what it is. It doesn't mean anything to them. And then you argue that that quote unquote proves your result, right. We saw a lot of this really in the aftermath of the George Floyd situation. Right. And a number of studies came out that proved and putting "proved" in quotes for the listeners proved that there was or wasn't racial discrimination in policing. Right. And you saw both of those kind of sides come out and too much of that. And I don't mean to discredit all of that work by any means, but too much of it was a researcher who started from the end who started with, that doesn't sound right to me. I'm going to prove that it's wrong or prove that it's right. Right. And then they work backwards with their methods. And I don't think that's good political science. I don't think that's good science, period. And I think it it also it turns off the public, I think these very overly sophisticated models that, you know, there's there's a reason that that people read Time Magazine more than they read our political science journals. Right. It's interesting. Yeah, yeah. And so I'd like you you don't have to sacrifice research rigor, of course. In fact, you don't want to, right. I would argue that sort of returning to that real notion of science, right. Where we start with the question, not the answer. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Very interesting. Thank you. Do you have a favorite lecture or subject to teach? Dr. Colin R. Glennon: I think so, in the Comm Law classes, I would say to probably stand out right away. One is always going to be Marbury versus Madison, right? Sort of the foundational case of the Supreme Court, you know, power and authority, the notion of judicial review. I think it's really cool. It allows the story there is so rich. Right? Yeah. Let's start with the presidential election of 1800 and kind of that'll blow their mind, right? Yeah. That talk about all the crazy things that happened there, the problems that led to the 12th Amendment, right. All these kind of backstory of how we got there and then leads to really the great question of judicial review. Right. And yeah, I think it's a it's a great reminder that, you know, that that's still a great question today. When is this right for the court to make use of this great power of judicial review? When is it not doesn't go away when the court rules the way you like it. They're upholding the law. And when they rule in the way you don't, they're abusing their power, right, as unelected actors. But that foundation is there from this really fascinating case. And then I like the case of, Texas vs Johnson as well. I guess for a quick recap for the listeners, it's the flag burning case, right where the court ruled that it was, the burning the American flag was protected by the First Amendment. That sort of expressive speech. And it's a it's an interesting case because it shows the way that the Constitution will have these impacts on your life in ways that maybe you didn't think. And I also think it's an interesting case because it shows a phrase my students will tell you. Dr. Glennon says a lot is that upholding the Constitution is hard. And supporting the Constitution is hard. And we have to commit to that. And yeah, particularly in the free speech arena. Right. I know there are various opinions out there. I, I personally am supportive of the idea that supporting free speech means, supporting the right of people you disagree with to say things you find horribly objectionable. Right. And and Texas vs Johnson does that for a lot of people. There are people who are legitimately and sincerely offended by seeing the American flag burned. Right, right. And so that case works, I think, to demonstrate a couple of different components of why that matters. And then in the American government space, the electoral college lecture is fun, right? Especially where so many students, I think, don't know that. Yes. Don't understand that. They're kind of familiar with this concept. I don't really know how it works. So that's really kind of cool, especially like you referenced earlier in an election. I'm already looking forward to that lecture this fall. Right. Because they're going to be locked in real time. Wait a minute. What? That's how okay. So that that's kind of neat. And I always like that again with the back story is interesting and leads to a discussion of potential other options that could be out there. Right. So that's always kind of cool.  And then I like talking about political media a lot. The idea that how we consume information, why it matters, right. How you can participate. We're so critical of our political media now, I guess is a similar to what I said earlier. They've done some things to earn some of that, right? Yes. Yeah, that's true. But when we have them lay it out as sort of a business proposition, right, there's people it's a great reflection and it leads to this discussion of public opinion. Right. Because when we poll the public and ask, do you want more television programs about public affairs, about policy? Yes, of course. Right. Everyone says yes, but the numbers we have tell us a very different story, right? When you actually look at what people watch, they watch NFL football. Yeah. And they watch reality shows. Right. And that's okay. I'm not here to down talk either of those. I, I watch a lot of NFL football and my wife watches a lot of reality. So our TV feeds into those numbers for sure. So, but it's an interesting disconnect from what we say we want, from what we actually want according to our actions. Right. And then when it doesn't go the way we want and we say the public's uninformed, we blame the providers, right? Right. We don't take we don't take any of that on ourselves. They're like, wait a minute. There were you could have watched that show. No one did. You watched the Kardashians rerun. Right. And that's why that show isn't on anymore. Right. And so those kinds of conversations I think are really interesting to have as well. So, I like talking about those subjects. Yeah. Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Colin R. Glennon: This is this is probably the hardest question you asked me in some ways. The first thing I would say is that I hope that they took away and this is similar to, I guess, what I was saying about our discipline earlier. The idea that understanding the right questions to ask is the most important thing, at least in my opinion. I can't give you all the answers because I don't know all the answers either. Right? But but if we can try to understand why someone did something, why did this interest group feel this way? Why did this party do this thing right? We can, then, we can try to get closer I think, to actual answers. And so I'm a big believer in trying to teach the idea. What are the important questions to ask? Right. Dr. Noland says all the time not teaching them what to think, but how to think. Right. And and I think that's really true. I think that's really important. So I hope that our students walk out of our classroom and out of our major with that kind of mindset. Yeah. I think the other part I would say that is maybe not only in the classroom, but the idea of I'm a big believer in the importance of showing up. Right. Yeah. That old cliche 90% of life is showing up. Right. But. Right. But I really believe it. I think it's true in the political arena. Yeah. Right. I think it's true in class or at work. Right. I think it's true in your life. I tell all the students I try to relay this story that, you know, I love my work and I care about it a lot. It might be possible that that the most important thing I've ever done is is coach Little League baseball, right? Like. Yeah, just showing up and being there for kids or doing something you believe in is really important. And and I hope that students understand that. So when you're on whatever side of an issue you're on, show up, right. Show up, be there. When your got to go to class. Right. Sometimes it's very simple. Show up right. Be there. And I think the combination of those things showing up and then going questions first, I think is really what I hope our students take away from, from my classes. That's great. Those are really nice lessons to impart. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Thank you. Collin. We have a common interest in law and judicial process, among other topics that we've covered today. So, it's been a real treat to have you on this episode. I appreciate the good work you've done with your pre-law students and your involvement with the ETSU Mock Trial team. I've really enjoyed watching several of your students shine in their competitions on SGA and across our campus. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Glennon, the Department of Political Science, International Affairs and Public Administration, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever You listen to podcasts.

This episode features Stephen Hendrix, a tenured instructor in the Department of Computing in ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. Mr. Hendrix is a three-time ETSU graduate. In addition to teaching, he is actively involved in service at ETSU, where he has represented his fellow faculty members in various leadership roles. Podcast Transcript:  Stephen Hendrix The basic process of coding is relatively simple. But understanding the whys and the hows and the logics and all of those things, that's really where it's impactful. So for me, one measure of success in a successful day in the classroom is the "aha moment." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Stephen Hendrix, a tenured instructor in the Department of Computing and ETSU's College of Business and Technology. Mr. Hendrix is a three-time ETSU graduate earning his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Computer and Information Sciences here, as well as an MBA. He's currently completing his dissertation to earn his Ph.D. in Information Systems at Dakota State University. In addition to teaching, Mr. Hendrix is actively involved in service at ETSU, where he has represented fellow faculty members in various leadership roles. He has served as past president of the Faculty Senate, and he's the current chair of the Sub-Council for University Governance. He serves on various other university committees and councils such as University Council, the Budget and Strategic Planning Committee, the Strategic Resource Realignment Committee, and the Facilities Design Task Force. He also teaches a variety of computing and information systems classes ranging from health information systems to programing for data analytics. He's also taught ETSU 1020 Foundations of Student Success, which is ETSU's first-year experience course designed to help students on a successful path towards graduation. Enjoy the show. Stephen, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Stephen Hendrix Well, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Looking back on that first day in 2013, coming to ETSU to teach full-time for the Department of Computing, there was this this feeling of excitement, nervousness, a lot of nervous energy. Thankfulness to be a part of the journey. And so, looking back, if I was to give myself a piece of advice for that day, it would be to enjoy the journey. Enjoy the journey that the students go on throughout the next ten plus years of my career, but then also enjoy the journey that I go on to grow as a faculty member.   Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's great. So I mentioned in your introduction that you're a three-time ETSU graduate and last year I heard you share your story about how you came to ETSU as an Upward Bound student. Will you tell us a bit about that program and how it impacted your career and life path? Stephen Hendrix Absolutely. So the Upward Bound Program is a program that works with low-income students whose parents did not complete a four-year education. So low-income and what we call first- generation college-bound students. And it's a program it's a very intensive program. Students live on the campuses in which those programs reside. And it shows them the opportunity to be successful. Right. So helps to fill in the gaps for first-generation kids. And my story is no different. As a first-gen child, I was all about sports, loved baseball, loved playing sports, but wasn't necessarily thinking about what was next. You know, what comes after high school. And so the Upward Bound Program, they aired a video on the closed circuit television network in my high school and talking about this program that gets kids ready and excited for college. And my buddy was sitting beside of me and he was like, "Who would want to do that?" And I was like, “I think I would, actually. This college thing seems intriguing, maybe.” And so I signed up for the program, and it was life-changing. It was an opportunity to shift my focus. I still played sports, but to shift my focus towards academics and to think about what were those next steps when I completed high school and so I got the opportunity to actually live here at ETSU during the summer months my sophomore junior and senior year the chance to take dual enrollment classes. So I became a college student while in high school here on campus, having incredible instructional opportunity from the faculty here. And ultimately it led to an exposure moment for me which was being exposed to this idea of creating websites which to that point a computer to me was playing Oregon Trail and having fun and never thought about what are the other uses. And so web design was a class that I took when I was in Upward Bound and fell in love with it. I came here to ETSU as an undergraduate student and kind of floundered around a little bit trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and thought about psychology, thought about being a radio deejay at one point. And then I landed in an Intro to Computer Science class with Dr. Martin Barrett, and it affirmed to me that is what I wanted to do the rest of my life was to be in computer science. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I'm certain that the experience you had in Upward Bound impacted the way you work with students. Stephen Hendrix Absolutely. The opportunities that were provided to me in Upward Bound, as I reflected on those as I began teaching full-time at the university, it became this sense of, okay, how do I make sure that all of my students feel welcome to my classroom? How do I use language that all students can understand that aren't just the academic terms that we sometimes get caught up in? And how can I make all students feel like they're important and valued and a part of this institution which sometimes is really important for those first-gen kids? Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Who are some of your teaching role models and what did you learn from them that you continue to use in your classroom today? Stephen Hendrix So I would definitely think there's a think about role models in the classroom, um,  Marty Barrett was one - Dr. Martin Barrett, who was one of the first faculty members that I had in the Department of Computing. Dr. Barrett did an incredibly good job being able to share his content in a way that we could relate as we went topic to topic. And so connecting each of those topics together to form a bigger picture in the learning process. And so I try to model that to this very day. I try to build on things that students would come in with some understanding about and try to relate that to the topics that we're discussing in that class, whether it's our first-year kids and first-year experience courses or it's graduate students designing digital dashboards. Try to relate them to here are the fundamental concepts that are building on each other. Yeah. That will help you ultimately get to some type of goal. And oh, by the way, here's some of the theory and logic that goes behind all that. Uh huh. Yes. Kind of sprinkled in there a little bit. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What is the successful day in the classroom look like to you? Stephen Hendrix So what I think of a successful day in the classroom, I think of things such as the "aha moments." Right. So when you're sitting in a lab and you're talking about web design and you're talking about how do we use this particular element and why we do this? And the student goes, "Oh, I completely get it now." I understand why that's so important. Yeah, we talk a lot to our students about we can teach almost anybody to code. The basic process of coding is relatively simple, but understanding the whys, and the hows, and the logics and all of those things, that's really where it's impactful. So for me, one measure of success in a successful day in the classroom is the "aha moments." The second would be the day that the students start exploring on their own and then start asking some challenging questions that make me go, "I don't know that I even know that. Let's take a look." I was teaching a web design class and was talking about creating an ordered list on a web page. And the student goes, "Well, can you do this?" And I was like, Well, yeah, here's how you do it. Can you do that? I have no idea. Why don't you go look it up and let us know? Tell us. And so, you know, having that engagement with the students, those make for successful days in the classroom. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And always a great teaching strategy to be willing to say, I don't know, let's find out. Stephen Hendrix Right. Well, I think especially because that class is a freshman level class, there's this perception that the faculty knows everything and that we aren't open to learning or admitting that sometimes we just don't know. And so I think being able to say, yes, there are things that we don't know, but let's talk about how we figure it out together. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Oh, that's great. Yeah. Computing is a rapidly changing field of study. So, how do you prepare your students for a career that's constantly evolving and developing? Stephen Hendrix It constantly changes. I remember having a conversation with a colleague of mine the other day and he was getting ready to give a lecture on a particular technical topic, and he had listened to an NPR broadcast that introduced something new that made his topic completely, like, obsolete. I was like, I can't believe this. So, you know, teaching in this field sometimes can be very challenging. You know, constantly for us as faculty, keeping up with the current technologies, understanding what industry is looking for. For us, I think the big focus is that at the end of the day, there are some core concepts. So, for example, an if statement, regardless of whether you got curly brackets or semicolons or whatever language, the idea behind an if statement is it's all the same. The logic of how it works. Yeah. So understanding those critical concepts and then expanding that into learning a new language or a new paradigm or a new way to develop technologies. It will always be changing. And we tell our students that. From a first-year experience forward, this field is a field you'll have to grow in, and be able to continually grow as the years go on. So, understanding that up front and understanding the process of learning and the process of making yourself better and investing in yourself is important. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, you mentioned community partnerships. So tell us a little bit about the partnership ETSU has with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the BlueSky Institute. Stephen Hendrix Absolutely. So the BlueSky program is just absolutely an incredible program. It's, you know, program that works with students, 30 students in each of our cohorts to provide them the opportunity to earn almost a completely free degree in Chattanooga, a two-and-a-half-year program, where they'll walk out with an accredited Bachelor of Science and Computing, with a focus and Information Systems and with job opportunities available to them. So it's an immersive experience. The students are together in cohorts that entire duration, so they get to learn with each other and grow with each other. We have dedicated faculty down there who are teaching those courses and providing instruction, and then they're also gaining some incredible experiences along the way. So like for next week or two weeks from now, they are traveling to San Francisco, as a cohort, for the opportunity to go to Silicon Valley and meet with folks from Google and meet with folks in the tech sector to better understand what's happening in that space. So just an incredible partnership. Blue Cross has been incredible partners with us as we've continued to develop and grow that program. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, it's been a real model. Stephen Hendrix It really has been. It's you know, we hear from other corporate partners. How do we get involved? How do we bring this to X location? And I think that that speaks volumes to not only the need that that industry has for folks in Information Systems, but the quality of the program that we're offering. And the ability to deliver that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, I agree. Would you tell us a bit about how you are preparing students to address the use of AI? Stephen Hendrix So AI, of course, is new technology, generative AI in particular - new technology where we are seeing students coming with both excitement and concern at the exact same time. You know, there's always that that fear of will this replace me? Will this replace what I'm doing or what I'm going to be doing when I leave the institution. And we remind our students that AI is a tool in your overall toolbox. So, AI can help assist you in learning the exact syntax for a particular piece of code that you're writing, or to maybe understand a little bit more detail about a particular topic. But you were ultimately the experts. And so you're walking out of here both with the technical skills, but also the ability to logically and computationally think through these problems. And that's what employers are really hiring you to do, is to be more than what we're currently seeing out of AI and really go deeper. Now, that may change as a AI continues to grow. But but at this time, that's really where we're trying to help our students understand how they can use AI both in the classroom and as they move into the work world. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Would you tell us a bit about the types of careers that our computing students typically pursue? Stephen Hendrix Absolutely. So in the Department of Computing, we have four concentrations, which would be our Computer Science concentration, our Information Technology, Information Systems, and our Cybersecurity. And so we're seeing students who are leaving the institution, who are heading into those traditional software engineering roles, where they go and they sit behind the computer and they type and write code and do all the fun things. But we're seeing a significant amount of our students heading into cybersecurity. We have a student who's heading to Oak Ridge in the next couple of weeks and he'll be working in cybersecurity down there. We're seeing students who are going into database administration and managing these large amounts of big data and how do we use them, which also leads into data analytics. We're seeing students, especially some of our graduate students who are heading into that data analytics space to help make meaning and sense out of these large quantities of data. And so we're seeing students go into a wide variety of different careers. And what's really interesting is that many of our students are not going to tech companies. So the jobs at the Facebooks and the Googles and Microsofts are there. And we see students go there, but we also see so many students who are going into industry. Right. Like Eastman Chemical or Ballad Health, or they're going to Oak Ridge, or they're going to other types of locations in which the computing and model, so computing and some other skill kind of come together. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What hands-on community-engaged learning opportunities do computing students have while they're enrolled at ETSU? Stephen Hendrix So students in the Department of Computing, from undergraduate to graduate students, traditionally work in some form on a project. So our undergraduate students work in Software Engineering I and II, where they work on some type of project. Typically, those projects have been identified as projects that could assist in community partners. So the opportunity to maybe work with a nonprofit organization on developing a website or developing some technology. Our graduate students are required to do capstone projects, and some of their capstone projects can be anything from working with Public Health on creating visualizations to working with the International Storytelling Center to develop a solution for digitizing their stories and also to take their stories and translate them from spoken language to written. And so doing that is an automated process. So we encourage our students in every step of the way, and we value those opportunities. We do internships. But we go beyond just doing internships. We actually have a class that's dedicated to preparing them for college and for career success. So that classes a 3000 level class. We bring in industry partners. They actually go through the interview process. We talk to them about being good stewards in the community when you're working in these various fields. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It's fantastic. As I mentioned, in addition to all the work you do inside the classroom, you've also represented the interests of your fellow faculty members on Faculty Senate and on several other committees and councils. Why is this service important to you and what impact do you think that it has on the university? Stephen Hendrix As somebody who has seen the mission, lived out in my own personal life - you know, Dr. Noland always talks about that you know, one of the missional parts of this institution is impacting the lives of the people the Appalachian Highlands region. And I can sit here today and just say that my life was impacted because of the work before me. Yeah. It has changed me forever for who I am, my friends, my wife. All of the things can be linked back to the work of this institution. And so for me, the opportunity to be a small part of that story, to be able to contribute and to serve and represent the faculty through the Faculty Senate, to be able to serve through the various committees at the department and institutional level - the opportunity to continue just to give back. And for me, I've also found that through those opportunities, I've been able to bring it back to my classroom, which has been phenomenal. I've had the opportunity to talk about the Voyager project, as enterprise systems is one of the areas in which I teach. We've talked a lot about how as Voyager went through the process, what are some of the pitfalls and challenges, success stories and how does that tie back to what our students are going to be doing one day? Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Well, I can reflect that I think one of the things that I've recognized is what an outstanding and positive ambassador you've always been for faculty and for the university and as you say, for the mission of the university. So, thank you. Stephen Hendrix Thank you. Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Stephen Hendrix At the end of the day, I hope for my students, I've had two ways of impact. One is being a positive influence, being a smiling face, someone that they can talk to, go to, have a conversation with. And then second, I hope that I've inspired them to go and seek careers in health care information systems or to seek careers in enterprise systems or to further their studies and come back and get their master's or doctoral degrees. So to me, it's about inspiring students having the opportunity just to be a part of their journey as they're going through their time here at ETSU. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Stephen. I appreciate your commitment to your students and to your fellow faculty members. Your passion for ETSU is clearly rooted in your history here, and your work is paving the way for our current students to follow their dreams here, just like you did. Thank you for listening to “Why I Teach.” For more information about Mr. Hendrix, the ETSU Department of Computing or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to “Why I Teach,” wherever you listen to podcasts.  

This episode features Dr. Elwood Watson, Professor of History, Black American Studies, and Gender Studies at ETSU.  Dr. Watson is a prolific writer, the author and editor of dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews. He also authored several books, including a book of essays about race in contemporary America. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Elwood Watson Well, I think history is highly important because, first of all, we reside in history, okay, whether we are aware of that fact or not; anybody can get a book and read the facts, just saying this happened in 1895, this happened in 19, people say, okay. And so what? That's like a "Jeopardy" question. I want you to be mini historians, at least through my class in a semester, the how, the why, yes, you know the whats and whens, but let's incorporate and why and how this came about; causation, the significance of the event, and the end result. To me, that's how you should teach history. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi. I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty. Their passion for what they do. Their belief in the power of higher education. And the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Elwood Watson, Professor of History, Black American Studies, and Gender Studies at ETSU. Dr. Watson earned a bachelor's and master's degree at the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Maine. He began teaching at ETSU in 1997, and during that time, he has received multiple Distinguished Faculty Awards in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Watson is a prolific writer, the author and editor of dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews. He also authored several books, including a book of essays about race in contemporary America. He's a regular columnist and contributor to numerous national publications, where he applies his expertise in history to current events and issues. Dr. Watson's extensive research and expertise, spanning from history to popular culture, offer valuable insights that address numerous pressing issues encountered by Americans. I look forward to hearing how he engages his students in these important conversations and helps them to discover ways to connect what they learn in their classrooms to their communities. Enjoy the show. Dr. Watson, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Elwood Watson Yeah, that was in August of 1997. That was my first day of teaching here. And when I walked into that classroom for the first time, seeing students, it was interesting. The students were skeptical I was their professor at first because they said, "Well, you know, ETSU has a lot of nontraditional students as well." And one lady was like, "You're younger than my son, I think." So. And they're like, "Are you serious? You're the professor?" And I was like, "Yes, I'm the professor." And at that time, I was 30 years old. Yeah. And these kids were like, it was a gen ed survey class, so we're talking about 18, 19, you know, a decade older than they were, but not, you know, much, much older than they were. But, so it was a, but I think there was a little bit of skepticism the first couple of weeks. But when they saw, you know, that I knew my material and I was able to engage, and I think they were able to, you know, they really appreciate it. And then got fantastic evaluations and became one of the more popular professors in the department, you know, which I was glad. So I learned a lot about, I don't know if I would change too much, but I think perseverance; I learned, you know, be your authentic self. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson You know, and I think students will appreciate that more, as opposed to engaging and trying to be a persona that's not necessarily you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's great advice. Will you tell us a bit about your journey into academia, including how you became interested in the intersection of history, Black American studies, and gender studies? Dr. Elwood Watson Yes. At the University of Delaware, I was, I started off as an English major at that time. Delaware, this was the mid-1980s, I started college in the mid-1980s. Delaware at that time, it's the English department there, like many places, it's, you know, transformed considerably, at that time, was primarily European history, Shakespeare, Hawthorne, well Hawthorne's American, but, you know, it was pretty much, you know, to use that term, and I don't mean this derisively, but as some radical students would say, the dead white male, if you can. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson And by the nineties, the English departments were facing a reckoning. But at that time, for me, I decided to go to history. I took a history class with a man by the name of Dr. Jack Ellis, who has since retired. He went from Delaware; he eventually became the dean at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. But he was, I took a class with him, World Civilization since 1600. And it was one of the most fascinating classes I'd ever had and I didn't do too well on the first exam. But I did much better on the second and final exam. He was very, very impressed. You know, as you know, he said, you got this grade, but you got the hard way, but you got it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson And then he asked me would I be interested in becoming a college professor one day. This is like two months later. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. Dr. Elwood Watson Well, that's, I had never given it much thought. I thought journalism, which I do on the side right now, is what, I'm a syndicated columnist, so I thought I might want to go and get my B.A., and just go straight to work. And but I said yeah, and he said “Well, come by my office in a couple of weeks, and we'll talk about it.” It just so happened that he just became the brand-new chair of the department at that time, which didn't hurt. And so I learned, you know, a lot about academia. And he became my advisor. And I met with another professor who just retired last year, Dr. Wunyabari Maloba; he came from Stanford. He arrived there in 1988, and he was probably a little older faculty than average at that point, not much, but he was probably in his early, late thirties, early forties when he first started. And he, between the two of them and a few other faculty, Dr. Anne Boylan, all these individuals have retired by now. She got me interested in gender studies, and with that combination, she introduced me to people like bell hooks and Audre Lorde. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson And Patricia Williams. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson And I took a class with her, which was American Women since 1945. And that's a class I actually teach here. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Is that right? Dr. Elwood Watson Yeah, at East Tennessee State University. And those factors alone, individuals at Delaware really got me started off into looking into gender studies, pop culture, you know, race. And, and I was able to, you know, combine those factors as well. And it was intersectionality. And to quote Paula Giddings, you know, she's coined the term the intersection of race and gender. So there was a combination of factors that got me interested in my passion for the humanities, my passion for, you know, academia in general. And I think I was able to, you know, propel that into my work as my work, my books and things are very multidisciplinary. Right. Even though I'm a historian by training, my work is multidisciplinary, and I incorporate a lot of dynamics into different fields into my work because I think that's what a liberal arts education is supposed to be about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Well, so to follow on that, your expertise covers a wide range of topics. Do you have a favorite lecture or class that you teach? Dr. Elwood Watson I actually like all my classes. I think that I'm more, I've been doing a lot more contemporary classes. This semester, for example, I'm teaching American history through film. That's a class I teach sporadically. And this semester, we're focused on the 1970s. I look at that from a historical perspective. I focus on films that are Cold War. In the past, I focused on films of the fifties. Each time I do it, we focus on a decade. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson And we and also, I mean, there's obviously readings to supplement those films. But that's one of the classes beginning, I like that quite a bit. My Current Issues in American History, which I'm teaching this fall, there's such a popularity for that, and I get my classes because of the interdisciplinary nature, I am able to, a lot of non-major take my class as well as majors. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Sure. Right. Tell us, in what ways do you see historical perspectives influencing contemporary issues, and how do you help your students make those connections? Dr. Elwood Watson Absolutely. History, I always tell students, and I've told people that confidence is the mother of all disciplines. And I had a person tell me one time, what about philosophy? I said, "There's a history to it." But I think history, I think in many ways, and that is how I mean that, is certainly respectfully; I respect all disciplines in academia. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson But I think, you know, every discipline has a history, and you can certainly look at that, you know, whether it's literature, whether psychology, whether sociology, whether it's, you know, finance, you know, medicine, those dynamics and stuff as well. One of my colleagues actually does a course on history in medicine. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson As well. So I think what I do is I try to compare, you know, what is going on today, and sometimes when I teach a gen ed class here and there, I tell my students, for example, you know, we're talking about high wages, we're talking about wealth gaps in this country during the Gilded Age, that sort of stuff as well. I said, is there any similarities to what's going on today? And several students raise their hand. Yes, yeah. Yeah. And I says one could argue we're in a second Gilded Age, right? You know, widening gaps, you know, the wealthier seem to be getting more wealthy, working class people seem to be struggling more. If we're at, the news we watch and listen to. So I'm saying there is a good example where there are a lot of historians who say themselves that we are in a second Gilded Age. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson So when you think about it, yes. I said, well, Mark Twain said it best. History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but it does rhyme.   Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson But to answer your question, yes, I always say, "Look, you know, these are not new issues?" They, you know, they may have different focuses and different things, but they're the more things change, that old saying, the more they stay the same. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us a bit about your most recent book. Dr. Elwood Watson Well, my most recent book was published was called "Talking to You, Bro" and that was published in 2021. And it looks at masculinity of, you know, it looks at the history of masculinity and looks at dynamics on how men can learn from past history and accordingly, you know, take advice here and there as well. My current book that I'm working on is about men who are members of Generation X. That was those of us who are born between 1965 and 1980, and I'm working on that. And I should be well into getting it, well into it this summer. And hopefully at some point next year it should be out on the market. So I haven't got a title for that yet. So I'm looking for a major publisher with that one as well. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What are what are the initial themes from that book? Dr. Elwood Watson I interviewed about 40 men from different backgrounds. Some are very religious, so that's probably going to be a chapter. I might call that Judeo-Christian brothers, you know, a couple are Jewish, you know, a couple are Christian, and a couple of them were, you know, a number of men of color. So we might even, that could be a chapter. A few who are members of the LGBT community. So that could probably be a chapter. Also interviewed a couple of men who were born between 1981 and 1983. That chapter will probably be me, men on the cusp, maybe not exactly, you know --   Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Gen X -- Dr. Elwood Watson but they're not there so early that, you know, they can be, you know, considered, you know, maybe a lot of Millennial I mean, the Generation X, you know, behaviors and sentiment there as well. So that'll be a chapter. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As you know, ETSU just introduced the Compass Core Curriculum, which is our redesigned general education curriculum. As a faculty member of the Humanities area, why is it important for students to take courses like history that might be outside of their major area of study? Dr. Elwood Watson Well, I think history is highly important because, first of all, we reside in history, okay. Whether we are aware of that fact or not. History has a major impact on our lives. Obviously, for someone like myself who is a Black American, the 1964 Civil Rights Act of that year, signed in legislation by President Lyndon Johnson, is one of the reasons I'm probably at ETSU today. Doesn't mean I would not have necessarily have been a college professor, but it would likely would have been much more at a historically Black college and university, a HBCU, maybe a Howard, a Morehouse, a Spelman as well. The Voting Rights Act for Blacks who particularly lived in the South. I mean, if you were prior to that time, that was an apartheid system like the old South Africa. I mean, you pay taxes, you worked for a living, but you had to go to war if you were male, but you still were not able to vote. So those type of things have had profound impacts on America. The voting rights, you know, Title Seven of that was for outlawing gender discrimination. People don't realize that. You know, women, you know, I tell a lot of students I taught the honors program for a number of years to a lot of young ladies. You know they had SAT, well ACT scores mostly, but SAT scores. I said your score you could go to anywhere in the country that you want to go based on your, you know, academic records, phenomenal academic records, you know, and very impressive young women. And the men were, too. But I'm just saying. But the point I'm making is that but prior I said to 1969, you could not have went to any Ivy League school. I said, you could not go, you could not have went to Harvard. You could not have went to Yale. You could not have went to Princeton, you could not have went to Brown. You could have went to Mount Holyoke. You could have went to Pembroke. You could have went to Vassar, you could have went to Wellesley. You know, you could have went to Smith, you could have went to any of the “Seven Sisters.” I mean, I said, but because you're a female up to 1969, you were not allowed to go to the mainstream campuses. My sister, my oldest sister, Marsha, when she was at Princeton University in the fall of 1973, she was like the fifth class of undergraduate women to enter that institution at that time. So that was not lost on that women, that generation of women, I mean, as well. And I think that I think a lot of times I try to hammer these type of things home because a lot of times I think a lot of, you know, women think the feminist movement, younger women, not all, feel that the feminist movement is too extreme. I said maybe you better be glad some of these women were so extreme. Okay. You know, extreme. You know how that based on what I said, because the opportunities that many of you have today. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right. Dr. Elwood Watson You would not have. I said prior to the 1970s, if you go back and watch the nightly news, Barbara Walters is one of the first women who was able to break into it on "The Today Show" in 1967. But by and large, you go back, and it was Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite. And this is not to say they weren't good at what they did, but there were no people of color, no other women, giving the news and nightly news. And I'm saying those are things, you know, today, Katie Couric, Deborah Norville, you look at news now, you'll see much more diversity. And I think that we're better for it. I mean, not even just Black, white, or women or men. You're seeing people from all nationalities giving the news. But that was not the case. And that was because of the Civil Rights Act. And, you know, the Voting Rights Act that gave these opportunities possible. And I try to teach history of those perspectives because I think people don't realize it could have a direct impact upon your life. So that's just one way that I try to hammer that home. And I think students tell me at the end of the semester, some even went to my department chair and said, you know, I really appreciate Dr. Watson saying what he did. At first I didn't like it. It made me uncomfortable. Some of them say this, but I realized when I think about it and thought about it, it was important that I get this information. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes. Dr. Elwood Watson And I actually get on mine this should be a required class, but I try to teach it to make that connectivity factor. I think it's important that we try to make history as personable because I mean, yes, you need to know the facts. That's a given, but you need to know more than the facts. Anybody can get a book and read the facts. Just saying this happened in 1895, this happened in 19, people say, okay. And so what? That's like a "Jeopardy" question. I want you to be mini historians, at least through my class in a semester, the how, the why, yes, you know the whats and whens, but let's incorporate and why and how this came about; causation, the significance of the event,and the end result. To me, that is how you should teach history. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. And the power of the humanities to do that for students from all majors. Dr. Elwood Watson Yes. Yes. Yes. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As I mentioned in your introduction, you are a prolific writer. How does your writing make you a better educator, and how does your teaching make you a better writer? Dr. Elwood Watson Oh, they both can complement one another quite well. My philosophy is that good researching, good research enhances good teaching. I think you can become very stagnant if you decide once you get tenure or a full professor for that matter, and do not necessarily engage in the level of research or just decide to maybe rest on your laurels or that comes along with that. I think that can make you stagnant, and I never want to be that type of professor. I'm always curious. I'm just, it's in my DNA. I can't help it. I just want to know about that. I'm always up to date about what's going on. I, that's why I like to go to conferences. I like to, you know, interact with others. I try to see what new scholarship is out there, you know, and I say who's doing what and connect with those individuals that are willing to connect. And many are. And because I think it just keeps you vibrant, which is one of the reasons I like working with graduate students so much. You know, grad students come up with interesting ideas. They keep you, you know, you could help them with ideas. I mean, and, you know, and I've you know, I've been able do some fantastic theses, you know, because these students are so interested as well. And I try to do my graduate seminars a lot of times around what a lot of my students are working on. You know, they're working on gender issues, a lot of my seminars might be gender. If they're working on race issues, I try to put in race. If they're working on, you know, pop culture issues. But I believe in helping students, you know, working, you know, working them and trying to cultivate their, you know, their best skills. And, you know, and hopefully, you know, they decide to pay it forward. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. You've prepared them well. And a good reminder to thank your mentors, how important that is. Dr. Elwood Watson Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Elwood Watson I try to live by example. I don't expect, I don't say anything. I'd let them know I'm very you know, I have strong opinions. I certainly expect them to be strong opinions. My classes are discussion oriented. I said, we're going to talk in this class, whether it's about issues of race, gender, pop culture, we're going to be honest about it. We don't sugarcoat it. I said we'll be respectful to one another, by all means, but I believe you don't get anywhere by dancing around the bush. And then, particularly in our current climate, I think we can be respectful, but we've got to be candid, I think. And I said, because the current climate is anything but timid, okay? And we have to really be mindful. We have to really be looking look at things for a reality perspective. I always believe in being a realist. I mean, I think that let people know where you stand. As students, I want you to know, I want to know your stand. Why do you feel this way? Let's go from there. I think, I think once we know what's out on the table, we may not convince each other, but at least we know where one another stand. And I think it's a lot better than just trying to dance around a bush, you know? And, you know, maybe you'll come to my opinion, and maybe I'll come to you. I mean, you know, we dance around those kind of things. I'm not sure that it gets anything done. So I think, you know, that honesty, transparency, and let's go from there. And I think that's highly important, especially when you're doing history. To me, history is about getting to the truth -- right -- no matter where it may lead. Okay. A lot of history, well, I've had students in the past, years ago, well, don't you think we'd do better if we don't talk about the negative things in history? I said, Well, look, I'd love to say everything in history was blue skies and apple pie, but it was not, okay. Especially if you look at Southern history, you're looking at history of race and gender and immigration, labor. It was right ugly in some cases. Okay. And I don't think we do ourselves a disservice to try to not skirt around those issues. You know, I mean, I think we have to say this is what happened, that there were good things that came out of it. Yes, of course. But we have to realize it didn't happen overnight. Women didn't get the vote overnight. People were like women got out in the street and there were two marches and all of a sudden the 1920, no, that was almost a 100-year battle. They went forward. They went backward. Some states said no. Tennessee was the state here that made it possible for the 19th Amendment to be ratified. And I mean, so had it not happened, it would've had to start all over again. It may not have been to the 1960s with Title Seven. My point is, you know, those are kind of things you have to realize. Martin Luther King Jr. and them, look at the dedication they had to go through their civil rights movements from Frederick Douglass to David Walker all throughout history, we had television, Martin Luther King Jr., the power of television was very, very instrumental. Point was, you know, Martin Luther King Jr., and he was 24 when he led the movement, you know, look how long it took, a decade before the Civil Rights bill was actually enacted. And these things don't happen overnight. Okay. And that's why I try, kids, you have to realize the sacrifices that these individuals are made for people of my generation, your generation as things as well. And I think, you know, we have to let students know that. A lot of people don't understand why, you know, maybe the opportunities they have today, don't take them for granted because they can easily be taken away from you. I know that sounds dramatic, and it sounds drastic, but it is true. And I don't think any of us should ever get to rest on our laurels. So that's what I tell students about history. And that's what I tell, you know, you've got to be mindful of it, you've got to always teach it and pass it on. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Dr. Watson. I've enjoyed getting to know more about your research and your writing. I also appreciate the ways that you help to guide your students to important conversations and to an understanding of how they can use lessons from history that they learned in your class to make an impact on their communities. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Watson, the College of Arts and Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost's website at ETSU-dot-edu-slash-Provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Dr. Tabitha Fair has a long history with ETSU’s Dental Hygiene Program, which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year.    She began as a student and this year she has been teaching for 20 years in the program.    In this episode, Dr. Fair describes the community-engaged, hands-on learning experiences students participate in as they offer affordable dental hygiene care to the community.    Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Tabitha Fair We are really proud of our 55-year history of educating students and providing dental hygiene care to those in the community. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Tabitha Fair, assistant professor and program director for the Dental Hygiene Program at ETSU. Dr. Fair has a long history with ETSU's Dental Hygiene Program, which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene at ETSU and then continued her studies here with a Master of Public Health degree. She then completed a Ph.D. in Health Sciences at Nova Southeastern University. She began teaching at ETSU as an adjunct faculty member in 2004, and then joined the faculty full time in 2006. She served on editorial boards for several academic journals in her field, and she brings a combination of clinical, teaching, and research expertise to the classroom. In fact, the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences has recognized her contributions with several Distinguished Faculty Awards in interprofessional education, service, and teaching. I look forward to hearing more from Dr. Tabitha Fair about how our Dental Hygiene Program is not only making an impact on our students, but also on our community that benefits from the clinical services that we offer. Enjoy the show! Dr. Fair, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Tabitha Fair Thank you so much for having me here today. It's really an honor, and this is a really interesting question, and there are so many things that I wish I could go back and tell myself because I was so incredibly nervous that day. I don't really think I even remember what I said in class that day because I was just terrified. But if I could go back, I think the main thing I would say to myself is to believe in yourself. Just believe in yourself, and also believe in those people who saw potential in you. Because I never saw myself as an educator. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. Yeah. I never even imagined that being a college professor was a possibility. That's just not something that was on my radar. Right. And so when Dr. Faust called me and asked if I would come back to teach in the Dental Hygiene Program, yeah, I was shocked. And to be honest, I didn't have very much confidence in myself. So if I could go back, I would love to be able to say to myself that this is the beginning of a wonderful journey for you. Yeah. Enjoy it and believe in yourself and believe in those people who hired you because maybe they actually did know what they were doing. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Oh, thank you. I love that. As you know, ETSU's Go Beyond the Classroom initiative focuses on providing our students with hands- on community-engaged learning experiences. Our Dental Hygiene Program has been ahead of this curve since its inception 55 years ago. Will you tell us how this program provides students with those invaluable experiences? Dr. Tabitha Fair Well, we're really excited about the Go Beyond initiative because community engagement truly has been the foundation of what we have been doing for decades. But this opportunity to designate some of our courses as community-engaged learning courses has really given us the opportunity to reflect on those courses and build in that critical reflection piece that's so important. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Dr. Tabitha Fair So I would really like to brag on Dr. Laura Minton. She's one of our faculty members, and she actually was able to have our very first Dental Hygiene course certified or approved as a community- engaged learning course. Excellent. She's been working with Dr. Michelle Lee in the Nutrition Department to allow the Dental Hygiene students and the Nutrition students to work together. And that has led to some really great experiences for both sets of students and our patients in the clinic as well. But like you mentioned, we've been doing this for decades. We just haven't designated it as community-engaged learning, but every day, our students treat patients in the Dental Hygiene clinic, so they're interacting with people from the community. We go to a lot of other clinics in the community, such as Keystone Dental Care, Healing Hands Health center. We're also affiliated with Remote Area Medical. We've been attending those clinics for years, and some of my most memorable experiences actually are from attending those clinics with students when I first came to ETSU. We work with Healing Hands in a lot of special events that they have, like their dental day for veterans, their children's dental day. We also are able to include a lot of community engagement into our didactic courses as well, though. I'm really lucky that I get to teach the geriatric dental hygiene course and also the community and rural dental health course. Right. And in both of those, the students are pushed out of their comfort zones. I think these are two courses that they are really afraid of. They dread them, to be honest. But at the end of the semester, they're so happy and proud of themselves that they were able to get out into the community, get out of their comfort zone, and learn a lot throughout the process. So in the geriatrics course, they actually work with a long-term-care facility. They go into those facilities, and they perform an in-service for nursing home staff. So they teach the nurses how to clean dentures, how to check the oral cavity for lesions, how to assess the patient as to whether they need a dental exam, those types of things. They also work with a resident who lives at that facility as well, and I think that is a very profound experience for a lot of those students. Many of them have never been to a long-term-care facility. And many of them actually will go back and continue to visit that resident even after the course is completed. And I think that really says a lot for the experience that they have there. In the community and rural dental health class, they actually go out, and each individual student teaches a lesson to a classroom about dental health, and that can be any classroom that they choose from preschool age up to high school, depending on how brave they are and what they want to do. They also work as a group, and they get to choose an underserved population. And so they actually assess the needs of that group. They develop an intervention, and then they assess the success of that intervention afterwards. So it's really great to see them grow and to become confident in themselves and their ability to do those things and to see that they can do anything they want to do. Maybe they don't want to work in private practice forever. They see that maybe they could go out and work in public health or education or some of these other areas. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. What a rewarding experience for the students. Dr. Tabitha Fair Yes. Yeah. Yes. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us about the impact this program has had on the health and well-being of our community and our region over the years. Dr. Tabitha Fair We are really proud of our 55-year history of educating students and providing dental hygiene care to those in the community. I feel like the Dental Hygiene Clinic and Lamb Hall has been so impactful on this community for several reasons. The first is that we are able to provide care to over 1,600 patients each year. Wow. And we provide services such as oral exams, oral cancer screenings, nonsurgical periodontal therapy, fluoride treatments, sealants, X-rays, dental cleanings cost $20, and they are free for ETSU students and anyone over the age of 55. So it's just a wonderful resource for the community. Over the years we've also had the opportunity to open our clinic to various groups by having special clinic days for organizations like the Boys and Girls Club, Little Bucs, and Head Start. And those are always some of my favorite experiences, yeah, because we have the opportunity to help children have a positive experience in the dental office. And it also allows our students to experience that excitement. And helping children to not fear the dentist is so important to their oral health throughout their lives. Dental anxiety is very real, and a lot of the adult patients that we see are still very anxious about coming to the dentist because of negative dental experiences that they had as children. So I think the opportunity to help children have positive experiences is very valuable. Yeah. So our clinic serves many in the community, from children to ETSU students, staff, and faculty to others in the community. But beyond that, our program has been training registered dental hygienists to serve the region for almost 55 years, and that's a lot of dental professionals. So you'll find our graduates in most offices in the region, and we're very proud to see them out there promoting oral health every day. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's just, it's fantastic. And to think of this clinic being on our campus, it's just, it's wonderful. Dr. Tabitha Fair And I'm so excited to do this because a lot of people still don't know that our clinic exists. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So last year I had the opportunity to join you and others in the college as we celebrated the renovation to Lamb Hall, including the Sturgill Family Dental Hygiene Clinic. Tell us how this space has evolved to meet the needs of students and patients. Dr. Tabitha Fair Well, I would just like to say first how beautiful Lamb Hall is now. It's just a gorgeous building. And when I have families who come to campus to see me, they come to visit the Dental Hygiene Clinic, they, they're so impressed by the building. And I always make sure that I take them up to the third and fourth floor, show them those student lounges, the patio, it's just a beautiful space. And yes, I honestly feel like I grew up in Lamb Hall a little bit, honestly, between my dental hygiene degree, my public health degree, yeah, when I came back to teach, I was actually what's considered a full-time temporary employee. So I would work all day, get there about 7:30 and work all day, and then I would go upstairs for public health courses. So sometimes I would be there from 7:30 to 9:30, just depending on the day. And I'm actually in my fifth office in Lamb Hall now. I hope I get to stay put for a little while, but it's just amazing to see the change that has occurred in the building, yeah, and I'll be perfectly honest with you, when I first met with the architect, and he said to me, "We are going to take your dental hygiene student lounge and make it smaller, and they won't have eating areas and things like that." I thought to myself, "Why would you do that?" Right? But now I get it, because now I get to go upstairs. I see all of the collaborative spaces that are there. Right. Right. It's so nice to see our students get out of their little silo and their little area, right, and eat lunch and mingle with other people from our college. So that's, that's been a really nice experience. And they all had to look back at that and say "Okay, they knew what they were doing." I get it. I get it. Why they did that. Yeah. So that's, that's beautiful. And like I said, everyone is always so impressed. And as far as the dental hygiene space, I'm so grateful for the generosity and support of the Sturgill family in working with us to update the dental hygiene space and continue our mission. As part of that project, we were able to renovate our patient reception area and student receptionist workspace to be more efficient and more comfortable as well as purchase new digital X-ray equipment, X-ray mannequins, and new nitrous-oxide equipment. Yeah. All of those things are vital to training our students for the current workforce and will positively impact the educational experience of our students in the treatment that our patients receive. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It's, it's beautiful space. It really is. The Dental Hygiene Program has also had extremely successful job placement and licensure pass rates over the years. Tell us how you and your colleagues prepare our students for success. Dr. Tabitha Fair Thank you for those kind words. It really makes me proud to meet dentists who speak so highly of our graduates, and that happens quite often, which is great. I think there are a lot of factors involved in that success. The first being that we have excellent students; we accept 24 students per year from many strong applicants. They're motivated. They've worked incredibly hard to be accepted into our program, and so they want to do well, and they want to make us proud. We also have dedicated and hardworking faculty who truly care about student success. We are very student-focused, and we want to see them do well, and our faculty go above and beyond every day to guide and mentor these students. I see our clinical coordinators offer extra clinical sessions when students need them. I see our supervising dentists stay after clinical hours to help students in the dental lab. And all of our faculty obviously have posted office hours, but I see the many extra hours that they spend when students are in need, when they need guidance; whether it be about their academics or about personal issues, they're always there for them. And I think at the end of the day, that truly makes a difference. And when I think back to myself, I think of the faculty members who played an important role for me. One of those would be Dr. Charles Faust, who is retiring this year, and I can't thank him enough for all of the guidance that he has given me over the years. He was the program director before I took this position. Wow. Yeah. And so having him available to answer questions and be there for me has meant a lot. The other would be Dr. Debbie Dotson, who retired two years ago, I believe. Yeah, she had been my confidant and mentor and lunch buddy and shoulder to cry on for a really long time. And it's really funny. I remember my very last semester in Dental Hygiene school, the Dental Hygiene Program. My mother came in to get her teeth cleaned, and Dr. Dotson actually was the instructor that day, and she checked my mom, and she made the comment that when I graduate, I should come back and teach with them. And my mom, after we left, she said, "Oh, that was really great. You should really think about that." And I said, "Mom, she says that to everyone's mom. You know, she's just being nice. She didn't actually mean that." And so she really believed in me from the beginning. She taught a lot of our courses that were writing intensive and research based and oral intensive. And so she got me over my fear of public speaking, and she really made me believe in myself and the ability to go pursue a master's degree and later to pursue a Ph.D. So she has always been a great, great mentor. And then Dr. Victor Hopson, he was our supervising dentist at the time. And I will say he was always my biggest cheerleader. I mean, that's a nice thing to have. I was really young when I started teaching Dental Hygiene courses. Yeah. And so I found out much, much later that he would always talk me up to the students and, you know, talk about how qualified I was and how smart he thought I was, you know, and all those things. And while embarrassing, looking back, you know, he, he was being my biggest cheerleader. And he really wanted to make sure that the students knew that I deserved to be there, I think is what he was trying to do. But, you know, those are people that made an impact on me. And if they had not been there for me to encourage me as a student, right, and then as an adjunct faculty member, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today. And so I think having all of those types of faculty members to guide you, that's really important. And I think we still have that, I know we still have that with the people that I see every day. So it's a great example of how exemplary mentors in our professional lives help show us how to be good mentors, right? Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I want to say if Doctors Faust, Dotson, and Hopson are listening, thank you for all you have done for ETSU, and congratulations on your retirements. In your bio, I mentioned that you've been recognized for your commitment to interprofessional education. Why is interprofessional education important for your students and the other health sciences students across ETSU? Dr. Tabitha Fair A few years ago, I was approached about the possibility of some of our students participating in the asynchronous IPE program. And I thought, "What is that? I have no idea what this is." But as I learned more about the program, I was very intrigued and excited for our students to participate. So I went to our senior students at the time, and I explained the program, and I said, "Who would like to participate?" And each year, I've had several students, and each year, it became a little bit more who wanted to participate. And now all of our students are, and that has been a really great progression to see, and I'm so grateful that we have been included because for too long the dental profession has been considered separate from many of the other health professions, and this has been a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn about the other health professions that our colleges have to offer, and also for them to realize the value that they have to a team and build their confidence in their ability to work as a part of that team. I think it's also been valuable for the students from other programs to learn about what dental hygienists do and how we can help improve patient outcomes. I think the reason that we're often seen as separate is the fact that we work in dental offices, and people see that as completely separate. But people, you know, I think would be surprised at how much time we spend on patient education about things like healthy lifestyle factors, nutrition, tobacco cessation, and the fact that oral hygiene also plays an important role in systemic health. The pathogens that cause periodontal disease have implications for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and things like ventilator-associated pneumonia. And I want our students to realize that they can improve a patient's overall health. We aren't limited to scaling teeth and teaching people how to floss. Right. And unfortunately, that's what a lot of people still think of when they think of dental hygienist. But I've been lucky enough to work with the IPE program as a facilitator for the asynchronous program for two years now. And I also serve as our college representative on the IPE working group, and I'm really grateful to have a voice within that group. They've been very welcoming of our students, and they've actively looked at each of the IPE experiences to build on opportunities for the dental hygiene students to participate and contribute. So I appreciate them for that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, that's fantastic. What sets ETSU's Dental Hygiene Program apart from others? Dr. Tabitha Fair I think our program is unique in that we offer a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene. Yeah. A lot of the programs for dental hygiene are still associate degree programs. And while all of those offer fantastic clinical education, I think we're fortunate to be able to offer courses that focus on interprofessional collaboration, writing, research, and communication skills. Our students are known as strong writers, presenters, and communicators, so each year they participate in state table clinic presentations at the Tennessee Dental Hygienist Association annual session. Yeah, they seek out leadership roles in the national association. They participate in research activities, and they participate in community- service activities throughout the region. I think a lot of our students are also very active on campus in different organizations, and I feel like the culture at ETSU encourages that, encourages them to pursue those activities. I meet with students regularly who tell me that from the time they came to ETSU for the first campus tour, that it felt like home. Yeah. And I don't think that all universities can say that. And so my favorite thing that I get to do in this role is participating in the Open House events and meeting with families that are here for their campus tours. Yeah. And they truly, truly love this campus. They want to be a part of the culture, and I think that significantly impacts their experience and their success while they're here. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Do you have a particular student success story that that you'd like to share? Dr. Tabitha Fair There's so many students that I'm proud of. I think, again, like I said, my favorite thing is meeting new students, potential students, and their families. And so I get to know them, and I get to know their backgrounds. And I think there's so many of the students that I could talk about. But one that comes to mind is a student that I interviewed. I met with her in the very beginning, and she came from a very rural background. And it made me think of myself, you know, as a first-generation college student who didn't really have the mentors, maybe to help me along the way, but I got those people here at ETSU, and to see the way that this profession has changed her life has been incredible. She now has a job that she absolutely adores, and she is getting to help people in public health. Yeah. So just to see that progression, it reminded me of myself, to be honest. Yeah. We also have so many other students who have gone on to do things that they love. Some of them teach, some of them work in sales. Yeah. You know, it's just really impressive to see the things that they go out there and do when they leave us, so, that's nice, I've always said my favorite thing about this job is just being able to watch the students grow. And before I took the role of program director, I was the preclinic coordinator. And in that role, I really got to see that from the beginning, you know, from the day that the students showed up, so excited to be in their new scrubs. Right. And they got to open their brand-new cassette of instruments and just be, it's like their birthday, to get to see all of these things, to watch them progress from that to where they are at graduation is just incredible. So I'm proud of all of our students, and I hope that they all know that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for sharing. Finally, what impact do you hope that you've made on your students? Dr. Tabitha Fair That's a really big question. Obviously, I hope they remember all the things that I've tried to teach them in the clinical setting, but much more than that, I hope they remember me as someone who truly cared about them, believed in their dreams, and treated them with respect. And I hope that they will be that for someone else. Yeah. I hope they always remember their why for becoming a dental hygienist so that when they receive a request from a student who wants to come in and shadow or observe them, that they will actually do that and guide that potential student. So I hope they never forget the impact that they also can have on others by encouraging them to pursue their dreams. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Tabitha. I really enjoyed our conversation today. Congratulations to the Dental Hygiene Program for its 55 years of service to our students and our region. And thank you for your 20 years of outstanding service to ETSU and your commitment to our students. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Fair, the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Dr. Brian Cross discusses the past decade of interprofessional education (IPE) at East Tennessee State University and plans to continue evolving the curriculum to train students for team-based care to improve patient outcomes. Cross is Assistant Vice Provost and Director of ETSU's Center for Interprofessional Collaboration. Podcast Transcript: Dr. Brian Cross This thing that has been discussed within the university so much with "Go Beyond,” and we think it's really important to move our students now out into the community and to take these skills as teams and find environments where they can engage patients, communities, families to improve the health. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberley McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "why I teach.” In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Brian Cross, Assistant Vice Provost and Director of the Center for Interprofessional Collaboration at the East Tennessee State University Academic Health Sciences Center. Dr. Cross has 30-plus years of clinical experience in many ambulatory areas, including the Indian Health Service, the VA health system, endocrinology and cardiology, academic practices, and multispecialty private practice medical groups. For most of the last 23 years, Dr. Cross has created advanced collaborative practice environments, mostly in primary care, integrating clinical pharmacy services within both large private practices, as well as academic practice models. Such collaboration will not only greatly assist our students, but it will help those they serve for generations to come. He has been awarded multiple teaching award from colleges of pharmacy, nursing and medicine at multiple universities, and he has spoken on the connection between collaborative practice and learning and training at national and international meetings. In 2018, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, focusing on the bridge between interprofessional learning and collaborative practice. This year, he will be awarded fellowship status at the National Academies of Practice, the only interprofessional group of health care practitioners and scholars dedicated to supporting affordable, accessible, coordinated, quality health care for all. Dr. Cross has been an ardent supporter of the interprofessional education at ETSU, and I look forward to learning more about its progress and its future in our conversation today. Enjoy the show. Dr. Cross, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Brian Cross I've thought about this question for a while because first I listen to the podcast, and so I know that I was supposed to prepare this way. But second, I think this is the kind of question that causes you to pause and ask, like, so what do I really think to the answer to this question? So I actually wrote down the answer because I want to make sure that what I was thinking is clear. Yes. And so what I would say to myself back then is that teaching is not simply giving students facts that they give back to you on an exam. It is the connection between inspiration, challenge, wonderment, and giving enough time and space for them to be able to answer the “why" questions more than the "what" questions. And that learning is a journey, not a destination, that should be filled with joy and fun. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, Dr. Cross, as we get started, why don't we start with you sort of telling us what is IPE and how does it function? Dr. Brian Cross Yeah, I think that's an important foundational kind of… So what is this and why are we doing this? I think one of the things to appreciate is this: This word has probably been in existence for 40 years, started in Europe, Canada. The United States, was actually slow to kind of take this this word up. For the people who do work that is called interdisciplinary, I would tell them this is a similar kind of thing. Interprofessional specifically came out of the health professions. And so that word is typically aligned with health professions, either practice or education. But at its core, it comes from a report that came from the from the U.S. government called "Crossing the Quality Chasm.” And specifically, it took them 250 pages, but basically what they said after they were done is that we should train together as health professions and we should practice together as health professions. Fast forward 15 years, a second thing is published from The Lancet that says medical error is the number three reason for mortality in the United States. That kind of ups the game on… It's clear that the system that we currently send our graduates into is not one that is open, let's say, for team-based processes of care consistently. Right. And so at its foundation, what we are trying to do in interprofessional education, and then preparing them for interpersonal practice, is is breaking down these walls of hierarchy in practice and explaining to them the value, the reason, and the data that supports team-based care to improve outcomes of their patients, their families and the communities that they live in. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us about the colleges that are involved in IPE at ETSU. Dr. Brian Cross As we said, the word interprofessional kind of is aligned with health professions. And so the educational process here at ETSU is specifically focused on the five colleges in the Academic Health Sciences Center— so the College of Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences. Within that is approximately 18 different programs that are touched in some form or fashion by the IPE program here at ETSU. It's great. And all of this takes place in Bishop Hall, right on the VA campus. All of the face-to-face gatherings. And Bishop Hall, we jokingly say, that 2018 was sort of the “big bang" of IPE at ETSU. 2018 was when the building officially opened. This is a state-of-the-art simulation building, about 36,000 square feet, two full floors of simulated space that is both ambulatory in nature. So there are clinic rooms that look like a primary care office, an apartment living space, and then high-fidelity spaces like an emergency room and ICU, those kinds of things, as well as soon-to-be nine debrief spaces, where after this simulated experience, there is a safe space for the team of students to come and kind of debrief what just happened to them from an educational process. It's great. And you have community volunteers who participate in this process. We do. So within those days when there are, when the teams are going through this training simulation, we will Zoom active, engaged teams across the Tri-Cities, both in academic practices as well as private practices, around particular themes. So this coming spring, we will be bringing folks in from the community specifically to talk about communication and conflict resolution within their practices. And so while the students are going through that training, we then bring in a group of practitioners to talk about the very same stuff that they were just going through that day. That's great. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Your bio focused on your work in collaborative practice environments and interprofessional education, or IPE, as we call it. But your career began in pharmacy. Tell us about your background and how it has led you to your current role at ETSU. Dr. Brian Cross Yeah, it sort of reminds me of the Grateful Dead, song, "What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been.” Right. So I grew up in West Virginia. I have a B.S. in pharmacy, which is a degree that's not even offered any longer. I did a residency in Boston. I went to the Indian Health Service in Arizona. That's where I met my wife on a very small San Carlos Apache reservation in Central Eastern Arizona. And then did a stint in the VA in Florida, then went back for my PharmD at UT in Memphis, did a second residency at the Med in in Memphis, and then joined faculty at the University of Tennessee in family medicine and primary care. Mm hmm. After that, moved up here to Northeast Tennessee, took a collaborative position with a large medical group here in the Tri-Cities, in collaboration with the University of Tennessee. And then in 2010, came to ETSU and joined the College of Pharmacy. I will say that I think those early years, being in environments where we had to collaborate because of the nature that we found ourselves in, say, in the Indian Health Service, we were in a single-wide trailer and the team total was five people. Everybody had to be good at a lot of different things. I think it made me appreciate the importance and value of team. But I will say I think I was more selfish in figuring out how I would be a more important member of the team then. And only as I went through more environments and realized that nobody was supposed to be more important than any other person on the team. And I guess I say all that to say I'm only now at a place where my head and heart are in the right place that I could be leading something like what we're trying to accomplish with IPE now. It's great. So it's clear that there's been a shift toward a greater appreciation for interprofessional practice and education among health care professionals. In what ways have you seen that manifested in health care and also education settings? Dr. Brian Cross I'd say in the early days, so and I'm not even sure what that means anymore. But, you know, 20- or 30-plus years ago, where collaboration was happening more commonly was in the clinical spaces and so on rounds or in the clinic or things like that, learners of different backgrounds may be accidentally in the same space and maybe accidentally learn from one another. Fast forward a while. There's some government reports that say we need to do better both in practice and education. And then, like with most things, regulations come down and accreditation standards begin to change. And you then have standards that say you must do X, Y and Z. And then you begin to see the training moving into the curricular spaces instead of just in the clinical spaces. And so now I think our challenge is creating the bridge between the foundational curriculum like we are trying to establish here, with a bridge from that to the clinical space and being intentional in taking the team training we do in a simulated environment, making sure that that stays with them and moves into the clinical spaces consistently. Does that help? It does. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So related to that, tell us how IPE has developed here at ETSU. Dr. Brian Cross Yeah. IPE is a strange thing to talk about in our country. It developed over time. For ETSU, the journey, we're now in our 10th year or so. So in 2013, a former vice president and the deans in the Health Sciences Center kind of came together and said, "we need to do something.” That led to a small cohort of students going through a volunteer process, and we began to refine experiences and curriculum and things like that. And then over that journey of now ten years, moving from something that was a volunteer, small group of students to now a group of students of more than 700, and faculty of more than 90 or so from all five colleges. and the Academic Health Sciences Center. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So will you tell us a bit more about the current IPE processes and models that are in place here at ETSU and how those help prepare students who are going to work in health care? Dr. Brian Cross Sure. Right now we have two foundational models. The first one is the synchronous model. That is an on-ground, in person two-year, four semester experience. The four core domains of interprofessional education are the thematic processes by which we do all of our teaching. So on each day there is a theme. Those domains are communication, roles and responsibilities, teams and teamwork, and values and ethics. The second year is sort of the application, if you will. These same teams of students with faculty facilitators follow a patient longitudinally over the year, and then we end the entire experience with a formal reflection period where each of the teams give a pseudo-TED Talk to the other teams about the patient and the team process that they’ve learned. The second model that we used beginning in 2019 is the asynchronous online. So this is for learners who may never be physically in Johnson City, but they still receive training through our online process. We incredibly lucky that we opened this model in 2019 and learned in a year what we needed in 2020 when our synchronous model went to online. It was still synchronous and people gathered real time. But we used Zoom for all of the gatherings. And unlike many IPE programs in the country, we actually expanded our program during those two years that we were online and not face to face and actually grew by about 150 students at that time. In another six months or so, we hope to open a third model, and I think we'll talk about that maybe a little bit in the future. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, so tell us a bit about what the challenges and opportunities have been for faculty and students as you've developed the IPE curriculum and the models. Dr. Brian Cross I think the challenges would be not a surprise. So when you are trying to teach students from five different colleges, schedules are an amazing task. So to gather students from five different programs, from five different colleges, 18 different programs into a common space for a two-hour period of time to do something requires an inordinate amount of gathering around tables and taking people to lunch and convincing people of value. I think the next thing is the convincing of value of it within and inside of a curriculum. And I think the third thing is how is it valued at the faculty workload standpoint? So that when we are asking faculty to be faculty facilitators in these small groups, so these are groups of 8 to 10 students and they are with the same group for an entire year. It's not a huge ask, but for all faculty I think workload is always a major issue. And so we have spent the last several years integrating the ask into the workload model for all of the colleges. And so now these are, they are given credit for teaching just like they would for anything else. I would say those are the major obstacles that most people describe. I think the benefits are the ability for both faculty and students to come together in a common space and learn from, with, and about students and faculty from other places. And therefore realize, just like all the conversations that are like this, we have way more in common than we don’t. But we don't realize that if we don't come and have these conversations. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Do you have a favorite story about a student who seemed to really benefit from this model — that being able to observe that sort of aha moment? Dr. Brian Cross I don’t have one, but I would say I would I have a collection or collective. I continue to get, as we have graduates now heading out into the world, these emails and texts that will come in and say, it’s not that I didn't realize the value and importance of this when I was in it. but we were in simulated environments, and so I just want you to hear that all of this stuff that we were doing, I'm now in residency, I am now in practice, and all of these things that you were planting, I keep seeing them returning. And the things that many people will describe as soft skills, I’m clearly realizing these are actually the foundational skills that make me a better clinician. I say to all of the students, "Our job isn't to make you a pharmacist or a physician or a nurse, etc.. It's to make you the best version of whatever that thing is that your home college is making.” So I guess that's my favorite story. We do have several marriages that have come out of the IPE. So we have … I wouldn't claim to be an interprofessional matchmaker, but we do have some interesting stories over the years of people coming together and still having a marriage and family gathering. And I think that's kind of humorous as well. Sort of teamwork taken to … Expanding that concept of teamwork. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us what's on the horizon for IPE at ETSU. Dr. Brian Cross So one of the things I mentioned when we were talking about models is starting in the fall of 2024, we will open the third model, which is a self-directed, online one semester focused specifically at the undergrad learner level. And we are excited to announce that over the next two years of that being open, we will have now engaged all of our BSN students in the College of Nursing, the largest college in nursing in the state of Tennessee. And it has been a major task to get all of those students accounted for in this training. So that's one of the things that's happening curricular-wise. It's fantastic. We're also really excited about being involved in more programing and things on Main Campus. So things like the Basler Chair that has just been announced here in the last week or so on main campus. The chair this year brings a very interesting and unique background of the bridge between the performing arts and healing. And so we are engaging her in a couple of different events where we will bring students from arts and sciences and the health sciences into a common space to have conversation about that. And then a similar event that we will host with faculty and practitioners in the community around the same kind of discussion of does the arts have a role to play in the healing? Yes. A couple of other things on the horizon. This is our 10th anniversary, so we're going to have a graduation ceremony the first week of March. This is going to be the largest graduation we've ever had. Probably upwards of 300 students will come through that event. Congratulations. And we're also really excited that our featured speaker this year is one of our initial faculty from ten years ago who is now at the University of Michigan and returning to give kind of a just from where I've come to where I am, and kind of coming back to the roots of where he started and the initial faculty group. We hope to have all of them at that event and sort of have some wonderful pictures and just some time to reminisce about all of the stuff that's happened in IPE in the last ten years. Yes. I think the last thing that I would mention is just that bridge we were talking about and this, this thing that has been discussed within the university so much with go beyond. And we think it's really important to move our students now out into the community and to take these skills as teams and find environments where they can engage patients, communities, families to improve the health. And so we are with small projects looking for opportunities to take. In the same way we started IPE. So in a small way, there's a couple of things that we’ve done so far engaging in RAM. So having some of our interprofessional student teams involved in service to the underserved. And then there is a model that has been in practice now for about four years called ETSU Health Bridge, and this is engagement we use a interprofessional group of students to provide service to the unhoused in Johnson City. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What has been the response from our community partners in the program that we've offered here for our students in the ways that we're preparing them in this space? Dr. Brian Cross I'm glad you asked that. So one of the things that I forgot to mention that is really important is when we gather in Bishop Hall several times a year, we will Zoom in community teams that are in practice. Yes. And we think it's really important for the students to meet real teams and we don't pick them on purpose so they'll say this. But we hear them say a lot is we wish we had received training like this when we were going through a process. We have learned this kind of on the street, but our lives would have been so much easier if there was an intentional curriculum to create this foundational skill set before we were in practice. And so I think every time, so we've had leaders from the Chamber come to our building and do team training. I think it's reassuring that every time we engage with folks in the community, there is a clear realization there's a need for this. And the question is, why are we not more intentional in it from a community standpoint, from a nation standpoint? I think this is just another example of these feel like soft skills and things that people assume we just do naturally. Right. I think we continue to see that they don’t necessarily come naturally to everybody. Right. Thank you. Finally, what impact do you hope that you have made on your students? So when we begin every IPE event, I ask the students to make sure that their heads and their hearts are aligned before we go into our training. I think it's really important that both of those organs are used and aligned in care. We talk about those numbers that we recite all the time. 34727, 250,000. That's the mantra of ETSU, IPE, which just simply is them being understanding, being able to understand why we’re doing this. And that is for the people who are harmed in our current health care system from medical errors as a direct result of lack of communication in the team. I hope that they understand that care from a team is always better outcomes for patients. And then I, I hope the last thing is that, that every member of the team appreciates and realizes the importance that every other member of the team is equally valuable to the team. The picture that I would draw for them, is this a round table, not a rectangular table. There is no head. Everyone has an appropriate voice. We say many times in our training, if you see something, then I hope you have the confidence within and the trust within the team, that you feel like your voice can speak up and say something about harm that you're afraid is about to happen. Yeah. Hope. I think our challenge to them is being the change agents of a system that still needs a significant amount of work. And so what I, what I hope what we've made on them is giving them confidence that they can speak up in a system that still needs some work. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes, that’s wonderful. Thank you, Brian. I really enjoyed our conversation and I appreciate your commitment to interprofessional education at ETSU and the way that you inspire students and faculty with the clear passion you have for this work. Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Cross, the ETSU Center for Interprofessional Collaboration, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot Edu slash provost.  You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to your podcasts.

In this episode, Dr. Josh Reid, Associate Professor of English, talks about how he engages his students with classical and early modern literature. He also shares his favorite books of the year. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Josh Reid There's a certain way that encountering these stories from the past help us read our present. As Emily Dickinson puts it, Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. So that kind of slant-wise approach of going to the past to encounter our present is an effective way. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Josh Reid, Associate Professor of English and Associate Department Chair in the Department of Literature and Language. Dr. Reid earned his bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech and master's degrees in English and art history, as well as a Ph.D. in English, from the University of Kentucky. He joined the ETSU faculty in 2012. His areas of specialization include early modern literature, Italian romance epic, literature and visual art, translation studies, and textual editing. Dr. Reid has authored numerous publications and is the general editor for "The Manchester Spenser," Manchester University Press' monograph series on the life and works of Edmund Spenser. In addition to his research and writing, Dr. Reid is committed to teaching excellence. In fact, he is a 2019 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award. Enjoy the show. Dr. Reid. Welcome to the show. Dr. Josh Reid Thanks so much for having me. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Josh Reid I would say to myself that you're not alone. When I started in 2012, I was a lecturer at ETSU at Kingsport, which is a wonderful place. I love the faculty, students, and staff, faculty, staff there, so shout-out to them, but it is a bit separated from the main campus and from the department. So, and the classroom itself can feel quite insular. It's wonderful to have control over the class that you have. But also you feel like you're alone there and in that space. And so learning to reach out to the broader teaching community and what it has to offer and the resources that it has has been transformative for me. So, for instance, working with, and cross discipline too, in my department and in other departments and colleges as well. So for instance, Drs. Amy Johnson, Patrick Brown, Alison Barton, some of whom have been on this podcast, and Dr. Susan Epps, we worked together on an instructional development grant to start the Conference for High-Impact Teaching Practices, or CHIIPs. Yeah. And so every August, there's this teaching conversation that happens before the start of it, and that's a way of sharing and opening up the classroom borders. And just recently for me, just this year, I've started co-teaching. So that was not something that I've done before. It feels, you know, it's kind of hard to make that leap and to open that classroom and that control. And it's been a transformative experience. I'm teaching with Dr. Chelsea Wessels in my department, my film colleague. We're teaching a class on monsters in film and literature. And I'm learning so much from what she's bringing to the classroom. She's wonderful at group work in ways that I'm not. In assessment, she's a much faster grader, so that's improved my grading speed as well. And so I just wish I had started that sooner. And so and then, you know, you're not alone in the classroom, either. Right. Your students are there, and they are teaching resources waiting to be tapped and utilized. It's a learning community that you can start from day one, and they have something to teach each other and us over the process of the class. So it's, yeah, we're not alone. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Such great advice, really comforting and a nice way to think of it. Can you tell us a bit more about your background and how you became interested in teaching literature? Dr. Josh Reid Yeah, so I was a townie in Blacksburg, Virginia, so went to Virginia Tech, and I came in wanting to write fantasy novels and to be a journalist actually. I wanted one of those options, to be a writer. And then I you know, this happens. This is kind of the same trajectory as many teachers. Yeah. I was in a class that just opened my eyes to what was possible. It was Dr. Tony Colaianne's medieval and Renaissance class. Yeah. And just there was an electricity, kind of magic, an ensorcellment to what he was doing, the way he was leading us, the way he was opening us up to the text, to the material. It was ways of writing and thinking that I hadn't encountered before. And I wanted to, I thought, this is something I want to replicate. And then I took another one of his classes at a very difficult point in my life and realized that literature can be both a solace as well as entertainment, right? It can provide solace and entertain. So in my senior year, I went to that professor and asked him, you know, what made him decide to become a teacher of literature. And he said that, you know, Josh, I these are these texts have given so much to me that I want to give them something in return. And so I thought and so that's basically what he's like, a caretaker of these texts in the classroom. And that's what I've been trying to do ever since. That's kind of how the quest started. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Are there specific teaching methods or approaches that you find particularly effective in engaging students with classical and early modern literature? Dr. Josh Reid Oh yeah, because it's a challenge, especially students coming in like, "Why are we reading 'Beowulf'?" "Why are we reading Homer? Dante." Yeah. So I tried to emphasize both what is foreign and what is familiar. And so in terms of what is foreign, this is an opportunity to be kind of like time travelers to a distant place, a foreign land in a foreign time, sometimes even a foreign language. Yeah. And as much as possible, I try to get them exposure to that, the materials of that time. So we use maybe for instance, online facsimiles and online editions. I actually have personal copies of some of these texts. So I will bring in, for instance, a 17th century English translation of an Italian romance epic when we're doing early modern printing or talking about it, and to feel that text, not just the text, but the texture of it. Yeah. The rag pulp, that's different from the way we make paper now. The way it smells, the way the text is set up so different from the way we're familiar with it. There's something again, it's something ensorcelling about it, something magical about it. But also I try to find what's familiar and try to engage with that. So, you know, Spenser's House of Pride in "The Faerie Queene," this is a 1591 poem, the way that it has these kind of, it's a culture of surface and preening surface. And students see a connection to the social media constructions that they make. We make, we connect, we find out how these texts are the foundation for what they read and value now, from Harry Potter to The Witcher video games, and I try to have fun in class. We bring in memes, we do serious play, we, I try to make connections to areas that they're familiar with. So we're talking about an epic simile. They're familiar with CGI and movies. Well, what about SGI, a simile-generated image? And so, and maybe a lot of dad jokes mixed in makes it go down there. But, and I have a background in art history, as you mention, too, and so I like to bring in illustrations and art as an entry point for those texts. Yeah. But through it all, I'm trying to recapture a questioning state of mind. So, you know, Neil Postman has this great quote, an unfortunate quote about education that often students come in as question marks and come out as periods. And so how do we open up the questioning again, where they're looking at these texts and they find it has something to offer them through the questions that they ask and recapturing that sense of wondering about them. And so in a related way actually, and this connects to the you're not alone, we've started this Appalachian premodernist group that -- this is Dr. Brian Maxson, Dr. Julie Fox-Horton, Dr. Crofts, and Dr. Michael Fowler -- we've all worked together, and now it's over 144 strong of regional faculty, students, and kind of international now, too, who are all dedicated to promoting premodern studies. So we bring in speakers to campus. We talk about teaching strategies and ways to reach students. And this semester, the monsters course I mentioned was part of that initiative. We decided the four of us are now teaching monster courses in art history, history, literature, and we have students that are, who we are sharing between the classes. So it's a way, again, of using a community to kind of make these texts live for students. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What's the most rewarding part of teaching for you? Oh, well, I mean, it's probably a cliche and probably what everyone says, but sometimes truisms are true. It's that spark, that spark of learning and discovery that students have when they surprise themselves. Yeah. So I love teaching general education courses because I often have students coming in who just want that green check on Degree Works -- right -- for this survey that they didn't want to take coming in. And they have a lot of trepidation about writing essays and about reading literature with a capital L. They have what you might call a fixed mindset about it. They think that that's not their thing. "I'm not good at English," they might say at the beginning. Right. But every semester there are these kind of learning sparks that happen because of the nature of the material we teach. Literature speaks to us all; it reads us all. It is, everyone has an entry point to it, and everyone has something to say about it. And the more diverse viewpoints, the better. And as soon as they start realizing that they have something to say about the material, that it's not just something inert that they're hearing me talk about, that they actually can contribute to the class content -- yeah -- there's a there's kind of a shift with the student and with the class community in general. So just like a couple of weeks ago, we, I learned something new in terms of a nuance about John Donne's "The Flea," which I've been reading and teaching for years. And this was something a student said in class. And there's just like this ripple of recognition through the class of, "Wow, this is, and we're learning from each other."  As one student said once, the best part of class was, we're learning from each other. And, and it was, there was a, they didn't even mention me in it. So they're part of the content, they have something to bring, and I get so much out of that. I'm kind of like almost a pedagogical vampire. Like the more they bring, the more sustenance I get. And I had a mentor once tell me that we're our best selves when teaching. And I feel that in those moments, I'm never more present, I'm never more engaged, I'm never more attentive and receptive as in those moments when students are, and I feel like students feel that way as well. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle As you know, ETSU's annual Festival of Ideas brings speakers and guests to our campus to connect the campus and community through conversations and dialogue. In fact, you've been part of the planning committee for Festival of Ideas before. In what ways do you believe the study of literature, especially classics, contributes to our understanding of contemporary society? Dr. Josh Reid Yeah, and I'm hearing Mitch Albom is coming next in 2024. So yeah, I've just loved what the Festival of Ideas has brought to campus, I think it's been since 2019, and we've had some unforgettable speakers. I still think of Doris Kearns Goodwin when she came, Mandy Harvey. I got to bring my children to that. They still talk about it. And with election season coming around the bend, I think a lot about last year's last February's Pantsuit Politics, and their advice for navigating a kind of acrid world of partisanship. Yeah. So and I love how, you know, you have this kind of featured speaker too, but how it radiates out into the roundtables that we have with the campus and community and then outward. Yeah. And so I think that's again, that's a model for, for what we're talking about here in terms of what literature can say about culture. And I think literature has a central role into how we understand and operate in society. Jonathan Gottschall has this wonderful book called "The Storytelling Animal," and he says that we should really be called homo fictus because we always tell stories. We process the world through the stories that we tell. Yeah. I mean, obviously we start as children. I mean, my kids just this morning, we were trying to get into the van quickly, and they started talking about, well, a zombie's chasing us. And, you know, that kind of fixing that in a kind of associate narrative, we all get a new sense of urgency and having fun doing it. But we don't stop telling stories. We continue to tell them -- yeah -- about our lives, about each other. When we pass away, we are the stories that we tell about each other. And so given the centrality of stories, it makes sense that studying the oldest stories that we have and most impactful ones that that's essential. You know, they say that history is what happened, but literature is what happens. It taps into what's human in us and what drives us and what we continue to do. Homer is new every morning, but nothing's as old as yesterday's tweet is another way of putting it. And studies have shown that fiction can help improve our empathy because we're walking in another person's shoes from another culture, another time period, another gender, another perspective. They can provide solace and healing through what's called bibliotherapy. In fact, when we were just coming into the COVID pandemic, we had a poetry Zoom event, and President Noland came to that, and it was just reading these poems, many of them classical, helped us provided some resilience and some solace in that moment too. And even a disparate field, seemingly disparate fields, like medicine benefit from stories as well. There's fields like narrative medicine that have shown that the more attention given to analyzing stories and to writing stories by health care practitioners, that their health outcomes have actually improved from that. Yeah. And so it's because the skills that you get from reading and analyzing literature become the skills that you use to analyze and process the world around you. And I'll give just two quick examples from my classes. My monsters class, for instance, we've been looking at a lot about how monsters, how we create monsters through a language of dehumanization and othering. And my students automatically are seeing that happen today in political arena and in, coming out of conflicts. And so they're making that connection, even if these are distant texts from them. And then recently in British literature, we looked at the moment in "Paradise Lost" when Satan enters into Eden and how when he sees Eden, he doesn't see it as a place that he can be in harmony with. He sees it as a place he can dominate, not something he can see as his domicile or home, but something that he sees that he can extract from and take and I had a student, I think the student is a changemaker and interested in environmental issues. She saw that kind of satanic gaze as kind of the seed for the kind of imbalance with their environments that we're dealing with today. So the seeds of all our woe are in these classic texts, and students, when they encounter them, they see a kind of mirror on our contemporary event, and there's a certain way that encountering these stories from the past help us read our present, as Emily Dickinson puts it, Tell the truth, but tell it slant, and so that kind of slant-wise approach of going to the past to encounter our present is an effective way. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I had the pleasure of participating in a fun event that you organized last year, the Milton Marathon. Could you tell us a bit about that and the ways that it engages our students and the campus community with literature? Dr. Josh Reid Thanks so much for asking about it, and thank you again for coming to it last time. It was fun; thank you. Yeah, it was in November 2022; it happens every two years in even years. And you know, I love hearing, I've heard a few ask, "Is it happening this year?" So it will happen next year. Those listening, please come. Yes. In November 2024. But it was just wonderful seeing President Noland and you and our Dean in College of Arts and Sciences, Joe Bidwell, all in a row opening the poem -- yes -- for us. So this is a public reading of Milton's "Paradise Lost," his 10,565-line work of Biblical fanfiction, the greatest work of Biblical fanfiction ever. And my students in my Milton in His Age class help organize it, promote it. And it's a wonderful experience for them. They're coming up with well, here's a bookmark. I don't know if you have this one. Oh, nice. Yeah. And then they make bookmarks. They create short films to promote it. They write poems and do art. In fact, I had two students publish the poems that they wrote from that experience. It's something about Milton that just unleashes their creativity. And so they put on this event. It's a one-day event. It takes about nine and a half hours to read through the whole poem. But everyone is contributing. The whole community is coming out, both campus and abroad. It's become a kind of a homecoming for former students, former Milton Marathoners, who I had some come down from Ohio last time. Right. We had about 350 come to the event. It's just wild. It's a good example of what we were talking about earlier, is that these classical texts still have life. Right. And we can reanimate them if we find the right approach. And Milton works particularly well in this kind of oral format, reading it out loud because he was blind when he composed a poem, so he sculpted it in sound. So in some ways we're recomposing the poem as we read it. And there's something about that Miltonic blank verse, even if you're not understanding every word that he's saying, I don't understand every word he's saying, that just captivates you. I've looked out and seen individuals in the audience that just stay there for an hour just listening. Yes. And so and it's -- oh, yeah -- and it's I think it's a perfect example of, you know, the QEP has been emphasizing this going beyond the classroom. And this is an initiative that is birthed in the classroom from the content of the class. But it's something that they put out into the world. And when you build it, they come. And I just really want to applaud the ETSU community, my department, as well as everyone here, because the kind of numbers we get for an event like this is unheard of for Milton Marathons. Yeah. In fact, I put in for a Guinness Book of World Records for it, but they came back and said it was too specific. So, but it was, but it says everything about the kind of way that it's been embraced by this community. So it's, I can't wait to see what fall 2024 will bring. That's outstanding. I was thinking you're going to need a bigger room. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, exactly. Well, and you could probably spend the whole podcast talking about this, but what are some lessons from Milton that still resonate today? Dr. Josh Reid That's a fantastic question. There's, I feel like every time I teach him they're new lessons that I learn along the way. But I'll say that, you know, I mentioned, for instance, the something that I've seen more and more because I'm thinking more and more about these issues, I already mentioned the Satan example and with my student the changemaker is is that he's a wonderful early poet dealing with these issues of how we respond to our environment and what we take from it. And he, another example that I didn't, that I mentioned Satan, but there's another example of a demon named Mammon, right, wealth, and he's building Pandemonium, which is a word Milton made up, means all demons. And he's building this home for them, and it's in hell, and he's extracting it from the earth. And it's this wounding process that's compared to kind of like the creation of Adam because he's digging out, spacious, out of this spacious wound, he's digging out ribs of gold. But Milton is criticizing this process as something that is extractive in nature, that it's taking from the earth, and it's damaging it. And my students often think of things like mountaintop removal, for instance, because mountaintops don't grow back. Yeah. And it's, and opposed to that, he gives us an example of Adam and Eve living in harmony with the environment. So how does one live in a space? How does one live within it? How does one thrive within it? That's one thing I often think about, too. But he's such a powerful advocate for liberty, liberty of thought, liberty of expression, his prose work Areopagitica was kind of foundational for our First Amendment. The Founding Fathers found that. And so he is his first itself, he says, is liberated from rhyme. He's a poet that is insists on us taking ourselves seriously and for us to take our liberty seriously and the importance of that and to not take what we've heard and what we've received from what just because of where we were born or where we grew up receiving that for truth, we have to kind of earn it ourselves. Yeah. That's something I've taken from him as well. And finally, and this is I always find this is a beautiful moment in "Paradise Lost" is that we learn from Satan that hell can be a state of mind. You can take it with you wherever you go. He takes it with him to Eden, which is why he can't live within it. But at the end of it, even in the tragedy of Adam and Eve being expelled, they learn that paradise, that you can have paradise within you too. Happier, still. Happier far. And it's a sense of that, you know, we, our state of mind is something that we can construct. And sometimes in that state of mind is something we construct through things like reading, literature, through consuming it. Milton is very fond of digestion metaphors and and eating and changing through what you eat. And in many ways I think he thinks of his works as something we eat, and we mull over, and we are changed through it. So that's a few, those are a few items. I mean, I could go on and on. I'm sure. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you. Excellent. Do you have a favorite lecture or a subject that you teach? Oh, that's hard. That's almost like picking a favorite child. I've been very fortunate in Literature and Language to get to teach a lot of different courses like European and British Literature Surveys, Bible is Literature, Literature and Medicine, I really enjoyed teaching that, Milton in His Age, as we've mentioned, a Renaissance grad course, Literature, Ethics, and Values, the monsters course. But I guess I if I had to pick one, I think it's a Dante course that I've offered three times now. It's a kind of replica of that Dante course that I took as an undergrad at Virginia Tech that meant so much for me. Yeah. And from that professor meant so much for me, too. And I just try to replicate that experience. They read Dante's "Divine Comedy," the "Inferno," "Purgatorio," "Paradiso," so hell, purgatory, heaven. We go through it twice with two different translations. So I get to work with students on what translation means and how that affects the text. We also look at illustrations. The Reece Museum has a full suite of Salvador Dali illustrations, so they can look at those and other illustrators as well. In fact, last time in 2021, I worked with Spenser Brenner, the wonderful Spenser Brenner, on doing a an exhibit on Dante to celebrate his cultural impact. And we had a little "Inferno" reading, kind of like a little Milton Marathon. We call it the Dante Dash. Yeah. So and I find that that's the course that I think students have been responding the most to. There was a Hozier -- Do you like that album, that that artist Hozier? I don't know the artist; Oh, "Take Me to Church." That's one of his songs. Yes, yes. So he made a new album called I think it's "Unreal Unearth." And I got so many emails from former students because it's based on the "Inferno." Oh I didn't know that. Yeah. And it's so wonderful. I'm going to use it next in class, but it just showed the kind of impact that that text had on them. There's something about the journey Dante's making -- yeah -- that connects with our journeys and our stories going back to what Gottschall says and that it can be a guide for us, just as Virgil was a guide for Dante. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I'm certain that I have shared this with you, but since I was an English major undergrad, Dante's "Inferno" was one of my favorite works. Yeah, it still speaks. "Canterbury Tales," Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is the other, but Dante's "Inferno" was an impactful work for an undergraduate student. It's unforgettable. Dr. Josh Reid Yeah. Yes, it really is. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I am always seeking good book recommendations. And so since I have an English professor here as a guest, I have to ask you, what are you reading now, and what have been your favorite books or book that you've read in 2023? Dr. Josh Reid So, well, the joke here is that English professors don't have time to read what they want. And so that, well, we have this list that we're accumulating that we'll be able to read when we retire. But we, and you know, I have, I'm very fortunate to have a job where I get to reread and teach texts that I love every day. But so I don't get it because I'm an early modernist, I don't read as many contemporary texts. That said, I've been able to fit some in. I'm still reading right now the kind of rereading and reading the works of Jeff VanderMeer because he came to campus. I can't believe we brought him in, this New York bestselling Jeff VanderMeer, the Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative, and Dr. Jesse Graves, thanks to him bringing in Jeff VanderMeer to speak and talk about his work. He's one of my favorite living authors. So I you know, after that, he came in October, I've been kind of revisiting his work. And so I'm reading right now one of his wonderful, harrowing novellas called "The Strange Bird." So it's part of his Borne universe. And I think it's going be on AMC. It's been optioned for AMC. So someday down the line you can see it on television. But he writes these strange, wondrous, kind of weird fiction they call it about a kind of possible future, and they're very environmentally focused these texts are, and "The Strange Bird" in particular has a lot to say about the way we treat animals and about the resilience of the environment and how it will live on. Even if it's, if it's damaged, it will live on. So those are very powerful. And the, in terms of the best book I've read in 2023, I mean, there's probably a lot of people would say this so it's not a surprise, but I have to plug it. If I get an opportunity, it has to be Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead." Yeah. It's the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. And if anyone hearing this has not read it, give it a try. You have to, I think, obligated to because it's, you know, a wonderful author, of course. But this is a master work, I think a modern classic, built off a classic, "David Copperfield." "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens. And it's it takes place in our region. In fact, I was just driving home for Thanksgiving, and you drive through, and we drive through Jonesville in Virginia. And that's where he's growing up. You can see locations that she used, and he's traipsing around eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia. But it's, there's just something about - I think you've been reading it too -- I read it. Yeah. Yeah. And there's just something about that narrative voice, that demon's. Narrative voice. It's, you're just instantly enthralled. You're connected to him, you're rooting for him to get this kind of exit velocity from the opioid crisis surrounding him; even as it pulls him down, you're just hoping that he can get through it. And it says a lot about our region. It says a lot about the universal human struggle, really just beautifully written too. And if you're into English and have read Charles Dickens, then it's even more wonderful seeing how she's layered on and adapted his the characters and the plots from that novel too -- yeah -- but you don't need to have read "David Copperfield" too; ideally, maybe read "Demon Copperhead" and then go back to "David Copperfield." So you like that one as well? Yes, I did. But I found myself in reading the text laughing and crying at the same time. Yes. You don't think is possible, but also finding the need to read passages out loud because they were so beautifully written that I wanted to hear them. Oh, that's that's lovely; that's a wonderful way to in speaking of strategies for classical texts -- yeah -- listening to them, there's something about making it auditory. Yeah. And hearing the language, tasting it, and the crying and the laughing. That's definitely that, I had those experiences as well. Yeah, yeah. Those are the best texts that can do that, can give you that diversity of emotion in the same moment. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So I have to ask, this might be a hard question, but again, since I have an English professor here, if you had to name the top three or four books that you think every college student should experience or read during the college years, what might make that list? Dr. Josh Reid I'm going to give a terrible answer to this because I think every every English faculty member would give a different list and would probably give a better list because I was I think, so what I decided to do is lean into me. So this is probably not going to be surprising here already hearing my answers so far, is these are texts that, yes, they are difficult. Yes, initially they don't seem like something that students would be receptive to on day one, but they have been the most transformative to me and the most transformative way, have transformed my way of thinking. And when students give them a try and fully commit to the experience, they, they come out changed on the other end, and, you know, to adapt C.S. Lewis, I've never met someone who has fallen out of love with these texts. Sometimes it's harder to fall in love. It's a longer courtship period. So these would, of course, be it would be Dante's "Divine Comedy," which you you said you loved Dante's "Inferno." Right. And Milton's "Paradise Lost." I still say this is Milton's world, we're just living in it. And then it's kind of an oddball, bizarre one. I, well, not so much given my experience. Spenser's "Faerie Queene." Yeah. So again, these might be texts that one needs a guide to get through or encouragement to get through. But I've still met students who read these on their own and come to me and have found something out of them. And they're kind of standing for these texts. Yeah. So I have to give a, I guess an answer that's personal to me. I mean, that's been my experience with them. And I really again, I haven't met anyone who that who has taken the journey with them, who hasn't had their capacities enlarged in some way by -- right -- by that experience. It's a great list. But yeah, it's not that contemporary. Others can write in and disagree with those. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's right. Exactly. Finally, Josh, what impact do you hope that you've made on your students? I really hope that I've made them more fully themselves after my courses. I always say to them that we don't just read literature. Literature reads us, they find us. You know, if you're open to it, you're asking the questions. As a student, you're open to the experience. The literature finds us where we are in the story, in our ongoing story of our life, and can help us actualize our potential and take us places if we're receptive to that message. So I'll give a recent example. I had a student, I have a student currently in my British Literature class, and we were reading this wonderful poet called Hester Pulter. She's a 17th century poet whose works have only just now been really discovered and read. She had a manuscript of about 120 poems that was found rediscovered in the '90s and now is in the digital edition. So people are actually finally reading them. And this writer who never had a real chance of publishing these works writes so evocatively of her experiences as a just creative woman who, in the strictures of her time, she writes, "Why must I thus forever be confined against the noble freedom of my mind?" And that speaks to readers today. So I had this student who was responding to her and some of the other women writers, and I'll just read what she said. "Women, however, were silenced for so long in society that I think all the time they spent not speaking beautiful and heartbreaking messages set brewing within them. And meals are often the most delicious when they've had time to marinate." So this is a freshman student thinking about her, what place she has in the world, the challenges she'll face, and what stories she can tell in it. And then she reads Pulter and thinks, "I'm not alone." You know, someone's been there, someone's, you know, faced that. And so her story, her voice joins with Pulter's, and hers won't be silenced. The student’s won't be silenced. And so, and I can't wait to hear her voice in the world. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Josh. As an English major, I've really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to an English professor and to hear more about your philosophy of teaching and the ways that you're inspiring our students to study and appreciate and connect with literature. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Reid, the College of Arts and Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost's website at ETSU dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

This episode features Dr. Sharon Bigger, Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. Dr. Bigger is a career hospice nurse and former medical interpreter who uses the lessons she has learned with her patients and her research to inspire our undergraduate and graduate students in the classroom and in their research endeavors.  Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Sharon Bigger I would say I take more of an empowerment approach in education. It's one thing to dispense information to the students, but it's another thing to present issues and problems to the students and say, "What do you think about this given the tools that you have, given the readings that you have done? What's meaningful here, and what's going to work?" Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Sharon Bigger, Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. Dr. Bigger is a career hospice nurse and former medical interpreter. She holds bachelor's degrees in nursing and sociology with a minor in Spanish, a master's degree in philosophy and religion with a concentration in women's studies, and a doctoral degree in nursing. She completed her Ph.D. in nursing at ETSU in May of 2021 and became a full-time faculty member in the ETSU College of Nursing in August 2021. She now serves as the research representative on the College of Nursing Council. Her program of research focuses on communication about goals of care with diverse populations with chronic illnesses, with specific focus on transitions between home health and hospice. She has presented her research findings at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Dr. Bigger is a member of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association's Research Advisory Council and is co-chair of the HPNA Emerging Scholars Special Interest Group. She serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Enjoy the show. Dr. Bigger, welcome to the show. Dr. Sharon Bigger Thank you for having me. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I like to start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Sharon Bigger My first day of teaching at ETSU was in fall of 2021. And even though I teach primarily in the graduate program online, they like to have us teach across programs. So about one class per semester, I'm teaching to undergraduate students. And that is the memory that's coming to mind. I got to come to campus; it was during COVID. We were all masked in a pretty small room. There were about 18 students. So I had the chairs spaced out as much as possible. And I was very excited and both, yeah, both excited and nervous because I had taught first-generation students in Appalachia before, but never at ETSU. I had been a student at ETSU, but never an undergraduate student. So there I was. It was my first day teaching first-generation, primarily first-generation undergraduate students at ETSU. I felt very nervous and excited. And the piece of advice that I would have given myself would be to enjoy it. Enjoy the excitement. Enjoy it. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle As I read your bio, you had a successful career as a hospice nurse before you arrived at ETSU. Can you tell us a bit more about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in nursing? Dr. Sharon Bigger Well, as you can tell by my background, I have pursued many different courses of study. And what inspired me to pursue nursing was the one common thread in all of those things was that I've always been interested in where people find meaning. And nursing was a path that allowed me to be of service to people from all walks of life, particularly hospice nursing. It's the, it sounds a little morbid to say, but it's the one thing that we all have in common; it's the ultimate statistic. 10 out of 10 people will die. And it's just an honor to be invited into people's homes, to be of service to them in that time, and selfishly, it allows me to continue that exploration of where people find meaning while I get to be of service to them. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What made you decide to transition into nursing education? And now that you're at ETSU, what courses do you usually teach? Dr. Sharon Bigger So much of nursing is about education of the patient and the family through the avenue of health promotion. At any level of the life course and at any level of health, we could be involved in prevention; we can be involved in screening; we can be involved in helping people to maximize and optimize their quality of life. So I found myself doing a lot of teaching with patients and families. I then, after completing my master's degree, I then transitioned into the role of a clinical nurse educator for a hospice agency and wound up doing education with professionals. Found that very rewarding as well. It also turned me on to the academic side of things, the looking into the literature and finding best evidence. And I began to question where did this evidence come from? And that's what led me to pursue a Ph.D. in nursing. Because the Ph.D.s are ones who do the research and generate the new evidence that then gets put into practice. So the courses that I teach at ETSU, one is for Ph.D. students, the Philosophy of Nursing Science; it's exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the theories and the methods that we use in research. Again, it's an exploration of where people find meaning and how they find meaning. Another course that I teach is Health Policy Leadership. That's a very rewarding course as well, because it's for students at the master's level, as well as who are in the DNP program, doctorate of nursing practice, and the Ph.D. program. And they all come to the table and find that we have in common. There are things that we are passionate about that affect us and our patients and families, and here's how we can exercise our voice and have an influence to help shape those policies that affect us all. And then finally, at the undergraduate level this semester, I'm teaching Health Promotion and Research. It's really a combination of two main themes. About half the course modules focus on research, so teaching the undergraduate students, sort of the anatomy of a research article, as well as how to critically appraise; just because something appears online or just because something appears in a peer-reviewed journal doesn't make it high quality evidence. So empowering them and teaching them how to critically appraise and not just simply consume evidence. And then the other half of the course is how to use that evidence for the purposes of health promotion with patients and families. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Those sound like really rewarding classes. Dr. Sharon Bigger They are. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So you're also quite involved in research, as I said in your introduction, both your own, as well as the research representative for the College of Nursing Council. Could you share some details about your current research interests and projects? Dr. Sharon Bigger Well, I'll say that from my dissertation, I wound up getting published five manuscripts because there were 10 hypotheses in the dissertation, and five of those results were significant. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fantastic. Dr. Sharon Bigger Yes. So five publications came out of that. And the topic of that research was advance care planning and hospitalization, rehospitalization and emergency department use among home health patients. So advance care planning involves talking ahead of time, having conversations ahead of time about values, goals, and beliefs, what's important to you in life, and then helping your health care decisions be guided by that. It can be very intimidating to people to say, "What kind of treatments would you want and not want?" Well, who knows ahead of time? And so what we're finding in the research is that it's more helpful to start that conversation with "What's important to you? What does a good day look like to you? And if you couldn't do those things, would you want to be kept alive and breathing, and perhaps maybe that's the only thing that you could do?" Some people say yes. Some people say no. Some people are somewhere in between. So I was looking at advance care planning a little bit more upstream than hospice because advance care planning truly happens in advance of a health care crisis and to see how a new policy from Medicare that mandated that home health agencies report, not the contents, but the fact that they were doing it to see what kind of effect that had on acute care services use. So that was, that was my dissertation. And that was really the launch of my research career. And since then I have broadened that to communication in general about goals of care among populations, diverse populations with chronic illnesses with specific focus on transitions between home health and hospice. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. It's fascinating research. Dr. Sharon Bigger Thank you. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Can you tell us more about how your clinical experience has influenced your approach to teaching and research? So in hospice, we are all about autonomy. What, what do you want your life to look like in the time that you have left to live and supporting and empowering people and their families to live the kind of quality of life that they want to given the circumstances that they are in. And so I've always held that passion for where people find meaning and then supporting them in their autonomy. And I have to say that has influenced my approach to education as well. I would say I take more of an empowerment approach in education. It's, it's one thing to dispense information to the students, but as another, it's another thing to present issues and problems to the students and say, "What do you think about this? Given the tools that you have, given the readings that you have done, what's meaningful here, and what's going to work?" Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Can you share a memorable experience from your time working in a clinical setting that has shaped your perspective as an educator? Dr. Sharon Bigger Yes, I can. I was invited into the home of a hospice patient and family one time, and it was an adult, older adult father and two adult sons who were his care partners. And they were not parents themselves. They did not have jobs that involved any kind of caregiving. And so this was brand-new to them, and their father was becoming more and more debilitated, but he really wanted to live at home until he died. And his sons really wanted to support him in that. And as his father became, um, their father became more and more debilitated, he was losing mobility, and the sons were having a really hard time making sure that his personal needs were taken care of. So I was called into the home. My job as the hospice educator was really to educate the staff, but for this particular situation, I was called into the home to work with the patient and family. And I taught them some very simple transfer techniques that I myself had learned as a nurse from a physical therapist. Before I became a hospice nurse, I had worked in the hospital on the neurosciences unit. And so I was in close collaboration with many different disciplines, professions. So physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists. I learned as much from them almost as I did in nursing school. And it was a physical therapist who taught me, you know, if you have a, if you have a, a gait belt, you can do anything. So I provided this patient and family with a gait belt. I taught them some safe transfer techniques, and this older gentleman was able to live at home until he died. You know, equally as important, his sons were able to feel successful in taking care of him. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So how do you think interprofessional collaboration benefits both nursing students and professionals? Dr. Sharon Bigger Yes. So the patient is at the center of everything we say and do. I forgot to mention the other course that I teach in, which is the IPE simulation, interprofessional education. And I love that because it's all I've ever known. And I love bringing students to the table, students of medicine, of pharmacy, of public health, of nursing, of nutrition, of social work, audiology, so many different disciplines coming together. And, and if we truly honor that the patient is at the center, then we can acknowledge that each one of us brings a piece of the puzzle. And not only that, but the dynamic of our working together can only benefit the patient. I can give an example from my own life. And that is when my mother had a stroke and was in the ICU for about two weeks. And I was on the other side of things. I wasn't thinking like a nurse. I tried my hardest, but it was really hard because I was the daughter in that situation. But I witnessed all the many disciplines coming in, all the specialties of medicine, but all the many disciplines coming in. And they truly were multidisciplinary. They didn't seem to really be communicating with each other. And so I'm sorry to say, I, I, I saw what it should not be like. And it was ultimately when I requested that we get the palliative care team on board, that the palliative care team was the one who took the leadership and getting all the disciplines together and saying, "Here is the plan." And only when we had someone saying to the team, "Let's all get on the same page," did they really start to work as an interprofessional team. And my mother received better care. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's a great example. And I'm sure one that helps demonstrate to students the power of interprofessional education. In your opinion, what are the most significant challenges facing the nursing profession today? And what is the ETSU College of Nursing doing to help our students prepare for those challenges? Dr. Sharon Bigger Well, we're all aware of the nursing shortage, but I think equal on par to that is the ability for nurses to practice at their full scope of practice. That is sometimes limited by legislation, but sometimes it's limited by internal policy at an organization or even a nurse's own beliefs about what they are capable of. So I'm very proud that ETSU is the largest college of nursing in the state of Tennessee, and we have a very robust LPN to BSN program. So the baccalaureate level of nursing is a very powerful level of nursing because it involves leadership. It involves an awareness of research and using best evidence and practice. And it involves an awareness of population health and community health and how that impacts each individual. So what I see ETSU doing is, for lack of a better word, producing more baccalaureate-prepared nurses, as well as in part through the Health Policy Leadership course, but through other avenues as well, empowering the master's-prepared and doctorally-prepared nurses to advocate for policies that really allow them to practice at their full scope of practice. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope that you've made on your students? Dr. Sharon Bigger This actually comes from my background in the liberal arts. It's critical thinking. I really try to empower the students. As I mentioned before, it's not just a piece of knowledge or a fact for you to memorize and regurgitate and incorporate. It's a piece of information that you get to have thoughts and opinions about. And the structures and policies that exist, you also get to help shape them. So I try to role-model that receptivity as an instructor. I'm not just here as an authoritarian. I'm here because I have some experience. I have some expertise, but I also welcome your feedback, and I use it. So I try to give them that experience right away of that continuous process improvement that what they say matters, their experiences matter, and that they are empowered to help shape the future. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Bigger, the College of Nursing, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, Dr. Blair Reece, Assistant Professor in the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine, talks about how medical education has changed since she was a student at Quillen and her favorite subjects to teach her medical students. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Blair Reece: Students don't want to come to class and be spoon-fed information. Students want to learn that information on their own. They want to learn the physiology and the pathophysiology and the pharmacology on their own time. And then they want to come to class and they want us to challenge them and to help them integrate all of that information and learn how to really truly be a physician.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "why I teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Blair Reece, Assistant Professor in the Quillen College of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Reece earned her medical degree from the Quillen College of Medicine in May 2012. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Prior to coming to ETSU Health, Dr. Reece was employed as a hospitalist with Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She also worked as an assistant professor of medicine with the University of Florida and as a teaching assistant with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Reece is board certified in internal medicine and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic medical illnesses that affect adults. She also serves as clerkship director at Quillen and has been nominated by her students and selected for multiple Caduceus Awards, which recognize those at Quillen, who consistently go above and beyond in medical education. Enjoy the show. Dr. Reece, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself?  Dr. Blair Reece: Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show. It really is an honor. And I think for me, that first day when you're in front of students and they're looking at you to have the answers, I think I felt like I was supposed to have the answers. And and that's really not the case in medicine. As a physician, I often don't have the answers. I look things up every single day. I call consults. I call my colleagues every single day. And and whether I'm in front of students in a classroom or in an exam room with a patient, that's all still true. And I would have reminded myself that my job as a teacher, teaching future physicians, is to teach them what they don't know and how to find the answers, not to have the answers myself all the time.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Excellent advice. And modeling that behavior. Yes. What inspired you to become a physician, and why did you choose internal medicine as your specialty?  Dr. Blair Reece: So my grandfather was a physician. So growing up, I always watched him and admired him and wanted to be like him. I saw him helping people, helping our community. Former patients of his would come up to me randomly on the streets and tell me stories about my grandfather and how he helped them. And and that was very inspiring to me. And so from a young age, I always knew I wanted to be a physician. And then when I was in medical school at Quillen, that's when I decided that internal medicine was the field for me. I love taking care of adults. Adults have you know, they're so complicated and have so many different life experiences that that play into their health conditions. And so you can take a simple problem like high blood pressure, but it's different in every single patient that I take care of. They have different life experiences, different things that are important to them, different ways they want to be helped. And I love the complexity of that.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: It's wonderful. So you work in a college where you practice medicine and serve patients, but you also have the wonderful opportunity to teach and prepare future physicians. What do you enjoy most about teaching?  Dr. Blair Reece: The students inspire me every single day, and the students are really why I'm here. They remind me why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. Sometimes practicing clinical medicine can feel, sometimes it's challenging fighting with insurance companies, trying to get patients the medication they need or the tests they need, their paperwork. But when the students come into the clinic and they are bright eyed and excited, and and they remind me why I'm here, why we're all here. We're here to take care of the patients. And I can't imagine being a physician if I didn't have the opportunity to teach.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: What's your favorite thing to teach?  Dr. Blair Reece: I love teaching students just how to talk to patients and how to, honestly even how to have difficult conversations. I think that's a really important part of our job, especially as internal medicine physicians. I have to have difficult conversations all the time. And you don't just wake up knowing how to have those conversations. You have to be taught. And I really enjoy helping students navigate those difficult conversations, helping them have the courage to have those. And it's hard, but it's inspiring.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: As a Quillen alumna, you have likely seen changes in medical education, right, while you've been practicing and since graduation. In fact, I know the college has recently introduced a new curriculum. Talk about some of the curriculum changes that have been enacted and how they're preparing our students to better meet the needs of patients. Dr. Blair Reece: So I think the students demand more of us as faculty members these days than perhaps myself and my older colleagues demanded of our professors. And I think that's really wonderful. Students don't want to come to class and be spoon-fed information. Students want to learn that information on their own. They want to learn the physiology and the pathophysiology and the pharmacology on their own time. And then they want to come to class, and they want us to challenge them and to help them integrate all of that information and learn how to really truly be a physician. And that's what the new curriculum is doing. We're bringing students together in smaller groups, talking through patient cases that may involve lots of different material that we expect them to have learned themselves, and we help them integrate it. And I really think that it's going to make them -- I know it is making them better physicians and it's a better way of education.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So it's different than the curriculum you had, right, as a student? Dr. Blair Reece: Yes, it's very different. As a student, we came to class and we listened to lectures for 8 hours a day and were just sort of given the knowledge and then went home and tried to memorize it. But now we are expecting our students to come into class and apply the knowledge.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. So it's a difference in pedagogy and not so much a difference in content.  Dr. Blair Reece: Yes, exactly.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. In the introduction, I mentioned that you've been recognized by your students for mentorship and teaching. What are some of the most memorable classroom and clinical experiences that you've had with your students?  Dr. Blair Reece: So over the years, every year or two, there will be a time in the hospital where a student makes a diagnosis for a patient that none of the resident physicians or myself as the attending has made. And that is such an incredible moment. And oftentimes we encourage the students, go spend time with your patients. Our patients are our greatest teachers. And, you know, the students will really take that to heart. And the students typically have more time to spend with patients. They have fewer patients, and a few times a year, every year, a student will go and spend potentially an hour or two with a patient and just talk to them and collect more history. And something will come up in that conversation and they'll bring it back to the team and say, "Hey, did you know that this patient has X, Y, Z or was exposed to this or that?" and will make the diagnosis. And we say, "Oh my goodness, we did not know that." And, you know, to see a student who doesn't yet have M.D. behind their name to potentially save a life or at least impact the care that the patient receives is really an incredible experience.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I bet. Quillen has become nationally recognized for its commitment to preparing physicians to serve in rural and underserved communities. What are some of the innovative ways that the college is working to do this?  Dr. Blair Reece: So I think Quillen, from even as far back as when I was a medical student, really focuses on getting students out into the community, meeting patients from day one. And that has a huge impact. You know, when I look at my graduating class, just in my graduating class alone, when I think of the Quillen alums that are in our area -- internal medicine, radiology, dermatology, general surgery, multiple orthopedic surgeons, all practicing medicine here, taking care of patients in the Appalachian Highlands. And many of us didn't grow up in Johnson City. We grew to love this area during medical school, and that was through going to Rogersville, going to Mountain City, meeting patients in the Tri-Cities, doing health fairs. And and I think that Quillen does such a great job really fulfilling its mission. And it does that just by showing us the beauty of this area and the people that live here. And many of us want to come back and practice and give back to the community that taught us how to be physicians.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. As you know, ETSU has a robust offering of programs in the health care disciplines, including pharmacy, medicine, nursing, clinical and rehabilitative health sciences, public health. In what ways do you see your medical students benefiting from this interprofessional collaboration opportunity?  Dr. Blair Reece: Practicing medicine these days is a team sport. You know, it's not a doctor out in a clinic all by themselves, doing everything for the patient. And I depend on my physical therapy colleagues, my pharmacy colleagues, my nursing colleagues every single day. And Quillen teaches the students early on who all of the different players are and what their roles are in caring for the patient. And and I think that also encourages students to know, hey, I can just pick up the phone and call a pharmacist when I don't know, the medication interactions or a patient, you know, isn't responding well to this. And that interprofessional education really helps students hit the ground running in residency and then after to know how to take care of patients as a team. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Mm hmm. Do you have the opportunity to work in Building 60 with some of the IPE collaborations?  Dr. Blair Reece: I do, and that has been a really fun experience, getting to see students in those other fields. You know, I work with nurses and physical therapists and pharmacists every single day. I don't have a ton of opportunities to work with the students in those disciplines, except for my experiences in Building 60. And so that's really fun.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: It's great. We know that the best teachers are those who continue to learn. What are some of the most important lessons that you've learned from your students or from your colleagues?  Dr. Blair Reece: My students challenge me every single day. The students say, "Oh, we're going to add this blood pressure medicine." And the students, the next thing they always say is, "Well, why?" And so I appreciate that so much. And sometimes I don't know the why right then and there. And so we'll go together and look up the reason. Or sometimes I do and say, "Okay, well, let's look at this trial. This is why we do what we do." And so the students are always keeping me on my toes, keeping me at the forefront of modern medicine. And and I think it's important as a physician that I do know the why. I know why we're adding medicines, recommending treatments, and the students are the ones really that that push us, all of us clinical faculty.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So as a graduate of Quillen, you have the opportunity to work alongside some of your former faculty colleagues. Can you tell us what that's like?  Dr. Blair Reece: It was a very strange experience when I first came back to Quillen, and many of them told me that I was supposed to call them by their first names now, since we were colleagues and not Dr. So-and-so. Five years later, and I'm starting to get the hang of that. But it's really been such a great experience for me. Many of my former faculty members were mentors to me during medical school, helped me figure out where I wanted to go to residency, what kind of physician I wanted to be. And they are still mentors to me today. I still will call them up and say, Hey, you know, I'm not sure if I should take this opportunity or that opportunity or I'm struggling with this item in the classroom. And to be able to go to them and still look to them as mentors has been such an incredible experience that I don't think I'd have if I worked anywhere else.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: What are your thoughts about the ways that students of today will be impacted by the role of advances in technology on the practice of medicine?  Dr. Blair Reece: You know, I think we already are seeing advances right now that are really wonderful. You know, we're seeing telehealth opportunities. There are some artificial intelligence that we see in some fields of medicine that kind of lend themselves to that, such as, you know, radiology, to help pick up cancers. And and I think that students practicing medicine or when the students are practicing medicine 10, 20 years from now, I do think that things will look different. But I think that they'll be better for patients and better for patient care and hopefully will have even better outcomes.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's great. Earlier this year you became one of the inaugural members of the ETSU Health Professional Leadership Academy. Congratulations.  Dr. Blair Reece: Thank you.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Tell us a bit about that experience and why you chose to be part of it.  Dr. Blair Reece: That was such a great opportunity and I'm really grateful to Dr. Block and Dr. Pierce, my chair, for giving me the opportunity to participate in that. It was an experience. We brought lots of different faculty members from different colleges together, and we had the opportunity to hear from leaders in our community, both at ETSU and the community at-large, and they really shared with us so many of their successes, but also maybe more importantly, their failures and what they learned from that. And it was such a powerful experience and to hopefully gain some wisdom from that. I also met a lot of colleagues in other colleges that I didn't know before this, and many of us have kept in touch and we've talked about, "Hey, how can we better collaborate?" You know, the Department of Medicine and Physical Therapy, for example, and other services. And so I think that just the networking part of that was also a wonderful opportunity and it's moving ETSU Health forward.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's great. Finally, what impact do you hope that you have on your students?  Dr. Blair Reece: So I hope that my students remember always to put the patient first. Medicine, being a physician is a is a really hard job, and there are so many pressures that are put on us at all different times. But I hope that I have inspired them in some small way to remember, always remember the patient. It's not, you know, the this person in room seven with the diabetes. It's a person, and every person matters. And how they feel about their health, their ability to pay for medication-- all of those things are important. I hope that they always remember that and take the extra 5 minutes to talk to their patients and you know, what's impacting your health? Why are you not able to take your medications? Maybe it's money. Maybe they're taking care of a sick relative. Maybe they don't understand the importance. And if we all just take a few more minutes with each person, I really do think we can make a difference. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's wonderful. That's a great lesson. And it reminds me of the campus read and some of the lessons there about building empathy and the ways that that will help our students and learning how to do that. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you, Blair. It's been a pleasure. Learning more about how you connect with your students and prepare them to continue. Quillen's mission to educate future physicians, especially those with an interest in primary care to practice in underserved, rural communities. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Reece, the Quillen College of Medicine or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts.

Dr. Patrick Brown, Associate Professor in the ETSU College of Public Health’s Department of Health Sciences, is a past recipient of ETSU’s Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching and has received national recognition for his work with the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) method of instruction.  In this episode, he discusses online learning, ETSU's Center for Teaching Excellence, high-impact instructional practices, and more. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, we focus so much, rightly or wrongly, on career preparation -- yeah -- in higher ed. And are we, are we preparing them for their 21st century careers? But, you know, the purpose of higher ed is so much more than that. We're not just training students for a career. We are ideally preparing informed, compassionate citizens.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty: their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us Why I Teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Patrick Brown, Associate Professor in the ETSU College of Public Health's Department of Health Sciences. Dr. Brown is a past recipient of ETSU's Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching and has received national recognition for his work with the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, or POGIL, method of instruction. He earned a Ph.D. in cellular biology from the University of Georgia and a B.S. in biology from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. His research includes studies of the application of student-centered, active learning pedagogies in undergraduate science curricula. In 2015, Dr. Brown was ETSU's keynote commencement speaker, and he shared his inspiring insights with graduates. Today, I am pleased to have him here to share his expertise on teaching and preparing our students for graduation and success beyond the classroom. Enjoy the show. Dr. Brown, welcome to the show. Dr. Patrick Brown: Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself?  Dr. Patrick Brown: Probably slow down. Yeah, I'd already been teaching for a while.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: I started out at what is now King University up in Bristol, and I was teaching A & P, Anatomy and Physiology I, for the first time. When I was at King, I'd only taught the second half of the course.  Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Patrick Brown: And so I was trying to prepare materials. And I don't just stand up and talk. I put my students to work. And so I was putting together materials. I had a toddler at home, and I was just so anxious and wrung out. And I wish I could go back and just say, "Slow down; it'll be okay. You know what you're doing."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, looking back 12 years later, yeah, this is my 13th year at ETSU.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: I do know what I'm doing, at least to some degree, but, but just slow down and trust yourself. And trust the students.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, I've been overwhelmed with how supportive our students are of us as faculty and how forgiving they can be. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: When we're not, when we're not our best from the second we walk into the classroom. So, yeah, I would have just told him, "Slow down; it'll be okay. You're going to get through this just fine. The students are going to learn, and everything is going to be okay. Slow down."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. So as you said, you've been teaching here at ETSU for more than a decade now. So what's changed the most since you began teaching?  Dr. Patrick Brown: I tell you, I've noticed it a lot more because of the pandemic.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: But it is the students' willingness to approach remote learning.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And kind of the normalization of online, especially online asynchronous learning. When I'd gotten, you know, when I got here, that was a really rare thing.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You didn't have a lot of online courses. And then over the course of my time here, you know, MOOCs were a big thing, those massive online -- what did that stand for? Massive open online courses MOOCs.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: There you go. Yeah.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, we were afraid they're going to destroy you know, they're going to destroy higher education. Everybody's afraid AI's going to destroy higher education. It's always something. But I think the, the normalization of learning online, I have learned so much about teaching and learning online. I'm very fortunate to be good friends with two of ETSU's certified Master Online educators.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. That's great.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And so I've been able to lean on them and not just for the courses that I teach that are completely online, but even in my in-person courses. The lessons I have learned over this time about online learning are translating to resources that I can make available through our course management system.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Like D2L, or Desire to Learn, you know that. But the people listening might not. You know, so if you look at the structure of my course web presence, even for my in-person classes, it's very different now than it was 10 years ago. And, you know, the goal there is so that I don't I'm only in their presence for 3 hours, 3 to 5 hours a week.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: So I can kind of make myself present outside of the classroom using those digital tools in a way that I wouldn't even have thought of 12 years ago.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Oh, it's really good insight. And it provides such resources to students.  Dr. Patrick Brown: It really does.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And some of the feedback I get, you know, in our end-of-course student assessments of instruction is that you know they appreciate having all of this stuff available for them outside of class. So you know, whatever we do in class, I've captured it digitally somehow.   Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And that resource is available for them, even though, you know, a lot of what I do requires student interaction, a collaboration for maximum effect. But that doesn't mean there isn't some benefit to completing some of those activities on their own. But it's really just like a, you know, an ability to project what we're doing in the classroom outside of the classroom. So, if a student has to miss because they're ill or they have family emergency or something like that, they can still access the course resources and course materials. The technology has given me flexibility to, you know, to be responsive, to be accommodating.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: So there's, there are things that I can do now that I would have liked to have done when I first started here, but it wasn't possible.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So you have been involved with the Center for Teaching Excellence since its inception at ETSU and have served as a Faculty Fellow for a long time. In that work, I know you assist in training your peers in teaching strategies. Tell us about the work that you've done with the CTE.  Dr. Patrick Brown: So this actually goes back to my time when I was in the Faculty Senate. So Virginia Foley was the President of the Faculty Senate, and we had been without any kind of Center for Teaching for a whole lot of years.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And so she created a committee of Faculty Senators to kind of explore what's out there, what are other universities that kind of have a similar makeup to ours, what are our peers doing? And I chaired that committee. And we put together a report and submitted it to our then Provost, Dr. Bach, and there was some interest, and then the Committee for 125 convened, and they had an education subcommittee, a teaching subcommittee, and they recommended creation of a Center for Teaching Excellence. And so then at that time, Dr. Amy Johnson had been leading our Quality Enhancement Plan in top form, and that was kind of winding down. And so they transitioned her into the first Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, and I was on the initial advisory board for the CTE when it first started, and then four years ago, so this would have been winter of 2019, Dr. Johnson invited me to her office, and she said, "Hey, you know, we're getting we're getting bigger." I had done some stuff, you know, little things, but mostly I had been serving for those first two years as an advisor.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, on the faculty advisory board. And she said, "I want to bring you in as a Fellow; at the time, Dr. Alison Barton was the Faculty Fellow, and she was like, "The Provost is agreed; we're going to have a second Fellow. And, you know, I have some things I want you to do." And so that was all great. And the first thing I was going to do is we were gearing up for this international year. And she was going to send me to Korea. And that was supposed to happen in March of 2020.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Uh-oh.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And then the world turned upside down.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And I was very, I was very fortunate to have just, you know, just started this fellowship when in March of 2020, we got the word, "Oh, by the way, you're not coming back to school after spring break."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And so then it was kind of all hands on deck. So I, you know, Amy had just brought me on board, and so she and Phil Smith, the assistant director of the CTE, and Alison and I were just scrambling to put together programming for our faculty who, some of whom had never even populated their their D2L page, their course website, and were now going to have to be teaching online full time.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Fully online. Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: I had a colleague who's since retired who used to tell his students on the first day of class, "I know there's a D2L site for this class, but if you see anything on there, I didn't put it there."  Right. He just was not about it. And he had to go teach fully online.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Fully online. Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And so for my first, for the first year of my fellowship, really, because I started in January of 2020, so for that first year, it was really transitioning people to online.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And, and helping faculty be as effective as they could be in this new modality and getting them ready for that '21-22 school year where we were going to be, you know, kind of mixed methods.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right, right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: I remember I taught my lectures online, and then I had an optional in-person lab, but with half capacity. I had the students split over two rooms, like it was, it was, it was something else. But I've also been very fortunate to have you know, I've worked for Amy Johnson, and then when she stepped down as Director, Alison Barton came in as the Director. And both of those women are not just gifted educators and gifted programmers of faculty development, they're also my friends. And so they, they have really tried to lean into my strengths, and I guess probably avoid my weaknesses and let me develop programming and the things that I think are really interesting. So of course, I'm doing a workshop this afternoon for the Biology Department in active and collaborative learning, which is my jam. I'm doing another workshop for them tomorrow morning that I developed with Dr. Sarah Melton over at the College of Pharmacy initially, but it's on item writing, writing multiple-choice items, which almost everybody, especially if you teach large classes uses.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: But very few of us are trained in how to do it well.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And there's, there's, there are mistakes you can make that can reduce the validity of your assessment. And so that's something I really enjoy helping people learn about.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And then I also am very interested in the ways in which we measure learning not just through multiple-choice items, but in doing instructional design and starting at the end point.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yep.  Dr. Patrick Brown: What Wiggins and McTighe called backwards design.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Backwards design. Yeah.  Dr. Patrick Brown: So if you start with where you want them to be and then you figure out how you're going to get him there and how you're going to measure it. So those are the kinds of things that I've worked on.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So in your introduction, I mentioned your nationally recognized work with POGIL, the POGIL method of instruction. So with that in mind, what impact has this method had on your teaching? And tell us more about the method itself.  Dr. Patrick Brown: So I don't think anything has transformed what I do in the classroom more than POGIL. POGIL was an NSF grant to Rick Moog and Jim Spencer, who are both chemists, and they had kind of independently come up with this just like super- Constructivist method of teaching. So Constructivism is the idea that learning is, learning occurs when we construct our own understanding of concepts and integrate this new understanding with what we already know.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, as pioneered in the early 20th century by French psychologist Jean Piaget. But she she was like, I loved using this in my chemistry class I'm starting to use it in my medicinal chemistry classes in pharmacy. You should check it out. And because they were NSF-funded, their workshops were free. And so they had this three-day workshop at Guilford College in Greensboro. And so I went out there and met some people who are, to this day, dear, dear friends, and who have been wonderful mentors to me, Andy Brissette, Suzanne Ruder, Megan Hoffmann; I can't list them all. We'd be here all day. But I can remember during the, and it was an intense three days, I mean, we worked from first thing in the morning until pretty late in the evening, all three days. And I can remember being in that first day. And one of the great things about the POGIL project, you know, the people who train folks to use POGIL, is that you learn it by doing it. You know, a lot of educators who are listening can, can commiserate with this. You go to this workshop on active learning, and you're going to learn how to do this active-learning thing. And then you get lectured at for three hours.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And that's not how these people roll at all. They, you were doing the whole time. If you go to a POGIL workshop whether it's a three-hour workshop, a one-day workshop, or a three day workshop, you're working.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: Right. And I remember we were doing this activity called the Nuclear Atom. And we were about halfway through it, and I was like, "Oh my gosh; I just learned what makes an element." And nobody told me; nobody used the word "element." But I just realized that the reason, you know a student doing this for the first time would realize that the reason that hydrogen's hydrogen and helium's helium is because hydrogen has one proton and helium has two. But they you, you, you construct your understanding first.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Then they put the word to it. They're like, "Oh, by the way; that thing with one proton, that's hydrogen. And that thing with two is called helium."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Fascinating.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And because and those are different elements.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Right. And so I was floored. I had never realized this. And then, you know, when I try to explain Constructivism to somebody now, I say, "Find me a toddler." And you show that toddler a picture of a Maine Coon and an American, a domestic shorthair, and a tiger, and they'll know that all of those are cats. And you show them a picture of a Rottweiler and of a Chihuahua and of an Australian Shepherd, and they'll know that those are dogs. No one has ever defined cat or dog for that child. But by seeing examples of them  and making those comparisons -- oh, kitties have long whiskers, doggies have shorter whiskers, kitties have that cute little lip thing, and doggies don't do that. The child constructs a concept of what is a cat and what is a dog.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And as new information comes in, they adapt that concept. And that's what's going on with Constructivist education.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Wow. Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And that's so the thing that makes POGIL really neat, though -- so that's the guided inquiry learning, the GIL part of POGIL so the activities are created very carefully so that the students are guided through questions. Right. We ask them questions. So if I'm wanting them to say, okay, how many protons are in hydrogen, how many protons are in a helium, how many neutrons are in each thing? How many electrons? Okay, which ones? What has a charge? And I do an activity very similar to this on the third day of my Anatomy and Physiology course, because we need to know about some different elements and stuff. And so you guide them through inquiry to learning. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: But the thing that makes POGIL really unique is the PO, the process-oriented bit. When you survey educators -- employers, sorry, not educators -- when you survey employers, and you ask them what do you want people coming out of university to know, what do you want them to be able to do? Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: Content knowledge is always near the bottom of the list.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: The thing that people want college graduates to be able to do is to communicate. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: To manage, to manage themselves, to manage others, to process information, to think critically.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: And very often, although well-meaning, few of us intentionally, so to say, bake that into our instruction. And the thing that makes POGIL really unique is that those are called process skills, right? Information processing, critical thinking, management, those are process skills, and POGIL activities are constructed so that we target one or two of those process skills in every single activity. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: So when I write a POGIL activity, I'm thinking, okay, in this one we're going to focus on information processing. Can the students find what's relevant, what's not relevant? Use the relevant information to collaboratively reach a conclusion?  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: Where in this one we're going to work on teamwork. Teamwork is an important process skill. So on this one, we're going to have the students acting in different roles as part of this team, and through fulfillment of their role, they're going to learn some lessons about teamwork, but it's cooked right in.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: When you use these methods, do you tell them, we're working on teamwork today? We're working on...  Dr. Patrick Brown: Sometimes -- yeah -- sometimes I do. But when, so when I published my activity collection as a textbook, the instructor's guide, or the facilitator's guide, tells the facilitator, all right, here's the targeted process skill. Here's what we're working on. And I give them tips for facilitation. So as you're facilitating, make sure that you're enforcing the roles so that the student who's acting as the team manager is managing, and the student who's acting as a spokesperson is the only one who's allowed to speak for the group. And so it's in the instructional materials. Sometimes I'll tell the students flat out, but my favorite thing to do with them is to point out when they've done it, you know?  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: It's almost like I'm tricking them into learning.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I like that.  Dr. Patrick Brown: This happens every semester because a student will say, "Is this right?" I'll be like, "You tell me." I never answer that question, "Is this right?" Most of the students I'm training are going in health care. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Patrick Brown: And I tell them, "You're going to have to come to a time where you can't seek validation from an expert, a supervisor, whomever." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Patrick Brown: "Because you're going to, you're going to be making decisions where minutes count."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: "And seconds matter. And so you need to get to a point where you can gather information, make a decision based on that information and defend your decision using that, using that information."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: That's critical thinking. And so sometimes they'll be working, and they'll say, "Hey, Brown; is this right?" I'm like, "You tell me." Like, "What?" "Well, why did you say A and B are similar?" Like, "Well, if you look up here, you know, in the model you gave us, we see A and we see B, and I see the similarities here, but D and E, you know, they don't look quite the same. And C is, you know, similar but not quite the same. So we said A and B go together."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And I'll be like, "What did you just do right there?" Like, "I don't know." It's like, "That's critical thinking."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Mm-hmm. Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: "You just used"-- right -- "data to reach a conclusion, and you backed up your conclusion using those data. That's critical thinking. You just did that." And I'll ask them, "How many times has somebody told you that critical thinking is a really important skill to have?"  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: And they'll all -- how many of you have been told this? -- the whole class will raise their hands. I'll say, "All right. How many of you have ever been told what that actually means?"  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Two, three hands out of 110 will go up.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: And so I love it. It's not really a gotcha moment, but it kind of is for me as an educator, because I'll be like, "Ha ha; you learned something."  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. And you point it out; that's so affirming. Dr. Patrick Brown: Yes. And it's really, if I wasn't teaching the way I teach with POGIL I wouldn't have those opportunities. So that's one of the real, real gifts of this teaching method is that I get to see the learning happening in real time.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Patrick, you are known for your engaging teaching style. Can you share a particularly rewarding or memorable experience that you've enjoyed as an educator?  Dr. Patrick Brown: The vast majority of my student population are first-semester college students. So here in three weeks, I'm going to welcome 216 first-year students.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: And while a lot of them are not first-generation, quite a few of them are, but very few of them had to work as hard in high school as I'm going to make them work. And so I love telling them I don't just teach you anatomy, I get to teach you how to college. And that's really fun.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. That's great. Dr. Patrick Brown: I have a late colleague, Chris Dula.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Patrick Brown: Unfortunately passed away several years ago, but Chris really did this, you know, he really took that to heart as well -- because he taught in the first-year curriculum, he taught Intro Psych. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Patrick Brown: And those of us who teach in that first year, you know, we're really privileged in that we're not just helping our students learn whatever our subject is, we're also helping them learn how to study, how to manage their time.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, I remember when I was a college freshman, I was very much intoxicated with the freedom. And so helping them learn how to manage that and self-regulate, it's just a really special part of my job.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's great. That's a great story. So let's talk about Lamb Hall. I know that our faculty and students are so excited about a major change that's happened to Lamb Hall over the last several years, and the building has been renovated and will finally reopen this fall with new labs, classrooms, and common spaces. Can you tell us how you think this renovation will impact the student experience, especially in the programs that you teach in?  Dr. Patrick Brown: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is we're all going to be in one spot now. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: One of the, I wouldn't say frustrating, but, you know, one of the minor irritations prior to this was there were no classrooms that could accommodate my class. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: I generally have between 100 and 110 students per section, and the only classrooms that could accommodate them were not in Lamb Hall. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: So the students would, the first week of class, they would show up to Brown Hall looking for their lab, but their lab wasn't in Brown Hall, their lab was in Lamb Hall. Their lecture was in Brown Hall. So one, having everything in one spot, which is also the building where my office is, now the students know if it has to do with anatomy and physiology, or if it has to do with microbiology, you're going to come to Lamb Hall. Everything's going to be there.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Another thing that I'm excited about, you know, I lobbied hard for a particular kind of classroom for our new, we have a new large, I think it seats over 150 students, classroom. It's lovely. And I advocated for a thing called a scale-up classroom, which is it's designed from the ground up to be for small-group active learning. But it's very expensive, and you can't fit as many people in the room. So the people who were in charge of the renovation were like, "Yeah, that'd be nice, but we've only got the one room." But what they did was they still managed to design a learning space that is going to accommodate active learning better than any classroom I've been in since I've been here. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Oh great. Dr. Patrick Brown: Because there's tables with movable chairs.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Although the tables are fixed, the fact that the chairs move means that I can be very flexible. So the students, for the past two years I've been teaching in a theater.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. Dr. Patrick Brown: I've been with thick seats, with thick seats, you know, those horrible little, tiny desk things that fold out, and it's very hard to facilitate collaboration when the person with whom you're supposed to be collaborating is behind you and above. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Right. You can't move closer.  Dr. Patrick Brown: Right. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: And so now, that's one of my tasks for this week is to figure out how I'm going to seat the students in their groups so that, you know, they're going to be able to collaborate a lot more efficiently. And when I say, "Okay, now I need everybody to go," because one of the things I like to do is have them go to another group and compare answers and see, okay, did they reach the same conclusions we did? And if not, you know, we discuss it and hash it out. But because of the the open design of that space, there's so much more room for them to move around. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to teach in that classroom. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. The science labs are also just impressive, and the collaboration spaces that didn't exist before for students and faculty.    Dr. Patrick Brown: And I've even noticed, I moved back into Lamb Hall back in the spring, but I've noticed the collaboration space that's on the third floor has been steadily populated by Audiology students all summer long. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  That's great. Dr. Patrick Brown: So it's fun. I would go up to the third floor to kind of unpack some of our laboratory stuff, and I'd see, there's movable whiteboards in that collaboration space, and you would see very cramped, multicolored writing and little, little diagrams of action potentials in the hair cells in the ears. You know, they're diagramming this stuff out. So it's all over. I'm already seeing that. So I'm really excited to see, you know, what those collaboration spaces look like when, you know, when my students are there. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: And because in the past they've always had to go to the library.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Right.  Dr. Patrick Brown: That was the only place that they could study together. So now that there's going to be some spaces that are just, you know, one floor up from me so that now, one of the nice things of during the Lamb Hall diaspora of the last two years was that my temporary office space was in the library. So a lot of times if the students were studying, they could come up and bang on my door, and be like, "Hey, Brown, can you come help us?" And I could pop right downstairs and help them.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: So the fact that I'll be able to continue doing that because they'll be probably be studying in the same building that I'm my office is in will be very nice.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Finally, Patrick, what impact do you hope that you've made on your students?  Dr. Patrick Brown: You know, we focus so much, rightly or wrongly, on career preparation in higher ed. And are we, are we preparing them for their 21st century careers? But, you know, the purpose of higher ed is so much more than that. We're not just training students for a career. We are ideally preparing informed, compassionate citizens. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Dr. Patrick Brown: And, you know, I hope more than anything else that my students leave my classroom not just learning stuff. I tell them on the first day of class, say, "Thank you, Dr. Brown," and they'll be like, "Thank you, Dr. Brown. Why? Why are we saying thank you?" Because there's 206 bones in the adult human body, and I only make them learn 205 of them. So I'm a sweet man, but the point is, I want them to have learned more than just the names of those bones. I want them to learn how to engage with one another, how to be respectful and kind, even when you have a difference of opinion with someone. And if I do just even a fraction of that work, if I have just a tiny little impact on creating someone who is a better teammate, a better colleague, a more compassionate citizen, then I'm a very happy guy.  Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Yes. Thank you, Patrick. Dr. Patrick Brown: Oh, thank you. It's been a pleasure to be here. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  I really enjoyed our conversation and learning your insights. I also appreciate your deep commitment to teaching excellence and to cultivating active-learning experiences for our students. I hope you have a wonderful and rewarding fall semester. Dr. Patrick Brown: Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:  Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Brown, the ETSU College of Public Health, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Not only has Dr. Jessica Burchette taught at Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy since 2012, she also has the distinction of being a proud member of the college’s inaugural graduating class in 2010. In this episode of “Why I Teach,” she shares how community-engaged learning and interprofessional education are preparing ETSU’s student pharmacists to address the needs of their future patients. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Jessica Burchette: Medicine and health care turn over so quickly. And so the information that we teach in the classroom could be outdated before they even graduate. So we really want to, you know, to use the old adage, we want to teach them to fish. They have to know how to go out and teach themselves and keep up with the information and digest that information for their own lifelong learning and also for the benefit of their patients. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty. Their passion for what they do. Their belief in the power of higher education. And the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us Why I Teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Jessica Burchette, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. Not only has Dr. Burchette taught at Gatton College of Pharmacy since 2012, she has also had the distinction of being a proud member of the college's inaugural graduating class from 2010. Upon her graduation from Gatton, she obtained further postgraduate training with a pharmacy practice residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, followed by an internal medicine residency with a secondary focus in academia at Gatton College of Pharmacy. She maintains a practice site at Holston Valley Medical Center, working with interdisciplinary inpatient family medicine teams. In addition to her practice, Dr. Burchette enjoys teaching students about pulmonary disorders and basic critical-care concepts in the classroom. Enjoy the show. Dr. Burchette, welcome to the show. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Thank you so much for having me, Dr. McCorkle. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Jessica Burchette: You know, that is such a great question and something that I think about as I grow further in my career and the things that I've learned over the years. And I think I would probably tell myself on that first day to be okay in the chaos. Learning to balance all the roles of being a faculty member with a clinical practice and realizing that just because a task isn't completed, it doesn't mean you're not making progress. And so those incremental steps forward, it doesn't always feel like a big win, but that can become overwhelming if you don't look at the steps. And so that's one thing I had to teach myself as I got into my first few years as a faculty member. And I feel like I've gotten better at that, but always a work in progress. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Such important advice. So as a practicing pharmacist, much of your work takes place outside the walls of the traditional classroom setting. How does your continued work with patients shape the way that you teach your students? Dr. Jessica Burchette: There are so many ways that my patients help me teach and shape my students. Starting in the classroom actually is where I'm able to use my patients to give the students some context and relevance. Many of our students have never practiced or been in a hospital pharmacy setting, and they may have not worked with patients at all prior to starting our program. So as we're talking about diseases and disorders and different medications to treat those, they often don't have the context to know why that matters. And so using those patients' stories and those patient experiences to give them a little anchor to hold on to with that information really helps with their retention. When I'm in my practice site at Holston Valley with the students that, students on their fourth-year rotation, I'm able to then reinforce what they know and show them how all the knowledge they've gained over those three years in the classroom are coming to fruition and they're able to use that with their patients, and they can really see what their role is and how they can make a difference for patients' lives. I think ultimately one thing that my patients are able to really help me with is teaching my students that you can't know everything. So it's really important to me to be honest with my students that I don't know all the answers, but we can find them together. I think that gives, you know, as a faculty member, oftentimes they feel like you're invincible and you must know it all because you're a faculty member. And that's far from the truth. So giving that little bit of humanization to where they feel more comfortable with you and asking you questions, my patients are able to do that a lot because we encounter different situations that we need to look things up and figure out the best plan and approach. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: What a valuable lesson for your students. Dr. Jessica Burchette: It really is. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: So you get to work with them in the patient setting early in their programs and then later in their programs as well? Dr. Jessica Burchette: I do. I'm very fortunate. I have the chance to work with what we call our IPPE students, that's introductory pharmacy practice experiences. So after the second year, the students do a two-week clinical rotation where they really get to put their toes in the water and see how some things are coming together. And I really enjoy that because they're so eager, and they're so excited. Sometimes they're nervous. But I think just seeing how it works really helps them hold on to the information and also feel like they can see their purpose as they move forward. And then in that last year, as fourth-year students, honestly, one of my favorite things about my job is watching the lights come on for those fourth-year students, when they realize, oh, this is how this works, and this is how I can impact patients, and getting to know them as people, you know, on those fourth-year rotations because in the classroom, oftentimes it's hard to get to know them one on one. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Unless they decide to come up to your office or they reach out. So the chance to spend one-on-one time with small groups on rotation is really special to me. And I take a lot of memories, and I've made a lot of connections and actually lifelong friendships with some of my students based on that experience. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: So I understand that you've been working to streamline the curriculum in Gatton to prepare student pharmacists for the evolving health care environment. What is that new curriculum going to look like for our students, and how will it prepare them better to sort of understand the needs of patients as you've just talked about? Dr. Jessica Burchette: That's a great question, and we have been feverishly working at Gatton over the last 18 months to really look at how can we best prepare our students to be graduate-level pharmacists and to go out and impact the community from day one. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So one thing we looked at was the number of credit hours in our didactic curriculum, and in an honest assessment, we, we felt like it was probably too much. We were packing too much into the day, and we weren't giving students time to digest and really build the material, scaffold the material over time so that they were able to put the pieces together. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: The first tenet or principle that we looked at with our curricular philosophy for revision was essentialism and efficiency. Being efficient with a student's time, making sure that the essential concepts they need to carry forward for patient care are at top priority. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: The other benefit of cutting those didactic hours is we have freed up time for students to have more hands-on experience. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Which is so important. That's really where the majority of their learning is going to come from and the retention of that knowledge and information. So we've been able to add more IPPE experiences where students are going to have the chance to really solidify some basic concepts prior to going into their fourth year, and then really excited about the fact that we're adding a fourth excuse me, a fourth-year additional rotation. So currently our students do nine four-week rotations, so they get 36 weeks of hands-on experience. And with this, they're going to have the opportunity to add four more weeks to their experience in a direct patient-care environment. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So they'll be working directly with patients and really impacting them one on one, working with other providers. So those benefits of realigning our didactic curriculum have been beneficial. The last thing I'll say about that is medicine and health care turn over so quickly. And so the information that we teach in the classroom could be outdated before they even graduate. So we really want to, you know, to use the old adage, we want to teach them to fish. They have to know how to go out and teach themselves and keep up with the information and digest that information for their own lifelong learning and also for the benefit of their patients. So that's also the accountability piece of our curricular philosophy, is allowing us to hold the students accountable for some of their own learning and really teaching them how to do that efficiently. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: That's really interesting that you were able to do that with the curriculum realignment, and I'm certain that that additional hands-on learning will help build their confidence and their skills before they go out to practice. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Yeah, we really think so. And we're seeing some of the fruits of that already. So the IPPE curriculum, we were able to revise that curriculum starting in the fall of 2022. So we have, we're one year into that revision, and we've had really great feedback from both the preceptors and the students on what they see as ways that we can better impact their education and their learning. And luckily, those, the things that we heard from the students were the things that we were thinking as faculty. So having that reinforcement that we were on the right track from a student perspective was really important. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: At ETSU, as you well know, we prioritize the importance of community-engaged learning, and you've just described some of the work that you've done in that space as a faculty member. So tell us more about some of the hands-on community-engaged-learning experiences that our student pharmacists participate in during their time at Gatton. Dr. Jessica Burchette: One of the things we really pride ourselves on is the chance for students to impact the community from day one; from the very beginning, they receive their training to administer immunizations. So from day one, they're able to go out and actually give patient care to patients through flu-vaccine clinics. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: COVID vaccine clinics have been a large staple of our community engagement over the last few years. But there's so many other ways that they engage. We participate with RAM, Rural Area Medical. Yeah. And the students help out with that. We have several underserved clinics that we volunteer with, such as Appalachian Miles for Smiles and the Health Wagon. Yeah. We also participate in drug-take-back events. One thing that we feel like plagues our area and is a concern is unused and expired medications that are in people's homes, and they oftentimes don't know how to safely dispose of those. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So we have partnered with the Johnson City Police Department and the Fire Department, and we actually set up at various times throughout the year, and the students go out and help take those medications back for safe disposal. It's also a chance to actually educate the students in that and the patients on proper and safe use of medications. The best part about going back to the curricular piece that we just talked about is that because of that streamlining of the didactic curriculum, we're opening up so much more time for students to be engaged with the community. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So we're starting a new core series that I'm so eager to see. It's called Personal Development and Community Engagement. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Okay. Dr. Jessica Burchette: And that will run across all three of the first didactic years. And students are going to have a menu approach. So we're going to have a menu of opportunities and activities that we think students could benefit from. And then our goal is to encourage them to pick the things they feel passionate about and get involved with the community in that way and really see how they can fit in, even if it's not pharmacy related. We do a lot of philanthropy with area elementary schools, doing Christmas gifts and food baskets and other type of activities like that. So just empowering them from day one to realize that you can make a difference in your community is really important. And we're really excited about the direction that we're able to move with that. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: That is so exciting to hear about the expanded opportunities, I think to continue the work that Gatton has done from the beginning. And I know that the students and faculty have been recognized at a national level for some of this work, right? Dr. Jessica Burchette: Absolutely. We've won several national awards. Dr. Sarah Melton Thomason has been instrumental with some of our national awards with Generation Rx, and that really focuses around educating the community on opioid use disorder and how to reverse opioid overdose. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So, we do naloxone training and administer free naloxone to the community and to health care providers to have available in case they run into a situation and they find that they're within a medical emergency. We've had other awards through our student organizations that have been recognized at the national level for their work and for giving back to their communities. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: We recently were awarded the Lawrence Weaver Award, which is a recognition of how we as a college have impacted our community at large, and we were selected nationally for that recognition. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: That's outstanding. The work that you've described in expanding the number of community-engaged-learning opportunities for students certainly requires a considerable time commitment by faculty. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Dr. Jessica Burchette: Absolutely. One thing I will say about Gatton, and I really feel like ETSU as a whole, is we are a family, and we treat each other in the faculty and the staff as family. And we also see our students as an extension of that family. And when they're with us for four years, they're our family, and they're always our family, even upon graduation. But the chance to really watch them grow and see the opportunities and the ways that they can get engaged, it does take work on the part of the faculty. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Our faculty are passionate about engaging the students and also engaging in the community. And so while it is a workload, it's also a labor of love because it really is something that we feel passionate about and we want to do for our community as well. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah, and as teachers. Dr. Jessica Burchette: As teachers, exactly. You know, teaching people to just be good humans and be good stewards of your time and of your wisdom and the things that you can provide to other people. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: As you know, ETSU has a robust offering of programs across the health care disciplines, including pharmacy, medicine, nursing, clinical and rehabilitative health sciences, and public health. In what ways do you see your students benefiting from these programs and the opportunities for interprofessional collaboration? Dr. Jessica Burchette: That is such a great benefit to our students, and I feel like we could do an entire hour series talking about all the benefits of the interprofessional collaboration, and lucky for our students, it starts from day one. They have an interprofessional communications course that they start out with learning how to talk to patients with the other disciplines, so the medicine, the nursing, the psychology students are there. They also work with the interprofessional program that's located in Bishop Hall, and they have several different activities that they perform; they are learning how to work in teams, learning how to manage conflict, and learning how to also look at patients and social determinants of health to figure out how can you best impact them. I think what I see for my students most often is they don't always know their value and how they can be valuable to patients. And so sometimes working with the medical students, especially on those clinical rotations, they're a little intimidated at first because they're like, "Oh my, oh my goodness, this person's going to be a physician, and how on Earth could I help them in any way?" And so watching them work together and fill in those knowledge gaps for each other, watching the medical students and the nursing students teach my pharmacy students about the diagnostics and understanding what's going on with the patient, knowing how to read a chest X-ray, or looking at interesting findings on labs, and then my students to be able to say, "Oh, I know how I can fix that. I know how I can help you fix that for this patient with these medications" and educating them on how medications work and the side effects, educating the patients. So, it really gives our students a chance and I think students across all the disciplines to know their role and their value and how it really takes a village to take care of patients. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. We know that the best teachers are those who continue to learn. What are some of the most important lessons that you have learned from your students or your colleagues, and how do you continue to learn as a teacher? Dr. Jessica Burchette: That's, that's a great question. I think I'll start with my students because I think as a young faculty member, I underestimated how much I would learn from them over the years and how much I continue to learn. One thing I feel like it's very easy to fall into as a faculty is to take credit for high-performing students, but then be like, oh, well, this student didn't do so well, but that can't be my fault, right? That must be the student's fault. Right. And so really looking across the continuum of your learners and saying you can't pick and choose which of those learners you impact. So meeting the student where they are and helping them grow in whatever area they need to grow in to get to the next step, that's so important, and my students teach me that all the time. I may be standing in the classroom, and I think, "Wow; I really knocked that out of the park. They all know it so well. There's no way they'll get this wrong. And then we talk about it later, and I realize I missed the mark. We need to review that, and I need to review the way that I've covered that for you. So my students teach me that I always have to be on my toes, and I'm so thankful for them. They also give me such encouragement. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Jessica Burchette: You know, there are days where you think, "Hmm, what am I doing here?" Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Should I, should I do something else? And then you have that moment with a student or with a group of students, and you realize this is exactly where I want to be. And these are, these are the people, these are the reasons why I want to do this. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: It's the best, right? Dr. Jessica Burchette: It is the best. It is. It is really the, you know, it's that soul fuel that you need to really continue on with your journey. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: My colleagues have been so generous with their knowledge and with their encouragement as well. We have a joke at the College of Pharmacy; there are four faculty, including myself, who all started at the same time. And so we were all what we call junior faculty. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So we call ourselves the junior faculty for life because we really, you know, we work as a team, and we encourage each other, and we're there to help each other. But it expands beyond that group. You know, all the faculty have been so generous. I think one thing that the late Brian Odle, he passed away a couple of years ago, and he was so impactful for me. He was also my clinical partner. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So I got a lot of time to work with Brian one on one, and he taught me to be yourself. You know, you really have to be comfortable in who you are -- right -- and how you can move forward in that and not try to be anybody else. That was really important. And I would also say that Dr. David Stewart specifically has been a huge mentor for me. He was my residency program director. He's mentored me through faculty. And now we work very closely together with the curriculum. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: And he's really taught me a lot about contentment and knowing that there's always going to be an opportunity. So you're, you may in the moment, you may feel overwhelmed, you may not be able to see the vision of where you're going, but you just keep marching forward with that, and that door will open up, and it will be there, and it will all fall into the places that you hope to see it fall into. So he's really taught me about being content in the place I'm at, but also striving for more. And I think that's a really important balance as especially a mid-level faculty. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: You know, so. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: What a valuable lesson from a colleague. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So valuable. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: That's lovely. Dr. Jessica Burchette: I'm very fortunate to the group I work with. I'm extremely fortunate. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: So the Gatton College of Pharmacy has a wonderful tradition called Prescription for Success, where the graduates choose faculty members to share their wisdom with the class. And this year, the class of 2023 chose you for this honor, and I had the honor of being able to attend that event. I think it was one of my favorite events throughout the entire academic year that I got to attend. Can you talk about what that event meant to you and the connections that you've made over the years with your students? Dr. Jessica Burchette: Absolutely. I agree. That is my favorite day of the entire year. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: It's our last chance to really be just as a as a college with the graduating students. The next day they graduate, and that's really about their families and them celebrating with their families and their friends. And we don't always get the chance to give them those hugs on graduation day because it's very busy. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: But that Prescriptions for Success day is really our chance to see their final product and to tell them how proud we are of them and to hear what their plans are for moving forward. So it is a very special day, and being asked to speak is one of the most thoughtful things that happens as a faculty member. It's one of our highest honors at the college because you get a few minutes just to say a last bit of advice to that graduating class and to look out on their faces and remember all the journey that have gotten you there. So it is by far my favorite event. And it's also the thing that I get most nervous about every year. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yes. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Because it, you feel like I've got three minutes. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Right. Dr. Jessica Burchette: I really need in this three minutes to give them some good advice. And I usually spend several weeks thinking about it, and may have an epiphany, and it you know, it just kind of just comes up. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: But other times, it's, it's a big, it's a big responsibility. So. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Every one of the presentations was outstanding, including yours. It was amazing. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Thank you so much. Everyone always does such a wonderful job, and I leave inspired. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Every example was different. Every story was different that faculty shared. Dr. Jessica Burchette: Yeah, it's great. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. So my last question is what impact do you hope that you've made on your students? Dr. Jessica Burchette: Oh, goodness. That's, that's a big one. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Dr. Jessica Burchette: I think if I look back on my life and if my students were at my funeral, I would hope the last thing they say about me is that she was a good pharmacist. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Hmm. Dr. Jessica Burchette: I would hope that they would say that she cared about me, that she wanted me to succeed, that she encouraged me, that she was a good friend. You know, those are the things, those human qualities that you really hope people carry forward. I hope that they would say, she always treated me with respect. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Mm-hmm. Dr. Jessica Burchette: So the pharmacy degree is just the avenue that I have to interact with the students. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Mm-hmm. Dr. Jessica Burchette: But really teaching them and learning about them as people is what's the important part. And I hope that they remember that about me as they graduate and move on into the world and that they're able to pay that forward to future pharmacy students and future patients and colleagues that they're going to interact with. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Yeah. Thank you, Jessica. I appreciate your commitment to our students and your work in the classroom, in the clinical setting, on the curriculum committee, and throughout your college. It's wonderful to see a member of Gatton's inaugural class come full circle to prepare the next generation of pharmacists. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Burchette, the Gatton College of Pharmacy, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you like this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Karen Brewster, professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, has shared her love of theater with ETSU students for almost 25 years. Podcast Transcript:  Professor Karen Brewster: It is a magnificent space. It is a state-of-the-art space. The tools that the students need to learn to use. We now have the appropriate tools for them to learn. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us Why I Teach. In this episode, we will talk with Professor Karen Brewster, chair of the ETSU Department of Theatre and Dance. An ETSU alumna, Professor Brewster studied under the esteemed Daryl and "Bud" Frank while earning her undergraduate degree. She then earned an MFA in costume design from Michigan State University, followed by years of working in professional theater companies. After honing her talents as a professional artist, she joined the faculty at ETSU in 2000, where she now inspires students in her Theatre History and Theatrical Design courses. In 2017, Professor Brewster was named one of ETSU's Notable Women for her leadership, creativity, and commitment in the classroom and the community. Enjoy the show. Professor Brewster, welcome to the show. Professor Karen Brewster: Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Professor Karen Brewster: That's a great question and thank you Provost McCorkle for inviting me today. And yeah, it's to think back, it was August from 2000. So that's been a while ago. But yeah, I think the advice I would give myself is maybe trust yourself. If I'm talking to myself, "Trust yourself. You'll be fine. And also trust the students." I have learned that trusting the students is really an important aspect to remember. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's wonderful. So, at ETSU, as you know, we place a premium on getting hands-on experiences for students. You, like so many others in your department, bring real-world experiences to the classroom. Tell us how that shapes the way that you teach. Professor Karen Brewster: It's everything we do. Everything we do is hands-on. We have, as you know, our residence currently is in the Bach Theatre there in the Martin Center for the Arts. And so it's essential for us, the hands-on. It really is what we're all about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: And I'm certain that those hands-on experiences enhance their learning, prepare them for the what's next, right? Professor Karen Brewster: Absolutely. Absolutely. And as you mentioned in the intro, I had worked in professional theater for years before I came to ETSU, and I'm very happy to be here. And most of the people who work on the faculty and staff in our Department of Theatre and Dance have done substantial professional work outside. And so it's that, our experiences are hands-on, and so we bring that hands-on perspective to the classroom and to those laboratories that we work in. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. So congratulations are in order to the Department of Theatre and Dance: All of your theatrical performances sold out last year. Audiences enjoyed the performances in the Bert C. Bach Theatre in the new Martin Center for the Arts, which you just mentioned. How has the space at the Martin Center transformed the educational experience for our students and also for our community? Professor Karen Brewster: It is impossible to overstate this. It is a magnificent space. It is a state-of-the-art space. The tools that the students need to learn to use. We now have the appropriate tools for them to learn with. And so they are working in a state-of-the-art facility. And so they'll be ready because they're working in this space to go out and work in any, any place that they end up working in. Often I give tours of the facility to potential parents and potential students. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And what the space does, in addition to giving us a state-of-the-art facility to work in, is it signals to those potential parents, because they have said it to me repeatedly, that this is the support for the arts that the university provides, and it states, it really shows, the priority that the arts have for ETSU and for the administration. And we're greatly appreciative of that. And that's important as well. But we can't overstate the importance of that space and that facility to us and to our program. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Well, that's wonderful. And I know you had the unique experience as a faculty member of helping to design that space. Professor Karen Brewster: We did. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Talk a little bit about that. Professor Karen Brewster: Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. And we feel very privileged. Again, thank you to the ETSU leadership to allow us to have a seat at the table when the building was being planned. Because that has made all the difference for us. And when again, when I give those tours to parents and students, I talk about, you know, we had input in the way this is arranged, the way the scene shop is, the placement of the scene shop next to the performance space. We had input for that, and it was very important, and it makes it a very functional space. The fact that the end users had input there is really impressive, and we're thankful for that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Well, I've had the wonderful pleasure of attending many performances in the Bach Theatre with Dr. Bach in attendance. Professor Karen Brewster: Always thrilled to have you all. He's been such a wonderful supporter of the programs and of the arts. It's great for him to be able to see the facility. He's such an enthusiastic theater audience member, and he's very, very knowledgeable. Yeah. I'm always impressed with him. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Me too. Professor Karen Brewster: And appreciative of him. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Can you share any insights on the role of theater in society and its potential impact on students' lives? Professor Karen Brewster: Well, you know, we've seen it with this COVID thing we've just been through, how critical the arts are for society and for our students. The arts give us an opportunity to kind of make sense of what's happening around the world. All the arts too, not just theater, but all the arts that we have here on campus. And we have tremendous units that practice arts and teach arts here on campus. And what the arts do is they provide a way for us to make sense of the world. And when you think about the critical events that are happening currently and what we've just been through, the arts are central, and our students enthusiastically go, come to us, go to the arts, and want to participate because it's necessary, it's needed. And as audience members, as art makers, but also as audience members. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen D. Brewster: We really need the arts, and I'm thrilled that ETSU supports it.What teaching methods or techniques do you find most effective in engaging students in the study of theater? Well, it really is that hands-on thing, and the students really respond to it. And again, what we do is such a collaborative hands-on art form, and we are, theater, particularly, and dance as well, we are a collaborative art form. And it's transient, meaning it, what you see tonight, if we have a run of a show, tonight's performance may be very different than tomorrow's performance. You know, we have plans that are hoping this to be similar, but each one is transient and its own thing. And so I think that that hands-on experience that we provide students and the way we teach in a hands-on manner is essential for making them ready, making them ready to go out into the world and be theater makers on their own. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So when we watch a show in the Bach Theatre, students have designed all those sets, right? Professor Karen Brewster: Absolutely. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. And the costumes? Professor Karen Brewster: Yes, we are, we are student, we always say that we're student-focused and student-driven and student-centered. But yeah, we have faculty mentors, but we, everything that is done on stage and behind the scenes is really student-driven. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's great. So there have certainly been changes in the way that people produce and consume art and entertainment in recent years. Has that sort of impacted the way that you determine which shows that you want to bring here? Are you thinking about what that might mean for audiences, for our students who are presenting the shows? Professor Karen Brewster: Absolutely. And we have actually a play-reading committee that is comprised of students as well as faculty and staff. And we read a lot of plays every year as we're making our decisions on what we're going to do for the following year. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen Brewster: And we take a lot of things into account, like what's good for our students coming up, what is doable in the Bach Theatre? Because we have to consider the space. But also what do audiences want to see, what is relevant to our times because we want to be relevant. And so we have a lot of things we want to take into account. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen Brewster: It is a challenge because theater is, it's time, a time-consuming process to create a theatrical production. And I think that actually we see this in our students, that the students appreciate and are really kind of hungry for that kind of process because we live in a digital age, right? And so theater is really a little more, you know, if we're doing it right, and we're taking our time to put that together. And so that can be a challenge. But also, I think that once people understand that, they embrace it because I think we do have a hunger for that kind of experience. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen Brewster: We're kind of missing that, I think. Yeah, we think about that very deeply. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Are you able to share a preview of what's to come this upcoming year? Professor Karen Brewster: Well yes, actually, the shows that are coming up, we usually, actually what we're doing that's different this year or kind of a signal of growth for us, we have our new Musical Theatre program, which started in fall 2019, headed by Dr. Brad Fugate. And of course, it started just before the pandemic. And so we we are a little bit slow out of the gate just because we initiated the program just before the pandemic. But now we are seeing it, which I knew it would, grow, starting to grow very quickly. And Dr. Fugate's done a wonderful job with that. And where we in the past, we did one musical a year, and now we're going this coming year, we're going to do two musicals, a musical in the fall and a musical in the spring. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Wonderful. Professor Karen Brewster: And so we have two straight plays, as they're known, or nonmusical shows, next year, and then two musicals. And so in the fall, we're doing "These Shining Lives," which is a straight play about, it's also the story of Radium Girls. Some people might be familiar with that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen Brewster: Young women, based on a true story, that painted the clock faces using toxic materials, and it ended up causing them to lose their lives as a result or have drastic problems with health. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Professor Karen Brewster: And so that's the first story. And the second one is "James and the Giant Peach," the musical. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle: Oh, wonderful. Professor Karen Brewster: Which is a theater for youth. We try to maintain theater for youth presence on our stages, and we have a close relationship with University School, and they usually come over to see what we do, but we also invite other area schools to come to see the show. And so that's for fall. And in the spring we're doing "Eurydice," in the winter, which is based on Greek mythology. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And that will be directed by Dr. Ante Ursic, our new Physical Theatre professor, and he has some very interesting things planned, including wire walking and maybe aerial silks use. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Is that right? Wonderful. How exciting. Professor Karen Brewster: And then the final musical is "Heathers," which I think a lot of students are excited about doing, and that will be directed by Melissa Shafer. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Wonderful. Professor Karen Brewster: And Dr. Brad Fugate will be doing musical direction for both of our musicals. So we're looking forward to it. We did "A Little Shop of Horrors" last spring, and it was very well-received. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes, fantastic. Oh, I'm really excited. It sounds like a great set of performances. Can you share an example of a particularly memorable or transformative teaching moment that you've had while at ETSU? Professor Karen Brewster: Maybe not a particular moment, but I can talk about, I'll be happy to talk about, as you said in the introduction, I had worked in professional theater before I came to ETSU, and when I first came, I was the costume designer. Our department was in a unit in the Department of Communication, and now we're our stand-alone department, as you, as you stated. And so I was a costume design professor and also did theater teaching. But I ran the costume shop, and it was the first time we actually had a producing costume shop on campus. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And we see that as a learning laboratory. And at that time, it was located in Brooks Gym. And so that was every afternoon from 1 to 5, I was overseeing that costume shop. And so I'd come from doing professional costume shop supervision. And then I came onto campus and created a professionally modeled costume shop and spent my afternoons overseeing that shop. And so we have all of our students that come through the program, and we currently have our shops in the Martin Center that are run by wonderful people. The costume director is Beth Skinner, and the technical director is Zach Olsen, and they run it full time. But at the time with Melissa Shafer, we were running shops side-by-side in Brooks. And so I, I just spent my afternoon with the students, and every student came through there. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: They were either work study or they were laboratory students or they were taking classes in other ways. And so just that experience working hands-on with the students and utilizing that professional experience that I'd just come from was very special time. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: I'm certain that stands out. Professor Karen Brewster: It does. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yeah. Great memory. As I noted in the introduction, you had the opportunity to study under Daryl and "Bud" Frank while you were earning your undergraduate degree here. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience? Professor Karen Brewster: "Bud" and Daryl Frank, even though I call them Mr. and Mrs. Frank, even now. I can't, I never call them by their first names. But, but they had such an impact on every student that they had contact with. Every student I've ever spoken to since I've become chair of the department, I sometimes talk to alumni who were here with them when I wasn't here, at other times, everyone has the same response when they talk about those two. Mrs. Frank, who I call her Mrs. Frank, they're no longer with us; they both have passed on. But I kept contact with her all the way until she passed away just a few years ago. And Mr. Frank as well. They were just, just so interested in their students. We believe in the students so greatly, and we have such interest in our students currently. And they were great models for that. And they did that as well. They would open up their homes to students, their home to students. They would, you know, actually took students in when they needed it, fed students when they needed to be fed. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And they were tremendous theater artisans themselves and were great role models for the theater. I couldn't have asked for better mentors. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: But what a great legacy for the department here, right? Professor Karen Brewster: Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Thank you. Professor Karen Brewster: Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So I have to ask, of all the performances that you have been a part of here, is there a favorite? Do you have one or a couple that stand out? Professor Karen Brewster: It is so, a lot of times I know my colleagues and I will talk about this. It's a common kind of question that people will ask. What is the favorite thing you've ever done? Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And it's really hard. And we all kind of agree it's hard to pick one because as theater professionals, we see each one as a kind of a unique entity in itself. Yes. I will definitely say that the one we just completed, "A Little Shop of Horrors," that was because of the success of it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And every aspect of it seemed to work well. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: Yes. Professor Karen Brewster: And also the audience response to it. I certainly would put that high on the list. It's great. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: So, related to that, is there a play that you would like to do that you have on your planning or hope list that you hope that we get to that that we haven't done yet? Professor Karen Brewster: With time. Yeah. We, we would like to, and it will take some time when we're ready to do this. We would love to do a large musical in the Grand Hall. You know, currently we're in the Bach Theatre, which we love; we love working there. But if we could mount a larger musical in the Grand Hall for the sake of our students, that would be wonderful. And that's going to take some time and planning, working with the Department of Music and others. And with time, we're going to hopefully do that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's exciting. That's great. Finally, Karen, what impact do you hope that you've made on your students? Professor Karen Brewster: When I think of contact with students that I have here at ETSU, what I'd love for them to take away is not just from myself, but from the whole department, is I want them to, we believe in them. We believe in our students. And I want them to understand that we do believe and value them. That's first and foremost. And we want also want them to understand the arts and the value for the arts and to go away from that, no matter  what they end up doing in life, to take that value of the arts and to take what they can do artistically into their lives in whatever way that means and just believe in themselves. So they take that belief that we have in them and personalize it and take it away and just believe in what they can do and the impact that they can have on the future. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle: That's great. Thank you, Karen. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the creative work of you and the Department of Theatre and Dance and all of your colleagues on stage at the Martin Center in the Bach Theatre, and I appreciate your leadership and commitment to the students at ETSU. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Professor Brewster, the Department of Theatre and Dance, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

ETSU alumnus Dr. Daryl A. Carter returned to his alma mater to teach in 2008. Over the past 15 years, he has instilled in his students an appreciation for history and the humanities and has led ETSU's Black American Studies Program for the past three years. Podcast Transcript: Dr. Daryl Carter Well, one, I think that students need to understand that STEM is important, but critical thinking is important too – soft skills are (as) important as hard skills – that they need to have the ability to engage the world around them, to ask smart questions, to study and research and discover truth, and that the humanities allows us to really make sense of who we are, what we are, where we were, and where we're going. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us Why I Teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Daryl Carter, who in 2021 became the ETSU College of Arts and Sciences’ first associate dean of Equity and Inclusion. An ETSU alumnus, Dr. Carter joined the ETSU faculty in 2008. He serves as a professor of history and director of ETSU’s Black Americans Studies Program. In addition to his work at ETSU, he is a member of the Tennessee Historical Society board of directors and served as chair of the board of directors of Humanities Tennessee. Enjoy the show. Dr. Carter, Welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, good morning, Dr. McCorkle. Thank you for having me today. I would say that my first memory... my biggest memory was being here on August 25th of 2008, which was 11 years to the day after I came here as a freshman. So that was really heavy on my mind that day. I was extremely nervous because I was in the classroom basically on my own for the first time. I had served as a graduate assistant here and at the University of Memphis, but this was my first class and I wanted to do well, and I didn't sleep well the night before, and I was still working on my Ph.D., so I was a little insecure about that. So those first memories were jitters, they were insecurity, I wanted to do well, and then just thinking, you know, just 11 years ago, I was here walking on the campus as a freshman going to English class. So. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Wow. So, what would you tell yourself about those jitters, and sort of what to... what to make of that? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, one, I would tell myself to relax, not to take myself so seriously. Number two, that, you know, as you go into the classroom, you have this feeling that everything needs to be perfect. Everything has to be just right. And that you have to have all this detail, all this information. But your students, they really don't know as much as you think that they do. So if you're just a little bit ahead of them, you're usually in a good space. And what I mean by that is if they knew as much as I had thought they knew, they wouldn't be here, right? They’re here to learn from me, and so I would tell myself: Give yourself some grace. Relax and realize that they're here to learn and they don't know as much and just enjoy the students. And I've been able to do that my entire career, and not just in teaching, but learning, because I learn so much from my students about life, about history, about black American studies, about the country. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle That's great advice. So there's a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr that says: “We are not makers of history, we are made by history.” How do you impress upon your students the importance of understanding the past and how it relates to the present and to the future? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, I talk about that in several ways as I go through the course of a semester. One, I explain to the students that when you study history, you are studying people; not just dead people, not just events, not just long-past types of situations, but you're studying yourself. So everything that we do, from our love lives – romance – work, health care, everything has a history to it. And if you don't know some of the basics of American history, you're really vulnerable to a lot of negative things, whether it's disinformation and misinformation, whether it's political propaganda, whether you do not understand the basics of labor history in the country and how we got to this place here in 2023. So getting students to understand that this is not just about other people, it's about themselves and it's about them taking ownership of themselves and their own future by engaging the past to inform their decision making. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle You are a strong advocate for the humanities here at ETSU and statewide. How do you share and instill the passion for the humanities in your students? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, one, I think that students need to understand that STEM is important, but critical thinking is important too – soft skills are (as) important as hard skills – that they need to have the ability to engage the world around them, to ask smart questions, to study and research and discover truth, and that the humanities allows us to really make sense of who we are, what we are, what we were, and where we're going. And you don't get that in engineering. You don't get that necessarily mathematics or business. You get that from the humanities. You get that from programs like History; or Black American Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Literature and Language; Theater and Dance. The humanities help teaches us about ourselves in a way that makes us versatile, that makes us attractive to employers, that makes us better citizens, better community partners, and it also helps us to hopefully not reengage in behavior that has been destructive in the past. So we're using those lessons to make sense of our present. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Dr. Carter, as you know, we recently launched our community-engaged Quality Enhancement Plan that's called “Go Beyond the Classroom”. How do you think the humanities will fit into our QEP, helping to involve more students in community engaged learning? Dr. Daryl Carter I think it's absolutely critical that our students have a strong humanities experience on our campus. I think it's critical to the QEP. When we're talking about a community-engaged learning, there's nothing in my mind that's more important in that regard than our students being able to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it outside the classroom; whether it's service learning projects, whether it's nonprofit, whether it's the corporate sector, business sector, whether it's entertainment – they need that experience. And so taking humanities education and the humanities values out into the real world and applying them is very, very important. I think that's why humanities should be at the center of all talk about QEP. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Yeah. Well, that's great. Dr. Carter, your area of expertise really focuses on the intersections of race, class, and gender and how they impact American political history. Some chapters of our nation's history are quite painful and difficult to discuss. So how do you guide these conversations in your classroom when they come up? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, number one, we have to start with a floor of respect. I will respect you, you will respect me and you will respect your fellow classmates. The topics that we discuss are going to be sensitive. They could be around racism or xenophobia or the Holocaust or sexual assault or something else. And we have to be sensitive to that. We also need to engage in rigorous and vigorous debate. And so that means we don't attack individuals. We may attack ideas, though. We may say: That's a really bad idea. But we never say you're a bad individual. And so we acknowledge that on the front end. This is difficult. This is challenging. This is not going to make you feel comfortable. But this is why it's important that we have these conversations. And to that end, we use the safety of the classroom to engage in conversations that sometimes we're not always able to have in the public spaces and the public squares because of the intensity of the moment, the intensity of the feelings and emotions surrounding it. And so guiding these conversations has to have respect. It has to have, you know, this is compassion for others, a recognition that somebody may be wrong, but they have a right to feel the way they want to feel about a situation. And that we are there to keep them as a part of the conversation, regardless of how they feel about the issue, to keep that conversation going. And so dealing with difficult and painful issues in the classroom is part of what we do. If we're not making the students feel uncomfortable from time to time, we're not really doing our job. And I think if we would take these types of lessons into the public square, we would be better served as a country. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Thank you. The Black American Studies Program has recently hosted quite an impressive list of guest lecturers, writers, and artists. We welcomed the former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey to campus last spring, and I was honored to introduce poet Nikki Giovanni, who visited campus in the fall. There have been many other well-known guests who have provided engaging educational experiences for our students and for the broader community. In what ways do you see the Black American Studies program making an impact upon our students and the university? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, one, I think that the program is interdisciplinary, and that is absolutely vital to understanding what we do. We engage with Appalachian Studies; the Department of History; the Department of Literature and Language; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and others across campus. And so bringing that interdisciplinary vibe to it is very important. Secondly, I would also say that the program is vital in terms of preparing students for the world that they're about to inherit. We are not a majority country anymore in terms of “White America”. We are now right there in a majority minority country in which people identify as something other than white, or biracial, or tri-racial, etc. Having understanding about the African-American experience gives you understanding about the women's rights movement, about the Latin rights movement, about welfare rights, about Native American rights, about others, because a lot of them followed black Americans in terms of tactics, strategies, language, rhetoric, etc. And so I think we play a vital role there. We also play a role in engaging the community. And that's important, getting them to events, but also having conversations. So I give a lot of discussions about the black American experience from various perspectives. Later this afternoon, I'll be at the Langston Center Wall, where I will talk about Dr. King; where I've talked to their young children, you know, school age children. So I think we play a vital role in helping our own students, but also the community-facing aspects of the university. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Yeah. So what are some of your goals for the Black American Studies program moving forward? Dr. Daryl Carter Well, obviously we want to grow. So we started – three years ago when I took over the program – with four students. We're now up to around 15 and we're continuing to grow. I just got an email last night from a student wanting to talk about enrolling in the program right after spring break. So we're real excited and we're about to reach out to our academic advisors to talk about promoting the program for students who are getting ready to register in April. Secondly, we want to have a graduate component of it in future years, where students can either get an MA in the program or they can get a graduate certificate in the program. And we also want to explore partnerships with the Department of History and Appalachian Studies in particular, in those two departments, where we are making excellent use of our resources, faculty and otherwise, to give a diverse experience and to give them a really good understanding of blacks in Appalachia, which is critical for getting rid of these myths, that Appalachia is monolithic, which it is not. And so those are some of our goals. We also want to do more with the community. We want to do more mentorship with the community. We have a student group, the W.E.B. Du Bois Society, which is just getting off the ground. We got about 15 or so students, not all of whom are minors in the program. And so we want to grow that as well. So there's a number of things we're working on. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle That’s great. I look forward to hearing more about all of that. As you look back over the figures who have shaped our country, who inspires you the most? Dr. Daryl Carter Oh, that that is a tough question. Outside of – you know, I'll give you example – outside of baseball, which is my favorite sport, my favorite team is the New York Mets, which means I spend a lot of time disappointed. But I say that because almost everything else, I have like 20 different favorites. But I will throw out a few here. One: Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. One, I'm writing a book on him now, but secondly, the man lost all three of his brothers violently, lost nieces and nephews, lost his own dignity by his own fault. But the the sheer willpower to keep at it, to keep going when all the shine of the Kennedy name went away, when all the scandals started to emerge in the seventies, and he kept going away and was able to retire – from life literally when he died in 2009 – is arguably the top two or three United States senators. He authored hundreds and hundreds of bills that were vital to the country's welfare, everything from the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to Title Nine to children's health insurance – so much more. So he's one. And I like the fact that he was so badly flawed in key ways, whether as the womanizing, the drinking, all those kinds of things. And still he was able to move forward. Ida B. Welles would be another one. The great risk that she took to describe lynching in the South – and particularly when she was in Memphis – eventually drove her away and out of Memphis for safety reasons, it was incredible. For society to claim that they were doing nothing wrong, they sure got violent when people described what they were doing. And so the great risk that she took to do that was important. W.E.B. Du Bois is another one. He lived almost 100 years, was an original member of the NAACP, one of the original editors of the Crisis magazine, and a premier American intellectual. So he's– he's another one. I would also say that James Baldwin would be another personal favorite of mine. He some scholars would say that the lion's share of his work in terms of great importance came early in his career in the fifties and sixties, but his career lasted 30-plus years, and he was one of the most prominent black intellectuals in the country. So I find him to be particularly valuable in terms of inspiration – he’s doing at a time where it is very taboo to be male, black, and gay. And that I find particularly noteworthy. When he takes on William F. Buckley, when he takes on some others who are basically justifying segregation and racism and things of that nature was fascinating to me. And recent years, young people have become a big fan source of inspiration to me ,because they're looking around them at people like us who are much older than they are, who are not necessarily preparing the country for the future in the way that we should, and they're saying: Nno, there are things we can do to improve the country. We can get involved locally, we can get involved with the community, we can do education programs, food drives, we can engage business locally. We can create our own businesses. Seeing that is important because it means that there is a bright future coming, in part because the young people are not following in the same mistakes that earlier generations made. So that's important to me. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle All of your examples remind me of a recent opportunity I had to visit, in Memphis, the Civil Rights Museum, and thinking about that experience and how impactful that could be for students to sort of observe the history, but also to view it as a call to action about things that can be done now to address societal issues. What's been your experience with the Civil Rights Museum and thoughts about bringing students there to experience it? Dr. Daryl Carter I think it's a great idea, and I'm currently– I just had a meeting with my student group last week and I said that may be on the agenda for 23-24; if not there, then somewhere else that we can go. I did my stay at the University of Memphis, and so I'm very familiar with the Civil Rights Museum, and we had relationships there, one of my main advisor’s wife worked there, and my main advisor lived across the street. So I spent a lot of time there. I think it's a wonderful place, in part because of what they were able to do with it, but also because of the history that's there. Part of the problem that I see now is that people do not want to discuss what happened. Not just with King, but with race and gender overall. You cannot discuss American history without talking about African-Americans. It just doesn't happen. Beyond that, we watched as a lot of white Southerners – for example – were exploited, because others, particularly political elites, were exploiting their racial grievances. And so going to these places and saying: Okay, yeah, that happen, how do we not repeat that? is important. How do we give everybody dignity and respect? How do we bring everybody to the table? And last but not least, we talk about business all the time, especially here in the South, that tends to be allegedly more business-friendly, but at the same time, I will simply say when we exclude men, women, people of different races, whatever, there's a human cost to that. There's a financial cost to that. What are you loseing in terms of productivity because you did not hire this person or you excluded this person or because you created policies that drove others away? And so we have to look at this holistically and say: Are we getting everything we can possibly get out of people? By making sure that we are giving those two things dignity and respect. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Do you have a favorite topic or lecture that you like to present to your students? Dr. Daryl Carter I have a couple. I love talking about the Kennedy administration. I like talking about the assassinations – John Kennedy in particular. My students get a kick out of some of the more salacious parts of that, both with the assassination and President Kennedy's private life. And I get all kinds of questions about, well, how could that possibly happen, and where was CNN during all this? I have to explain to them, CNN didn't exist. You know, totally different environment. And so I enjoy giving that lecture. I like talking about reconstruction. Not because it's a pleasant topic, but because it's an important topic. All that hope, at the end of the war, over 12 years just goes away. And by 1900, Rayford Logan talks about the nadir of black life, because it's all gone there. And that's why Ida B. Wells and other women, particularly black women, are coming forward, because it's so dangerous for black men to go into the public square at that point. They're being lynched, they're being arrested, they're being put on convict lease systems, chain gangs, you name it. And I don't think you can talk about the 20th century or the 21st century without talking about that. Some of the response to President Obama was almost identical language to what we would have heard 140 years ago. And so that's another important lecture for me to give. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle That's great. Finally, what impact do you hope to make on your students? Dr. Daryl Carter I hope that when my students leave my classroom, that one they'll feel that they had a faculty member who truly cared about them, who wanted them to succeed, who was inclusive and open to them and their ideas. A professor that they felt they can trust. That gave them valuable tools in terms of analysis and interpretation and critical thinking that is going to allow them to pursue their dreams, their goals, their life's mission. So I want students to feel that they were, in a sense, loved here. And when they go away that they have fond memories of that and that they want to pay that forward when they're in positions of authority in their own lives, whether it's their children or their workplace or graduate school, or they go into the profession themselves as academics, I want them to pay that forward. So I'm really big on not replicating the types of mistakes that you and I learned in graduate school and professional schools, and that the students coming away are healthier than what they were in previous generations. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle That's great. Thank you, Daryl. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I appreciate the work that you do to promote equity and inclusion at ETSU, and the impact that you make on your students every day in the classroom. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Carter, ETSU’s Black American Studies Program, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on Twitter @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Dr. Mary Mullins, chair of the Department of Social Work at East Tennessee State University, knows the value of ETSU’s commitment to interprofessional education. Before she joined the faculty at ETSU, she practiced social work in medical environments, where she saw the benefits of social workers practicing alongside other health professionals to improve outcomes for patients. In her classroom, Dr. Mullins shares her experiences from clinical practice, as well as her personal stories of advocacy to inspire the next generation of social workers.  Word Transcript:  Dr. Mary Mullins And I love working with students when they're in their internships because it’s really fun to just watch them blossom. And for some students, they land in the right spot and they find find their area. They sometimes find their home and get offered jobs there. So for other students, they find, you know, where they're going to be challenged as social workers. And so either way, it's a really powerful learning experience. Dr. Kimberly McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of our students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us Why I Teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Mary Mullins, one of two recipients of the 2022 Notable Women of ETSU Award. Dr. Mullins serves as an associate professor and chair of the ETSU Department of Social Work. In 2021, she received the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award and was nominated for the ETSU Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. Enjoy the show. Dr. Mullins, welcome to our show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Mullins Oh, that's a really good question. When I think back to that first day coming on to a new campus, I really (wanted) to do a great job. I would say now: Just relax and enjoy the time with the students. I spent so much time feeling like I needed to be just overly prepared, and being prepared is important, but really just relaxing a little, allowing a little more flexibility in the flow of classes and learning from the students is where I am now. Dr. McCorkle I love that image of learning from your students. Why did you decide to become a social worker? And then from there, what led you to become a faculty member? Dr. Mullins Well, that was quite a journey. I think I always knew I wanted to work directly with people and throughout college I tried different majors and just kind of bopped around. I think it was really an intro to psychology class where I really started to connect with the human behavior element. And then that led me on to learn about social work. I worked as a social worker for several years in Southwest Virginia, and then later, many years later, went back to school and pursued a Ph.D. because I decided by that point I wanted to teach. I had worked with students who were pursuing a degree in the agencies I worked in, and I was just fascinated by that experience of working with students. So after the Ph.D., ETSU... I'd actually worked at ETSU back in nine... It was in the 1900s. But I had worked as a research assistant shortly after my undergrad experience, and for me, when the opportunity came to be a faculty member, it felt like I was coming home to ETSU, as ETSU had been just a really good place in my career at that point. Dr. McCorkle As a faculty member, how do you draw on those professional experiences? Being a licensed professional in the field, how does that impact your teaching? Dr. Mullins I still have so many stories. I worried, you know, as the years passed, you know, that I wouldn't have relevant stories. But even yesterday I was able to share a story with students and it's so vivid in my mind, those times in practice. And so I try to use those personal stories, whether it was a positive story or a negative story, to kind of help students understand the realities of being a social worker and what they might face. Dr. McCorkle So one of the important roles for social workers is in the work of advocacy; advocating on policy, social change. Can you talk to us a little bit about your experience in advocacy and the ways that these experiences help you prepare students? Dr. Mullins Unfortunately, I had a really negative experience in my life that was... that is when I really learned about advocacy and the importance of that. I was a social worker in practice. My brother passed away suddenly, and shortly after his death we found out that he had really been treated very poorly at the time of his death. He had a heart attack while he was driving. There was a police officer responded (sic). He was denied CPR on the scene because the police officer knew that he identified as gay, and as it came out, the police officer actually assumed that he was HIV positive, and apparently had little education around universal precautions and that sort of thing. So that was... that was horrific. I had lost my brother, but then to know that he had been treated that way at the time of his death, it really – just for my whole family, (it) wasn't just me – but I didn't know what to do. But I was a social worker, so I wrote a letter. One letter. (It) turned out to be a very, very powerful letter telling the story of what had happened to my brother and just asking for help, asking for help in addressing that. It turned into... I heard from lots of legislators, the governor, lots of different people. But most importantly, several advocacy agencies reached out to me and were prepared to offer to represent our family in a legal case related to this. And at the time I wrote the letter, I wasn't thinking about that. They knew what we needed. So we ended up working with the ACLU, who filed a lawsuit around that. It was kind of a... definitely a transformation for me. Again, I was learning about advocacy and I was given a voice. And I used that voice. I participated in press conferences. I went to... presented at a reception in New York City and told this story. And there was just... Really, the challenge – and I think personally, that's how I was working through some of the anger and the grief around that – was to just really try to raise awareness around that, and that, that whole process, you know, took a while. At the end, the the city involved were required to do a lot more training with their employees, because that's what I wanted. I just wanted people to be educated. There was nothing to bring my brother back or to take away, you know, what he heard, the last... right before he passed away. But I'm just really educating and advocacy and that that whole experience led me into the research with LGBTQ. You know, I had to to kind of funnel that someplace and it was like, What can I personally do? I'm spreading the word. We're participating in this legal case. But there's... I really learned there was more for me to do around that. So being able to do research and use that in teaching with students... And for a lot of years I didn't share that story with my students. But these past few years I've been sharing that story, because... I really make the point: It was one letter. Take the time to write the letter because you really never know who's going to pick that up and listen and the impact that you can have from that one letter. Dr. McCorkle Thank you for sharing your story. We know that overall employment for social workers is projected to grow faster than the national average for all occupations over the next decade. How has this influenced the way that you teach and the ways that we offer the program here? Dr. Mullins We definitely... Our faculty, our department, is very committed to our profession and to the public, to the community, addressing their needs. We have worked really hard within our department to make our programs accessible across the region and beyond. So most recently, we have been able to offer our master's program online, which has really made a huge impact on students being able to complete their degrees, those with families and– or maybe live some distance from ETSU. And we're in the process of approval for our BSW program to do the same thing because we really want the programs to be accessible. There's such a demand, as you said, across the board for social workers, and we really want to do our part to prepare competent social workers. Dr. McCorkle I've been reflecting on that, and I know that we're all aware of the mental health epidemic in our country. It's well-documented and there's a lot of unmet need for mental health services across the board. Talk to us a little bit about how the social work profession kind of fits in to meet that unmet need. Dr. Mullins The majority of social workers actually work in mental health, and that's kind of not a well-known fact. Most people, when they think of social workers, they think of child welfare. But social workers are really on the forefront with mental health, particularly in our community mental health centers, both bachelors-level and masters-level clinicians in those settings. They provide direct services to individuals through case management by our BSWs, where they're helping to make sure they're getting all the services that they need. And just being that extra support up to our master's level clinicians that are providing psychotherapy. A lot of that relates back to... often times there's substance abuse involved. We train our students to be able to address substance use along with a dual diagnosis with other conditions as well. So definitely we're very proud of our students out there. Our program has a very high success rate for licensure. It's actually above the national average. So we are really trying to address those mental health needs. Dr. McCorkle So in your multiple roles as department chair, professor, mentor, you have the opportunity to help prepare the next generation of social workers. What characteristics and teaching style do you bring to the classroom to help inspire students? Dr. Mullins I try to bring, I think, curiosity. I never come in as the “all-knowing”. I tell students on the first day of class, I'm here to facilitate your learning experience, not to, you know, impart you with great wisdom. So it's very much, I challenge students to think critically. And I try to present them, you know, with enough evidence that they're challenged to think outside the box. Like you said, with the challenges that we're facing, our students need to be able to be creative in finding solutions or finding resources. And so critical thinking is just, to me, one of the most important. And, to really... I try to inspire them to have passion, to challenge adversity and equity issues as well. Dr. McCorkle I think related to that, I know that your current research focuses on work quality and integrity in social workers who serve the LGBTQ+ community. So what are some of the challenges and opportunities that you have identified through this research? Dr. Mullins I think over time with that research, the biggest thing that I have identified was when I first started that research, I was like, So what do I do with this information? There were some obvious biases among practitioners that I found in the research, so, bringing that back down to the classroom of what I could do each day, and that's really been about teaching the students about implicit bias, encouraging them to become more self-aware or to challenge themselves, but doing that in a safe environment where there's not, you know, a level of shame, and just really educating them about how, you know, we're all socialized and receive different messages and now we have an opportunity to learn better and do better. And I think my biggest takeaway from that research and how I've been able to use that day-to-day with, with my students. Dr. McCorkle Yeah. So as you're aware, ETSU has had a long history in interprofessional education. And last year, to kind of advance that, we actually announced the formation of the ETSU Center for Interprofessional Collaboration, which we hope will strengthen our commitment to interprofessional education across the health sciences colleges; and your college – and your department in particular – have been major contributors to our interprofessional education program. Can you talk a little bit about social workers’ roles in interprofessional teams, and how you work with that center with our students to help prepare students for for working in this team environment? Dr. Mullins Actually I think I have an assignment today to do with... I'm actually one of the asynchronous facilitators this year. So this is very near and dear to my heart. When I was a social worker in practice, I was mostly in medical environments. So coming into this, I was just really excited to have an opportunity for students to participate because I think it completely strengthens the whole team for them to be educated in this manner. So for our students, they have an opportunity to really educate the other professions, so, while they're learning about the other professionals as well. But our students primarily are – on that interprofessional team – are addressing the social indicators of health. So looking at, you know, what resources that person may need, but then also they're able to address the mental health issues that oftentimes come up that the physician or the nurse may not know exactly how to respond to that. So to me, the wonderful thing about the interprofessional team is to have everyone present working closely together to better serve the patient. And I've really enjoyed participating in that. I've been a facilitator I think for five years now, and we are now moving toward all of our students participating. But I have always encouraged our students to take advantage of that because even if they're not going into health care, those skills are so translatable to the other settings where social workers may work in a interprofessional environment. Dr. McCorkle Yeah, and that's what I was thinking, you've actually infused it in the curriculum now, both the bachelor's and master's levels, right? Yeah. So as you are aware – because you've participated in this initiative – that we've recently launched a major initiative in ETSU that we're calling Go Beyond the Classroom and it's focused on community-engaged learning broadly. Tell us about some of the ways that your social work students are going beyond the classroom to engage in experiential learning in the community and beyond. Dr. Mullins So our students are out there in the community all the time. I think the biggest way that they're going beyond the classroom is through internships and practical terms. Our bachelor's level students complete 480 hours of time in an agency. Our graduate students, up to 1000 hours over a two-year period. So I feel like our students are really contributing in the region. They're working directly with people supporting agencies. And of course, it's a very mutual situation. Those agencies are hosting our students. They're continuing to educate them beyond the classroom for us or in collaboration with us. But it's a really powerful thing to see because a lot of the smaller nonprofit agencies really depend on our students to be there to provide services that maybe a paid employee would normally be paying, but under– with low resources, they're not able to fully fund the staff. So our students really are able to provide a lot of really good service in the community while they're also learning. And we're very appreciative of all the agencies that we work with. Dr. McCorkle And I always think about the impact that – particularly for social work students – that this experiential learning, at such a high level as you've just said, hundreds of hours required for the degree conferral, the way that that impacts their future decisions, career path interests. Can you talk a little bit about that? Dr. Mullins Oh, absolutely. It's a... And I love working with students when they're in their internships because that's really fun to just watch them blossom. And for some students, they land in the right spot and they find find their area. They sometimes find their home and get offered jobs there. So for other students, they find, you know, where they're going to be challenged as social workers. And so either way, it's a really powerful learning experience. I had a student last year who came in that year telling me she was dead set on doing something else with her career, but there was an internship available, and through that internship, she realized that she loved working with teenagers and it was just such a fun thing. And she wouldn't have learned that probably for a really long time had she not had that experience of the internship, so. Dr. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Mullins Well, that's that's a tough one. I think overall, just as a social worker, thinking about the profession, integrity is so important. And so I've always tried to model that for my students and encourage them to walk a path of integrity. So I would hope that they always remember that, because I think that's one of the most important things when we're dealing with vulnerable populations is that we're trustworthy and competent along the way. And also more recently, I guess, making sure that they are taking good care of themselves. That aspect, there's a lot of potential for burnout in the profession. So I really encourage them to continuously stay well, stay healthy, because they can't do good work if they're not. So that's hopefully some of the things that my students will remember from, from being with me here. Dr. McCorkle Yeah. Thank you, Mary. I am so impressed with the work that you're doing. Congratulations on being named a Notable Woman at ETSU. And thank you for your commitment to our students and preparing them to serve in their communities. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Mullins, ETSU’s of Social Work, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost's website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on Twitter @ETSUProvost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Dr. Virginia Foley has decades of experience in education, first as an educator and administrator in the K-12 setting and then transitioning to higher education in 2007. As a faculty member in ETSU's Clemmer College, she prepares students to make a difference in the classroom. She is also making an impact in the boardroom, where she serves as the Faculty Trustee on the ETSU Board of Trustees. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Virginia Foley The big idea for our program is that leadership is a moral craft. And so I hope our students assume that responsibility for the moral purpose of leading schools and caring for students. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I've been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Virginia Foley, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in the Clemmer College. Dr. Foley joined ETSU in 2007 after serving many years as a K-12 educator and administrator in Georgia. She is a past president of the ETSU Faculty Senate. As a faculty member, she has chaired over 100 doctoral dissertations. She also serves as the faculty trustee on the ETSU Board of Trustees. Enjoy the show! Dr. Foley, welcome to our show. I start every podcast with the same question for each guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Virginia Foley I think the biggest piece of advice I would give myself is that you have time. Most of my students that I teach, I will work with over two years and so I don't have to hurry up and try to dump everything in them. I have time to watch them grow. I have time to grow myself. Starting here, I frequently said I was fluent in K-12, I understood the K-12 education world very well, but I was learning higher ed, and so I had to give myself time with that also. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's wonderful. So you spent several years as a public school counselor and a principal in Georgia before you began a second career as a faculty member here at ETSU. Talk about how your previous professional experiences have shaped your career in higher education. Dr. Virginia Foley I was a couns– school counselor for 20 years, and I think that those experiences and the training I received as a school counselor prepared me well for leadership roles because it's about building relationships and it's about listening – deep listening. As a school principal, I would not have been able to do the job I'm in currently if I hadn't served in that capacity, because everyone who teaches in our licensure program either is or has been a school principal. So we're preparing school principals; we want people who are teaching them to have walked that walk. I retired from the central office and that probably was the best preparation for my career here because it was things I learned while there that really shaped the way I teach. We were bringing some work into our district and training our teachers in understanding by design. It's a framework by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and had I not had that framework, I would not be teaching the way I'm teaching now. So it's identifying what are the big ideas you want students to walk away with, and how are you going to know what evidence do they have to provide you that they understand those concepts bone-deep, and then how do you structure experiences to give them that deep understanding? Had I not had that opportunity in that training before I came, my students probably would have been reading a lot, writing a lot, taking tests. And as it is now, the experiences are structured very differently. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, they... they've transformed the way you teach. Dr. Virginia Foley Definitely. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So most of your students are current teachers, as you mentioned. What is it like for those teachers to return to the classroom as students? Dr. Virginia Foley The hardest thing for them is to get used to the fact that grades are not what drives things. They’re teachers and they are always used to being successful and getting good grades. So they want to know, am I doing what you want me to do? That's a big adjustment for them because I tell them it's about the learning and we're not going to worry about the grade and that if they do what they need to do and they're learning and they're giving me evidence of learning, they'll get the “A” that they want. But other than that, they get a lot of detailed feedback. And if they're not on track for that grade, then I'll let them know and let them know what they need to do to get the grade they want to get. So that huge adjustment, but it’s also them writing your first paper again after you've been out of school for a while and giving your first presentation to your peers after you've been out of school for a while, so there's some adjustment there, but we do a lot of developing and laughing and we are all learning together. It's always interesting when professionals become students again. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Because your students are working full time, how do you structure your programs is it online, in-person, a mix of those? Dr. Virginia Foley Ours is a mix of both. When I first came to ETSU, we were teaching night, so I taught on Monday night from four, supposed to be from four to 10. It was technically about four-thirty to nine-thirty; after they'd worked all day. And then I taught on Wednesday night, same time. After I'd been here a couple of years, we switched to Saturday classes. And so when we meet face to face, we meet on Saturdays from nine to about three-thirty. We go to lunch as a group, so we're eating together. Sometimes it’s an extension of conversations that happened that morning; sometimes it's just getting to know each other. Breaking bread is a great way of building relationships, and so that's how we structure our Saturday. An unintended benefit of the change to Saturday classes was that we didn't have to be regionally-based anymore. We were using a cohort model, but people could come from everywhere. So we weren't driving to Morristown for a cohort and people coming from that area. In our first cohort on Saturdays, we did have people from Morristown, from Maryville, from Asheville, and then from our Tri-Cities area. But now with our cohorts, it's not uncommon for me to have people from Nashville, from Memphis, from Jackson. So they're coming from everywhere. And that just makes the cohort experience that much richer because of the diverse perspectives and experiences that people bring. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That’s great; and I would imagine that the Saturday format is in some ways preferable to the weekly meetings? Dr. Virginia Foley It is so much better. And we don't– we meet– we don't meet every Saturday, you know, we have a certain number a semester, but the Saturday also helps because they're not fatigue after having taught all day long. We get there with energy and then I think we all leave tired. But it does make a difference. And then the remainder of the coursework is online, but it's structured pretty tightly with weekly discussions. And then there are papers and there are presentations that are both virtual and face-to-face. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle And I would imagine that part of the benefit is that they're building those professional relationships with each other – with you, but with others. Dr. Virginia Foley With each other also, yes. I think our students will tell you that the internship that they get in our program and the cohort structure are two of the biggest things they take away – and lunch; they’re one of their favorite things is lunch on Saturday. Tell me a little bit about the internship model then that you mentioned. Dr. Virginia Foley We have the most extensive internship in the state. We have a minimum requirement of 540 hours, and 100 of that is at elementary, 100 at middle school, 100 at high school, 100 at central office, and then 140 that are split between community and diversity which... a minimum of 40 in one of those. But students could get 70 and 70, they could get 90 and 50. But most of our students finish the internship with over 700 hours. We tell them, Don't stop counting, because when you're interviewing for jobs and you say, Well, my internship requirement was 540, but I was able to get 700 hours. And the internships experience are documented, they're aligned to standards. If you're a student in Tennessee, they're aligned to our Tennessee instructional leaders standards. If you're a student from another state, then we're aligned to the professional standards for educational leaders, which are national standards. And that's what our licensure exam is based on. So everybody gets exposure to those standards also. Students are getting a very rich internship experience. They have mentors that they identify. Our requirement for their mentors are that they have to either be or have been a school principal. And then we have an internship supervisor who makes regular visits with interns and their mentors. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle And every student has to experience every level. Dr. Virginia Foley They do have to experience every level because... your license is K-12. And one of the people who begged for no elementary, her first principalship was in a K-8 school. Another person who was an early childhood person, his first assistantship was at a high school, and he became a K-8 principal, and now he's a high school principal. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Is it true that middle school principalship is the hardest, or is that just a myth? Dr. Virginia Foley If you love middle school children, students, it's not hard. And that was where the majority of my principalship was, was in a middle school. And I love those kids, that aged kid. If you don't like them, it can be really hard because they are just all over the place. One minute they're a kid, the next minute they think they're 28. And they're trying on different identities almost daily. It's just them trying to figure out where they belong as they separate from family and form their own groups. I think my counseling experience prepared me well for that principalship. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So I noticed under your current research on your bio page that you noted that your research interests are, “everything that my dissertation students are currently researching”. Talk about your process of mentoring doctoral students and some of the most interesting things that you've learned from your students. Dr. Virginia Foley Well, when it comes to mentoring doctoral students in dissertations, one of the most important things about teaching is know who you're teaching. And so different students need different approaches and different things. Some are just ready to get it done. They love this part of the education and they are just marching on. And some need that... all of a sudden they feel abandoned. It's like they've had coursework, they've had deadlines, and then they're they're kind of on their own, so I've learned to help build in deadlines, especially for those who need it. And if I say, this is due to me then some of those students will not miss deadline. Some of them just, Well I know it's a guideline; so they just keep going on. So I nag, I cheer, I encourage, I celebrate. So it's just different approaches with different students. But some of the topics have been really fascinating. I had within the same time frame, within two or three years, I think I had four different students that did their dissertations research on freshmen academies because that was a movement for a period of time. And then I had a student who was looking at female leadership. And a serendipitous discovery was the role of mentors. She uncovered this network of women who were all mentored by the same woman. And it was a total surprise, but this woman knew that females needed mentors. So she started a book group, and then out of that book group then mentored people. I had a student who was studying teacher development in Malawi. And the definition of rural in Malawi was if you had to walk more than two and a half hours from the town center to get to the school, that was a rural school. And one of my students really looked at money and per pupil expenditure and then its relation to student success on typical measures. And basically what he found was it doesn't matter. And so these schools that have low per pupil expenditure but are very successful, we all need to go find out what they're doing. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle How do you help students sometimes who are struggling in identifying a topic? Dr. Virginia Foley I tell them that by the beginning of their fourth semester they really need to be firm. And so we've talked throughout on things they're interested in, but they really need to get clear. And then recently our P-12 part of our department has really built in some checkpoints along the way. And even with all that, you have students who change their mind. But I believe that if you're doing something that you're interested in that matters to you, it makes the work a lot easier. So you're now in your second term as the faculty trustee for the ETSU Board of Trustees. Will you tell us about your role on the board? I have thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of serving on the board, and I didn't mean to run for a second term, but the pandemic occurred. I was six months into my first year of my first term, and then we all went remote and then our meetings were remote. I just really felt like that I could learn more if I were able to serve a second term. And so I ran again and was elected. I think my job on the board is to first read thoroughly all the board materials, even on the committees I'm not serving on because I feel obligated to faculty that if there's something that might impact faculty, I just need to point that out. I attend every committee meeting. The people that are on the other trustees are so committed to the success at ETSU and we're all pulling in the same direction. My role on the board really is to talk about... just every now and then say, But this is how this rolled out, because of information I have that they don't have, because they don't live here. I mean live at ETSU. Bottom line, my role as a trustee is the same as anybody else's; is to make decisions for the university that make the university stronger and better. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Can you share with us maybe one of the most rewarding experiences you've had in serving as the faculty trustee? Dr. Virginia Foley I think I always like to welcome faculty back at Convocation. I love the new ceremony for tenure and promotion. I think the Heroes ceremony that we had last year that honored the people who just stepped up during the initial stages of the pandemic was probably the most moving experience that I've had. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope that you have made on your students? Dr. Virginia Foley The big idea for our program is that leadership is a moral craft. And so I hope our students assume that responsibility for the moral purpose of leading schools and caring for students. You cannot delegate responsibility for that moral purpose. You can delegate other aspects of the job, but not keeping the focus on the vision and moving the school in that direction. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Virginia. From your work in the classroom to your service on the ETSU Board of Trustees, your work is truly making a difference in the lives of our students. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach.  

ETSU College of Public Health's Project EARTH, located at the ETSU-Eastman Valleybrook campus, has received national recognition for its curriculum. Dr. Mike Stoots describes some of the hands-on learning opportunities taking place there and why he enjoys teaching in this innovative program. Podcast Transcript:  Dr. Mike Stoots So Project EARTH started off making products. Now we have classes; we have community experiences. People come in and it's still centered around solutions to low-resource health challenges, but it focuses on team building, innovation, and resilience. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty. Their passion for what they do. Their belief in the power of higher education. And the way that they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Mike Stoots with the ETSU College of Public Health. Mike is one of the longest-serving faculty members in the College of Public Health and is also the director of operations for the award-winning Project EARTH, located at the ETSU Eastman Valleybrook campus. Enjoy the show. Dr. Stoots, welcome to our show. Dr. Mike Stoots Thank you. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that first day, what's one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Mike Stoots Well, I can certainly remember the first class. Not so much about the first day, but the first class I taught was in the ground floor of Lamb Hall. It was a – back then, it was a personal health course. So I had my book, my notes. I walked in. There were probably 40 people in the room. I remember going to the podium, opening the book, laying my notes out, grabbing both sides of the podium, and starting to talk. I think I looked up one time at the back wall, looked down, looked at my watch, and said, "Okay, that's it for the day." And walked out. First one out the door. Terrified. Yeah. If I could go back and be in the hallway that day, I would have one piece of advice with three parts. The first one I would tell myself is "Just relax." And treat all students with respect and appreciation that they're there. The second one would be there are sort of three ways to talk to a group. The first one is to talk at a group, and that's certainly what I did that first day. I was talking at people, and more, really, I was talking to the back wall, wasn't really talking to anyone. And I work with new faculty now, and I tell them that this is a process that takes time. So you can start off talking at people, and then you can talk to people. This is when we have good eye contact. We express ourselves well. But then the third way is talking with people. Now, this is when the instructor isn't the center of attention anymore, and you give the students more time in the classroom to interact. This is a challenge because you give up control. And sometimes students may not provide the comments that you're looking for. And it's a real art to be able to steer the conversation back in the right direction without becoming a dominating force. So I'm not sure I would have listened back then, but that's what I would say now to that person clinging to the podium. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Great advice. Yeah. So I know that you're also an ETSU alumnus. And as someone who's relatively new to the ETSU community, I'm fascinated to hear about how the campus has grown and changed. What's changed the most since you first joined ETSU? Dr. Mike Stoots The student population was much lower then, and there was room. I remember people being in the front yard of Brown and around the center of campus, and people just were outside. And then over the years, as the enrollment grew, those spaces became smaller and smaller, and it became almost an industrial feel. There were buildings, there were parking lots, and not a lot else. But now with the new green space all over campus, you see people outside more. It's really a full circle from being a nice, quaint little college back in the day to now a university that is very student-centered. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Did you take classes in Brown? Dr. Mike Stoots I did. I had classes in every building, I think. I had a couple of undergraduate majors and my master's in public health and almost a master's in exercise science. Wow. So I’ve been all over campus. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I always think it's neat to think that you took classes and later you taught in those same spaces. Did that happen to you? Dr. Mike Stoots Oh, it did. Yeah? Several times. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. During your time at ETSU, you have helped to develop a curriculum that sets the ETSU College of Public Health apart from other universities. For those who have not heard about our nationally award-winning curriculum and public health simulation lab, please tell us about Project EARTH and the Niswonger Village. Dr. Mike Stoots Project EARTH began with two of our students – our master's students – returning from Africa after a semester-long internship, and they both had worked in clean water in different countries, and they put in bios and water filters. After they presented on these topics, Dean Wykoff and I were in the back of the room, watching their presentations, and when it was all over, we said, "That is a wonderful thing they're doing." Clean water is a foundational element of public health and health around the world. But we were talking about that and said it's a real shame we didn't teach them how to do that. They picked that up and educated themselves on biosand water filters. And we were discussing it further, and we thought, "Wouldn't it be great if we could teach them that?" Well, then the stars aligned, and Eastman Chemical was gracious in donating the Eastman Valleybrook campus to the university. And we had a small space there, one room, and we started teaching a select group of students how to make biosand water filters, indoor cookstoves, how to build with adobe. And from that, it started to grow, and we were centering on product development. But then we started noticing and the students started telling us that while learning the products was great, they were learning teamwork, innovation, and resilience. Yeah. And at the same time that was happening, again, the stars aligned for us, the workplace, all the different workplaces, they were telling us that we need graduates who are good team members, who can be innovative and creative and who are resilient, can maybe work in an environment they're not used to, and get through that and excel in something they're not quite used to. So once this got started, we spent years developing individual programs where students participate in activities, develop team building, innovation, and resilience. We put them in a situation outside the classroom: no tables, no chairs, no fluorescent lighting. They may be in a workshop; they may be outside. And we have activities that community members come in and do, maybe an hour activity, or it could be a three-day activity. So Project EARTH started off making products. Now we have classes, we have community experiences where people come in, and it's still centered around solutions to the low-resource health challenges. But it focuses on team building, innovation, and resilience. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle And you've built this hands-on kind of curriculum into many of your classes and programs across the college, haven't you? Dr. Mike Stoots Yes, we have multiple undergraduate classes, one of the doctoral seminar classes, they participate in it, and the students are given a challenge, a health challenge. And with that challenge, they have to learn certain basic tools, the skills. It may be driving nails; it may be reading a tape measure, sawing lumber. But then they take those new skills, and they make adobe molds. Then they make adobe bricks, and then they make an adobe cookstove. But it's really not about whether a student can drive nails or read a tape measure. It's about can a student come out and see a challenge, come up with a solution for the challenge, and then find out what the skills are required to meet the challenge and go learn those skills and implement them. We can't tell the students what the challenges are going to be in the next 20 years, what the next pandemic will be. But if they have a very rich method of thinking and being creative and they're resilient, I think they're going to be prepared for those challenges. I had the opportunity to visit the facility, and when I was there, the students showed me some crops they'd grown in the garden, and some shoes that they had made. These hands-on experiences seem to be so impactful. It seems to be. And we call it the great equalizer, too. We may have a student who doesn't excel in the classroom with typical lecture and exams, and they'll come out and possibly excel in the workshop. Or a student who is not as confident in themselves as we would like. And they'll learn to do some of these things they've never done before. And some of them have been told they can't do it. So they develop this confidence, and then when they're in our computer lab doing a project or something else, that confidence follows them into the classroom. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. So I've heard both you and Dean Wykoff describe the importance of this approach, and I believe you've also published about it. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Dr. Mike Stoots Yes, we published “Ten Years of Teaching Hands-On Public Health.” And what we did was a summation of lessons learned. And one of the lessons was to get out of the way; give the students the task and the challenge and let them fail. Now, in higher education, when you talk about a student failing, it usually sends off red flags and reports and ... but without the ability and the opportunity to fail, creativity doesn't happen. So we actually give them challenges sometimes that are extremely difficult, knowing that they probably won't succeed, but then they'll come back and do it the second time or the third time or the fourth time, and then succeed. Which sometimes when you tell a group of students that we're going to do this five or six times, they're like, “No, we're not; we're going to do it one and turn it in.” But it's that process. It has to be the process. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What do you see as the future moving forward for Project EARTH? Dr. Mike Stoots Well, as I said, we started off with products, cookstoves, water filters, and we are now back to those things and other issues. And we've always had a desire to involve more community members and organizations, and we are doing that now. So we have different projects within Project EARTH, and we have involved different groups, and those are starting to stand up on their own, be it with beekeeping or agricultural products or other areas. We have AdaptoPlay, our bike program, so it’s standing up. When we first started, we were focusing a little more than I think we needed to on the international health and the low-resource challenges. There's low-resource health challenges in Unicoi County, where I live. You don't have to fly across an ocean to find these challenges, but the dean and I were talking about what if we could create something so that our students who will never travel abroad, what if we could show them how people live? And we sketched some things out on the back of a napkin. And Dr. Stanton, when he was here, had mentioned the idea to Scott Niswonger, and he came out and walked around the property and talked to us about it and then, very kind and gracious, Scott and Nikki Niswonger donated – underwrote – the village for us, so we built the Niswonger Village at Valleybrook. And that consists of homes from around the world. And these aren’t Google images that we found; we've had students in almost every home. They come back with stories of the families and the kids. Even one home, we built the front door based on a picture of the student standing in the front door of the house in Rwanda. And that program is growing now. We have mock epidemics where our doctoral students go from house to house and interview the actors in each house to determine what's going on in the village. We're working on a day program right now where you would come out to the village, and you would live the life of the people from that home. You would cook the way they cook; you would wash your clothes the way they wash theirs. You would live without Wi-Fi – I know I just lost students there – but you would participate in that day. And we're not – that's not going to be like living in that situation. But it's certainly a glimpse. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I love how you described it as an idea on the back of a napkin. I think sometimes those are the best ideas, right? Dr. Mike Stoots Yes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle At the Eastman Valleybrook campus, I understand that public health was one of the first academic programs to kind of move out to that space. Can you tell us a bit about that space and how it's developed over time? Dr. Mike Stoots It is – and I've said this a hundred times – the Eastman ETSU Valleybrook campus is the world's greatest classroom, from the acreage that it sits on to the wonderful facility indoors. We have a computer lab in the facility downstairs. We have a workshop that we can put 25 students in. It has allowed Project EARTH to develop. Without that facility, we could not do what we're doing. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's such a unique space, right, for the work that you're doing. It is really the perfect space for what we're doing. And it has allowed us to grow and to continue to grow. And you bring all public health students out to that space at some point during their curriculum, don't you? Dr. Mike Stoots Yes. All public health students come out and participate in either a class or one of the day programs. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Mike, as you know, ETSU has recently launched our Quality Enhancement Plan, which is designed to encourage our students to go beyond the classroom and to strengthen our community-engaged learning opportunities for them. I see this as already taking place with your students through several programs such as the recycling program and AdaptoPlay. Please tell us about these programs and how they're connecting our students with the community while helping them build that valuable skill set that you've mentioned. Dr. Mike Stoots The recycling program is a little different than when you hear “recycling.” Ours is about re-engineering, contributing to youth charity, new-idea generation. And this program started with a meeting with the OmniSource professionals in town. They're a metal recycler, and we were actually talking about a different project. And the fact came up that they have lots of bicycles that they recycle every month, and they asked if we could do something with bicycles. And of course we said, "Well, we'll try." And that led us to creating a bike shop. Now, in our bike shop, originally, we would take all these different bikes and find parts that we needed and put together bikes. And then they would go to the local Boys and Girls Club. And our students, our Public Health Student Association, they would teach CPR as a fundraiser, and they would buy helmets. So we would give bikes and helmets away. And then the Boys and Girls Club would distribute as needed. So that program went on for a few years, very successful. And then we met some educators with the Kingsport City Schools, and they have a program where they find students jobs. And some of these students had no transportation to get to the workplace. So now we're working with Dobyns-Bennett High School, and we provide bikes, we put fenders on the bikes, we put a basket or a rack on the bike so the students can carry their belongings to their job and back. And we give them a bike helmet. That's been going on for a couple of years. Another program, AdaptoPlay, started with a conference that Aimee Rowe and I attended in Nashville, and we saw the Go Baby Go presentation, and we had heard about this, and we talked about how it would fit within Project EARTH. And then we were approached by a couple of local physical therapists, and the key behind AdaptoPlay or the Go Baby Go movement is working with kids – mostly under 6, but not necessarily – who are differently abled. They have some sort of physical issue, and the best way it was explained to me was try to do physical therapy on a 2-year-old, tell the 2-year-old to do 15 reps of two sets turning your head or something. It just doesn't work. So a gentleman at the University of Delaware had the idea of using small six- and 12–volt cars for these kids. So we started working with our community partners and worked with adapting cars. And you would take the little Jeeps, if you will. And the first example I was shown was a little girl, and she had trouble turning her head and couldn't use her hands. And the Jeep was then taken, the accelerator was put behind her head, so she moved her head to make the Jeep go. And then the steering wheel was altered so she could use it. So you fast-forward two years from then, and now this little girl's looking forward. She's holding the steering wheel. That means that this person will use both eyes. She can now close her mouth so she can feed herself – you know, eat normally. And all this was accomplished with a Jeep that had $600 in it. We have electronic wheelchairs that were donated to us that were $50,000 new. So for $600, we changed someone's life. Yeah. One of the great things about AdaptoPlay is when the child comes out and they've been fitted for the car and our maker team has made the car, and we have engineers who volunteer from the community, occupational therapists, physical therapists. So they've gotten the car ready, and the child comes out and gets in the car. When they first push the joystick or the accelerator, scares them to death. Because it moves. Well then, a few minutes later, they sort of figure it out, and now they're moving. And when you watch that child move in that car, it may be 10 feet, that's enough. Because you have to realize that that is the first time that that little person has ever been able to move themselves on the earth. And you think, what would ... and now that's opened up their whole world. Yeah. Wow. And that, those five minutes make everything we've done worth it. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I love the way you describe it. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of students who had been involved in that project, and they felt so connected to the work, but also so impacted by it. Dr. Mike Stoots And I think that's the best part, that you're involving our students in being able to do this. Yeah. Anymore - and I tell everyone this - I unlock doors, and I get people started, and then I just get out of the way, which is, that's how it should work. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What are you most proud about in terms of the teaching that you have developed, the style of teaching and through the work with Project EARTH and incorporating that across the public health curriculum? Dr. Mike Stoots That the teaching and the outcomes and the end users are all made real to the student. It's not theoretical. It's not something that you will do in the future. It's something that you're doing today, and it's going to help someone this afternoon or tomorrow, that we're trying to help people on campus and in the community every day. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So my last question: What impact do you hope that you've made on your students? Dr. Mike Stoots If I can teach one thing today that will improve the life of one kid that one of these students will have, it's a really good day. And our major is wonderful for seeing impact. I've had former students call me and talk about how they've lowered hospital infection rates or that they've reduced teen pregnancy in a city, county, or state. Or I remember one call that they've developed, this one student developed a program for a long-term-care facility. And when they did the program, she said, "That's the only time some of these people smile." And I thought, "Okay; that's good enough." Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Thank you, Mike. I'm so impressed with the work that you're doing with Project EARTH and the community-engagement opportunities that you're offering to our students. I wish you all the best as you continue the next decade of what's next at the Eastman Valleybrook campus. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information on Dr. Stoots, Project EARTH, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to “Why I Teach” wherever you listen to podcasts.    

Dr. Alison Barton is the new Director of the ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence and an award-winning faculty member from the Clemmer College. Hear her discuss the importance of faculty members seeing their courses through the eyes of their students. Dr. Barton also talks about her use of specifications grading as well as the exciting and innovative resources offered by the center. Podcast Transcript:  [Music] Dr. Alison Barton Teaching isn't finite. There is just never an end point to it, and I think that's one of the challenges with being a faculty member. Is you don't have the article that's published at the end to show you've done something worthwhile. You just have this ongoing set of activities that you do to try to get better and better, and sometimes you try something and it's a step backwards. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way that they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Alison Barton from the ETSU Clemmer College. Dr. Barton is an award-winning faculty member at ETSU and recently was appointed Director of our Center for Teaching Excellence. Enjoy the show. Dr. Barton, welcome to our podcast. I want to first again by congratulating you on your new role with the Center for Teaching Excellence. Sounds like you have an exciting fall coming up. Dr. Alison Barton Thank you. Yes, I most certainly do. This fall I've actually put, hit the pause button on teaching so that I can get my feet under me as I learn more about the role of the Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, and as we put together several new initiatives that we're rolling out from the center this fall. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great, that sounds like a good plan. I start my podcast out with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and I think that was back in 2005. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Alison Barton That's hard to answer because there are so many pieces of advice I would give myself knowing how much I know now about teaching versus then. But probably the biggest piece of advice I could give myself at that time would be to look at my course and at my teach through my students’ eyes. Is the teaching engaging? Are the students allowed to be active in the class? Is the professor inviting versus suspicious of students? And you can see that in I'm sure syllabi that I wrote 100 years ago versus now. Are the assignments drafted in a way that feels purposeful to the mission of the class, or do they feel like busy work that are included just to feel like the course is rigorous? Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I just think that's outstanding advice. Think about looking at your course through your students eyes. That's really very helpful. So you teach courses that are part of the general education curriculum all the way through graduate level. Are most of your students preparing to become educators? Dr. Alison Barton I would say probably most of them are, especially for the classes that are educational foundations level classes. We are preparing our educators to go out and become teachers in the K12 school system. But the general education course that I teach EDFN 2310 is developmental psychology, and I get a range of students in that class. Some of them are going to become educators in that class as well, but I see a range of students including a lot, and nursing students seem to take the course quite a bit as well. So I get quite a diversity in that general education class. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I imagine that means you have to think about the way you develop and deliver that course. Dr. Alison Barton Yes, but I have a luxury in that class. It's about human development and everybody in that class happens to be a human, so we have an easy way to apply a lot of what we're learning in there. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. So you've spent many years teaching courses in the online format. As I understand it, you're actually a pioneer of online teaching at ETSU, and you've been really successful in this. What advice do you have for faculty who are teaching in online formats in terms of keeping students engaged online and achieving their student learning outcomes? Dr. Alison Barton Well, I would precede my answer by saying I don't have all the answers, and if I did, I might be making a lot of money. So as with all teaching it is an iterative process and I'm continuing to learn about best online delivery methods as I continue to teach in online venues. I would say one of the most important things to do to keep your students engaged is to make sure that what you're including in the online environment keeps your students active. Students won't be learning if they are not cognitively engaged with the material and being asked to do things with that material in some way. So it's really important that the activities are not nominal and that they're not passive. Can't just have a video and have students watch that video and then take a test on it. We want them to be working with the information that they're receiving in some way. For making sure that learning outcomes are achieved, that's a really tricky question. I think when we're teaching on ground we have a little more luxury of captive audience there to do little activities that may not feel in the moment like they're related to learning outcomes but do eventually lead to those learning outcomes. When you're teaching online it's easy to overwhelm students with the sense that there is too much to do in that class. So I think we have to be a little more judicious about the activities we choose for students to do and take a look at which ones are going to be the most value added for meeting those learning outcomes so that whatever you assign is going to give students and you as an educator the most bang for the buck on their time that they're investing in that activity. I think it's also important, and this actually is true no matter what modality you're teaching in, but it's really important to tell students how this activity aligns with the learning outcomes. There's really good research that demonstrates that when you're very intentional about sharing that linkage with your students, the students are much more motivated to complete the activity and in some ways that I think people are still trying to find out it actually closes achievement gaps between underrepresented students and other students in your classes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So I think for me what that reminds me of is that teaching online just requires a different approach and intentionality in ways that are really important. Dr. Alison Barton Yeah, I think you have to spend a lot more time thinking ahead and planning ahead for an entire semester to make sure that everything that's done is done with some intention. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I think that's a great way of putting it. One question that I wanted to ask you, you use a method that's called specifications grading in your courses. Can you tell us about this? Dr. Alison Barton I can try. It's a little challenging to explain without visuals and it's a little challenging to explain in a nutshell. But to just precede that a little bit I want to say that I have been learning that grading is actually an activity that can be placed on a continuum from something that's highly managed to something that's almost not managed at all. And that doesn't mean that there isn't feedback going on or teaching going on. This is just about the grading behaviors and grading approach that you're taking in the class. Specifications grading goes more towards the less managed side of grading, but it's certainly not all the way at the end that's ungrad and we are talking about that at the center as well. Specifications grading is when you decide as an instructor, again this is frontend and intentional, you decide which assignments are required for each letter grade that is assigned at the end of the semester to a student. So students see what's required of each letter grade right at the beginning of the semester and you ask them to decide which grade they're going for. Now that can change. They're allowed to change their minds midway through the semester and aim higher or lower. But this way you know that they know what they're aiming for. Those bundles of assignments that go with each letter grade will vary. The higher you go, so the higher the letter grade, the higher the quantity of assignments that are required. And sometimes you may add some qualitatively more challenging assignments for higher letter grade as well. Each of those assignments comes with a set of specifications, that's where that word comes in, and it's a set of make-or-break criteria for that assignment. Students must meet all of the specifications in order for the assignment to count towards their letter grade. And if they don't then they are told this does not yet meet specifications. The beauty of this grading system and what my students have really resonated with is that they are permitted additional attempts to try again. And the way that's typically done with spec grading is to give tokens to students at the beginning of the semester. They can spend a token to try again on an assignment or if they've missed an assignment deadline they can get an extension. Those are typical ways that we use tokens in the class. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, of course, I have so many questions, but I'm going to ask what about students who sort of, from the beginning of this process, just say I want to get a C. Is that okay? Is that rigorous enough? How do you approach that? Dr. Alison Barton I love that question because I actually studied this method with an eighth-grade teacher who did it in her eighth-grade class, and we talked in our article about the ethics of accepting a C. I think at the higher education level, we may want to honor that. I very, very rarely see it. It's typically in my gen ed class where they have other priorities that they're going to focus their time and energy on instead of in my class. I typically reach out and encourage them to do better, but I do try to honor their autonomy in that choice. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's fascinating. How long have you been using this process in your classes? Dr. Alison Barton I think it's been three or four years now that I've been trying it. I heard about it at the conference for higher education pedagogy up at Virginia Tech and was motivated to start trying to use it right away. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well I love the involvement of students at the beginning in sort of weighing in on how they're going to engage with the course. Dr. Alison Barton Yes, I think it's a little intimidating. I've learned to do a lot of front-end education and assurances for my students because they're a little bit, they're always a little bit trepidacious about this new grading system that most of them have never encountered before. But the vast majority at the end of the semester will give very positive feedback and a preference for this grading method over traditional grading methods. The only students that don't like it are those that wanted to coast by with substandard work and not have to redo it for it to count, and that's a rare student but they I sometimes get comments about that. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for sharing that Dr. Barton. I want to talk to you now about your new role in the Center for Teaching Excellence. You've worked with the center for many years now since you've been at ETSU. Please share with us the mission of the center and how it supports ETSU faculty. Dr. Alison Barton Our advisory committee is actually actively working on our mission right now so it's a great question to be asking and we are still in the process of refining our mission in a more formal statement. But it's centering around the idea that education needs to be equitable for everyone here on campus. Our students learning is important and our students deserve to have good teaching and as part of that our Educators here on campus our instructors deserve to have the tools they need in order to provide that good education to our students. So there are a number of ways the center supports our faculty learning about good teaching. We try to give them the knowledge and the tools and ongoing assistance and even encouragement to continue that teaching development trajectory. Teaching isn't finite. There is just never an endpoint to it, and I think that's one of the challenges with being a faculty member, is you don't have the article that's published at the end to show you've done something worthwhile. You just have this ongoing set of activities that you do to try to get better and better, and sometimes you try something and it's a step backwards and you have to go back to the drawing board. But we offer a lot of things to try to support our faculty including workshops where we cover things from very the kind of the basics of what's important for good teaching there we call those the four Essentials and so those four Essentials workshops are the best place to start if you haven't done anything with the center before and we go all the way up to some Cutting Edge and innovative ideas that we like to share out with faculty who have been around the block a few times and are looking for something a little different and new to try out with their teaching. We offer consultations and that can be with our CTE staff but we've also rolled out something I'm very excited about called TLC's or teaching and learning consultations. We spent some time in the spring training peer Consultants from across campus. These are other faculty members in how to do consultations with their peers across campus. So when a request comes in from a faculty member will assign that person to a peer and the goal is to not do an evaluation and not do something that's summative but instead focus on something that the instructor wants a little bit of feedback on and make this a really supportive informative process where the consultant will have a look at what the instructor is currently doing maybe an in-class observation it may just be looking at course materials or syllabi and providing feedback on what things are going well and where there could be additional new things that the faculty member might want to try but it's meant to be an extremely supportive cooperative process. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That sounds like such an effective way to bring in your peers to provide some valuable feedback without it being threatening as you say. Dr. Alison Barton I agree. I think it's really important that our teaching is valued and supported and not critiqued all the time and so I think that's a really helpful approach. I also like that we're pairing people from across campus because I think when we cross-pollinate we get interesting takes and different ideas than if we just kind of stuck to our own disciplines. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I always heard that it's great to have someone from outside your discipline come into your class to make sure that they can understand from a student perspective what you might be lecturing about. Dr. Alison Barton Yeah, I think that that is definitely part of what's helpful, and the other thing is they may be doing something in their classes instructionally that feels discipline-specific but actually could transfer over into this other faculty member's discipline. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So I'll ask you one other question about the work that you've done with the CTE. Can you tell us what do you think stands out most to you about ETSU faculty and the ways that they approach their teaching? Dr. Alison Barton I have seen from many of our faculty a real interest in trying to find ways to motivate their students. Really want them the desire for their students to care about their material is really prevalent among a lot of our faculty on campus and so there's a real thirst for that and I think of very very much a willingness to try new ideas and think of new ideas themselves for how they can tweak their activities to resonate with students and get them to understand the meaning the purpose behind an activity as well as to genuinely get interested in the content of what they're learning. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I love that and it reflects for me what I've seen is just a real deep commitment that faculty have to good teaching. Dr. Alison Barton Yeah I think we definitely have faculty on campus who are very deeply committed to good teaching. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well the last question that I ask every guest. What impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Dr. Alison Barton I think it's important, and what I want most for my students is for them to go and show how important it is to do the right thing, even when the right thing is unpopular or is effortful. And I think that can apply in a number of contexts, certainly for me, what resonates is our social justice contexts, but also teaching contexts. So I want my pre-service Educators who go out to be K12 teachers to understand that good teaching means you're going to spend more time doing it and it's going to require a lot more effort and thought, but good learning happens when you spend that time and effort, and I think that's true of course, with teaching in any context. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's really inspiring. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Barton. You have built an amazing legacy as an ETSU faculty member and we're so fortunate to have you in your new role. I look forward to all that you will do as you support the faculty in the Center for Teaching Excellence. I hope you have a great great fall semester. Dr. Alison Barton Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information on Dr. Barton or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu Provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to your podcast. [Music]  

Dr. Kelly Price is an award-winning faculty member in the College of Business and Technology and a two-time graduate of ETSU. In 2014, she helped launch our new M.S. program in Digital Marketing and continues to serve as one of the primary faculty for the program. Podcast Transcript:  [Music] Dr. Kelly Price And it It prepares them for the new jobs that are coming, the ones that aren't even really there yet, have been invented yet, right um, because those are happening all the time. And it prepares them for that working environment where they can take what they've learned with us, such as the analytics or whatever, and place it directly into their job, right then, right now. [Music] Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I've been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way that they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Kelly Price from the ETSU College of Business and Technology. Dr. Price is a two-time graduate of ETSU and helped lead the creation of our highly popular master's program in digital marketing. She's also a three-time recipient of the College of Business and Technology Excellence in Teaching Award. Enjoy the show. Dr. Price, thank you for joining me today. Did you ever imagine when you were a student here at ETSU that you would return as a faculty member and lead one of our most popular graduate programs? Dr. Kelly Price It's so great to be here with you today, Dr. McCorkle. What an honor it is to get to sit and talk with you about something that I love so much. But to be totally honest, no. I was too busy as an undergraduate anyway with my classes, in my sorority. I was in Sigma Kappa while I was here, and my friends and all of that stuff. But ETSU was such a great place. It is such a great place to be for a student. So, to be honest, no, I didn't imagine I was going to be a faculty member. But I did know even back then in my youthful days that I had wonderful professors here, and they've stuck with me for years. Um, so I'm very lucky. I even just moved forward a little bit on that, the two professors that were my favorite, I got to work with them recently. One retired, but I'm still working with one, but I get to work alongside of two of my favorite professors I had as an undergraduate. So is that crazy? Yes, it's awesome. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle   I like to start my podcast out with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Kelly Price I think this is such a fascinating question because it really makes you reminisce and think and reflect about my first day. I haven't thought about my first day in a long time, but it's been what, 15 years or so now. So I'll use a golf analogy. Do you play golf? Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle No, I wish. Dr. Kelly Price You roller blade? Is that right? Yeah. I would totally break my neck if I did that. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle But yeah I didn't know you should try it. I bet you'd be really good at it. Dr. Kelly Price But I'll use a golf analogy that you know golf is such a mental game, and you can go out and play, and you hit a certain shot on one day, and then you go back the next day, same shot, but it's a little bit different. The LIE may be different, the weather may be different. So you're standing in the same spot, but it's still a little bit of a different shot than it was yesterday. And when you're faced with that shot you either are going to play it safe or you're going to play the risky play, you know which one are you going to do. And no matter what though you're still playing by the rules. You still have rules that you got to go with. So I think the advice that I would have given myself would have been a piece of advice: that you still have to play by the rules, do what you're supposed to, play the lie you have though, and do the best you can in that position. And as my mom, who is a golfer as well, will say, just go for the flag. Go for the flag every time. And so that's how I would have probably said to myself, just just go for the flag. Go for the flag. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Let's go back to the year 2014. That's when we launched our digital marketing program, and at the time there were not a lot of programs that were focused specifically on undergraduate digital marketing. So talk to us about how the program started, what the goals were, and also how it has evolved. Dr. Kelly Price Sure. Back in 2014, I was so lucky because our Dean at the time, her name was Linda Garo, and she had the vision and was just a real innovator, and she was a mentor to me. She kind of took me under her wing a little bit, and I learned a lot from her. And she asked me to direct it. Now little did I know 15 years later after she left and retired um that I would still you know be be moving on with this. But we had very little undergraduate or graduate Pro curriculum at all in our department. But we started to look around and ask, uh, the community members, practitioners in the industry: if you could hire a digital marketing professional, what would they need to know? And that's where it started. And so our goals ended up being to provide a curriculum that was innovative and new. Um we wanted to prepare students for a fast-paced digital marketing environment because that's what it is, it's changing all the time, and provide um and produce actually dynamic and knowledgeable graduate. So it's evolved over time. We started out what takes a couple years to get a program off the ground, so we went through all that and in 2014 we launched in the fall. And over time we've added classes, we've removed classes. We have moved fairly recently, actually, to a seven-week format from full semesters to seven weeks, which has been wildly successful. So we're always continuing to re-evaluate our program. It's great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah tell us about how you converted your courses to a 7-week format. Sounds like that was challenging. Dr. Kelly Price It was it was. Um we started the program with full semesters, but we realized that our students, you know one of the things is they wanted to either go through the program as most efficiently they could or plus we're seeing that as a trend in higher education anyway of these abbreviated courses. And I've done a lot of research on it. I've made some presentations on it, and the research is just showing that students are finding a lot of satisfaction in these swe courses. They're not less rigorous, they're not less quality, but as an instructor as a teacher, I had to really think about, okay, I'm moving 14 weeks into seven. The big mistake that a lot of people will make is I'm going to take everything I had in 14 and squish it into seven and we are going to cover every last thing right. And that just can't happen. You have to really think about what's important and what you want to give them and scale it correctly yeah. It's been a benefit for us as faculty that we're able to also have time to do some research, but it's also beneficial for the students to be really focused in that seven-week course and then to be able to move on. And it does help them. Not everybody because the schedule's different, our program is flexible like that, but they have a little more control over how many courses they want to finish in a semester, plus one more last thing that's really good from an administrator standpoint is that our students don't have to start in August. There's another touch point about halfway through October that they can come in, and that's awesome, ’cause my my kid has soccer all the way through, you know, whenever I've got a heavy schedule at work, can I come in in October? Yes, you can do that. So it's been beneficial all around. I've heard some faculty reflect that it helps them improve their course when they redesign it that way. Absolutely, absolutely, it's made it more concise, more organized, and it's just been wonderful. Yeah, I love a seven format. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So many of us have our own social media accounts, we shop online, but in digital marketing, it seems that there is more focus on helping students not just use their social media, but a focus on how to elevate their brand strategically by using data and best practices. There's a big difference, right? Dr. Kelly Price Well, I'm sure, well, I mean, I've seen you on social media, and how you use it, um, and I think it's done really well to promote the university, but yeah, but as an individual consumer, it's a little bit different. And so yeah but social media we have a course on social media social media and the brand and I teach it it's a lot of fun but social media is just one tool in in the whole digital marketing toolbox that it's it's fun to understand the analytics. So now here's where my consumer behaviorist is going to come out because that's my background, my Ph.D. is in human ecology, and human ecology has to do with how humans react to their environments, whether it's man-made or manufactured or whatever physical, but we have to understand the how and the why of consumers. And so social like I said data is great, but we need to understand who is generating those numbers and why they are generating those numbers um so yeah there's a big difference and social media can be a pretty dark place sometimes but it's also very useful in a branding sense. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So teaching online became highly prevalent during the pandemic but your digital marketing program is taught 100% online and has been all of the courses you teach are online, so I would love to hear your thoughts about online teaching what are the best practices and how do you keep students engaged? Dr. Kelly Price I love this question because I'm the biggest cheerleader for online ed that has ever been. Now if you went back and talked to me several years ago ’cause see I talk taught on ground for years and when they said you know why don't you try online I was like no I can't I don't want to do that I my students and here we are and you know all this type of stuff yeah but took the leap of faith and did it and I absolutely love it. It's a challenge, but there's so much to it. You know I've heard a lot of the hesitancy of online education it's not as good it's not as rigorous but the research just doesn't say that. It says it's at least as good if not better, but it is a challenge, but you know you've got to be organized online and have clear objectives, things like that. But I tell you the one thing that has been probably the biggest reason that I love online education that you have to have is professor presence. It's not good enough to go into a class and build it and hit go and then just sit back see that's why a lot of people think well online educators um sit around in their pajamas all day. No, no, no, no, no., we don't do that. But yes, we interact on discussion boards, and I make a lot of audios so that the students can hear my voice, and that's important for every student they get in my class. Anyway, my students get personalized feedback, and I write on their assignments, "Oh this is really cool. Thanks so much. Dr. P.” You know, so they know that I've had my eyes on their papers. And so you've got to have that professional or the professor presence to make that interaction. It can happen online. I've seen it over and over. In fact, I know my students almost better online because I know their kids and their jobs and their whatever. And you even have people, students online, who will talk more to you than they ever would have in a physical room. Those boundaries are just gone. Yeah, that engagement that they have with the faculty member is heavy, and they will call you or talk to you at 10 o'clock at night. They will send you the email, so you got to be prepared for that. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle As you said, online teaching is challenging and effortful, so what advice do you have for faculty who are new to the method this method of teaching? Dr. Kelly Price Yeah, and like I said a second ago it's um it was it was tough for me, and I know a lot of my even my own colleagues had a you know a tough time when we went to the pandemic and we had to switch, and they had to switch that class over spring break pretty much, and I just oh I I totally understand that, so I understand why that was tough. But yeah as far as moving forward, you got to have patience. You have to have patience with the students, and you have to have patience with yourself because you'll make mistakes I promise. I have uploaded the wrong syllabus to the wrong semester, and I mean, it's just a nightmare, and the dates are wrong, but you know, you fix it. And to really listen to that feedback that they give you. I had just recently a student give me some feedback, Dr Price I had of course they're anonymous but I had you for this class and and you made audio transcripts of everything why didn't you do it on this class and I was like I don't know but I'm really glad you said that it lets me know that it's worth it. So went back and did all of that. So, um, yeah, just a little patience will take you a long way. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great advice. I want to go back to your digital marketing program. I would imagine that employers are looking for people with digital marketing expertise, especially now, as you can probably imagine, most any industry needs digital marketing, and the jobs are out there, and and it's a strong job market for our students right now. So yes um it it it's it's something that can be used anywhere. So what kind of students are you looking for to be part of this program? Dr. Kelly Price Well, we're looking for really any student who has the desire to learn more about digital marketing. As I said, we get students from all over the place, education, food, and sports, health care, because they all need them. But some of our students, and this is fascinating, are making huge jumps. Like I talked to a potential student the other day who's going to be in our program who was a middle school English teacher wow. And you know public added is tough right now, and she's just ready to, but she was doing her social media for her school. She said I really love this, and I'd really like to move forward and I've got the skill set. She could do this for education, you know, hire it or whatever. So we're accepting her into our program and we're excited about it. It's an attractive program very attractive yeah. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us a bit more about what your program prepares students to do. Dr. Kelly Price Sure. At this time, most of our students, not all of them, but most of them, are professional working full-time workers, and so they have, as I said before, jobs and families and things like that, so they're trying to fit in education. So I'm so glad we get to offer a product like this from ETSU that is 100% online that is quote doable for them. They can fit it in. And it prepares them even as working professionals for whatever may come next. Some of them come back to update their skills. Some of them just sort of hold it in their back pocket until they're ready to use it all kinds of reasons. And it prepares them for the new jobs that are coming, the ones that aren't even really there yet, have been invented yet, right, because those are happening all the time. And it prepares them for that working environment, where they can take what they've learned with us, such as the analytics or whatever, and place it directly into their job right then, right now, and right now, yeah, yeah. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Do you have a Capstone course in your program? Dr. Kelly Price We do. It is taken at the very end of the program, and generally what happens is, um, my colleague Dr. Shemwell, we're such a good team, um, he's my partner in crime in this degree program, and he's been here a long time. He was one of the professors I mentioned that I had as an undergraduate he's been a mentor to me for years. But he's generally the one who oversees this and the student and and he will collaborate generally with something at their workplace. They're working on something that's practical and, quote, real-world, you know, as we say in academia, non-academic, and they're able to take that forward and use it. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What is your favorite course to teach? Dr. Kelly Price My students will 100% know the answer to this if they listen. Consumer Behavior. I come from a consumer background and with human ecology and consumer sciences and it's Consumer Behavior. The way I tell them is, is there another course in digital marketing or marketing that you could have without the consumer? Everybody goes oh no. I'm like, so I've got a really good argument for why everybody in the world needs to take Consumer Behavior. We are one it's relatable. A lot of my students will say, " Oh, that's what I've been doing, we're putting a name to what you do every day, that's why something like The Price is Right has been on for a hundred years, because everybody understands or has a relationship with price, it's consumerism. And consumerism will sometimes get a bad rap you know and but consumerism can be a wonderful thing as well but we have to understand the why yeah behind those numbers there is a person somewhere with motivations and attitudes and all those types of things of why they are buying something and those generate the analytics so me and my qualitative self and the quantitative colleagues I have we get to have some good debates on I say but why are they doing this you know I drive them just a little crazy but consumer behavior is just my passion I just love it it's great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It sounds like such a fun course. Dr. Kelly Price Oh, it's fascinating, it's a little bit of psychology, it's the psychology side of marketing, really interesting, yes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What led you to want to become a faculty member? Dr. Kelly Price That's so funny because I I didn't know I was going to be I remember this it's amazing it it's in my mind so vividly when I was in my graduate program here in the master's program in communication I was sitting in Warf pickle it was Dr Roberts and many people will remember him and his communication research course and I just remember sitting there going it just hit me I'm like I've got to go on I've got to go get my PhD it just hit me and I could go back to that room right now exactly where I sat W and remembering that plus I come from a family I know a lot of your other your other guests have said this as well but I come from family of Educators a lot of teachers we have five Ph.D.s in my family we're getting ready to produce another one um my brother is a graduate of ETSU in history and he went on my mom is an ELPA graduate my dad went here and my sister-in-law teaches here so we're all over the place Thanksgiving can get very interesting one of my uh Ph.D. uncles is an astrophysicist so I don't know if you would call it interesting or boring but when we get together it's it's something and we all have you know goofy t-shirts on and things like that awesome yeah so it was a little bit of Fate I think so I would say so. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle The last question I have for every guest: what impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Dr. Kelly Price That is such a hopeful question isn't it? And we need that right now. My I've always said that my purpose as an educator is to help my students find theirs, find their purpose, and I truly believe that I am a facilitator to them that I can get them started. Here's some knowledge now run with it. I just hope that they will find and I can help them move on to find their purpose in this world and to be happy doing it. I'm not here to make their lives stressful, get in their way, stop them, any of those things. I'm here to make sure that you find your purpose and be happy and it just really comes down to that for me. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great, so inspiring. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information on Dr. Price or this podcast series visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to your podcasts. [Music] [Music]  

Dr. Cerrone Foster first heard about ETSU when she was a summer research fellow in the Ronald McNair Program. Now, she is a highly respected faculty member in Biological Sciences and a true champion for student success. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I've been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Cerrone Foster from the ETSU Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Foster came to this campus several years ago while an undergraduate for a summer research fellowship. Now she calls ETSU Home, and a couple of years ago she was listed among 100 inspiring black scientists in America by the science blog Crosstalk. Enjoy the show. Dr. Foster, thank you for joining me today. I want to begin by talking about our McNair program, which prepare students for graduate school. You were a student in New Jersey when you first heard about the program here at ETSU. Will you walk us through what happened? Dr. Cerrone Foster Sure. I was in my junior year at the College of New Jersey, and I had an advisor who handed me a flier for the Ronald McNair program at ETSU; and someone gave it to him, so then he gave it to me. He thought that this program would be perfect for me. I did not know where Johnson City was located, so I pulled out a map to see where it was. But we thought that it would be a great experience to go to another institution for the summer, as well as engage in undergraduate research. And so I applied and I was accepted. And the coordinator for the program at the time, Mrs. Leslie Glover, she picked me up from the airport with the warm, welcoming greeting. And so that was my first introduction to ETSU and Johnson City, and it was perfect. And while I was here over the summer, I met so many other people here: Mr. Steve Ellis, who was in the College of Medicine, but now with pharmacy; Dr. Dorothy Dobbins is now retired but worked at the College of Medicine, and I think sociology; and then the students that I met as well that were ETSU students that were part of the program were also just warm and welcoming. And all of those individuals– we're still close. This was summer 2000. So 22 years later we still have a great relationship. And I actually talked with some of them just a few days ago and will see a few of them over the weekend. And so it was just a really great experience that I had. And then of course, my mentor can't forget him, Dr. Scott Champion. His teaching and his style of mentoring is literally ingrained in who I am and how I mentor and teach my students. And he and I still keep in touch as well. So that was– it was a very transformational and awesome experience that summer. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's wonderful. I like to start my podcast with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back to that day, what's one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Cerrone Foster Well, less is more. So doing a lot less. As a professor, teaching an introductory course is usually a set curriculum that you need to cover. And it– it was a lot, it was a lot of information. And so then you couple that with students from different educational backgrounds and then poor study skills. It was just rough. And so I wish I would have learned that it's OK to cut some things out (which I ended up doing, you know, after that first year). So worked with the department, even Amy Johnson with the QEP at the time, and just redesigning the courses. And so all of that helped to redesign the course and the content. And then we were able to focus on study skills; building skills, building the confidence that students needed, and then transforming the content in a way where they still got the foundational pieces of information. But those skills became more important because then they were able to pick up a lot of the content that I thought that they were going to miss. And so, less is more, and finding the right balance, and how I teach was– was– I wish would have known that. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Excellent advice. Tell us about your faculty role in biological sciences. What courses do you teach? Dr. Cerrone Foster So my initial appointment began in 2011– 2011 as a lecturer and then in 2016 I began the Assistant Professor Tenure track and received tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in 2021, and so I teach introductory biology one for majors. It's part of a– is the first course in a three-sequence intro course for students and then I also teach a course called supervised teaching. And in the past I taught an upper level biochemistry laboratory course. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So you also prepare graduate students who are going to become teachers. Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes. And so the biology one laboratory, it's a component of the course but it's taught by our master's students and so many of them are working towards– going to apply for PhD programs or they can go into teaching as well at a community college or even at some undergraduate campuses. But I work with them on teaching pedagogy, the strategies in the classroom. They prepare their lectures, they prepare their exams and grade their exams. And so I work with them and those skills. And then also because they're first year master's students many of these students are just graduating from college. And so they were once themselves, just a few years ago, sitting in that same seat. And so it's a daunting task for a new master's student. And so they– it's overwhelming sometimes. And so it's important that we work with them as a department and in helping them navigate that transition to teaching. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle You were telling us earlier that you didn't jump directly into a tenure track position right after finishing your Ph.D. Talk about where you were when you made the decision to become a college professor. Dr. Cerrone Foster Oh, yes. In the classroom! So it wasn't until I actually got into the classroom doing the thing that I realized that this is for me. And so at the end of my post-doc, I was still weighing options for my career path, which I finished my post-doc over at Quillen in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in 2011, so I was still weighing options and what I wanted to do. And the college professor was not one of those options actually. And so I enjoyed teaching because I, as a Ph.D. student, I was a teaching assistant in the biology department actually. And then I also taught at Northeast State for a year as an adjunct faculty when I was a Ph.D. student. So I enjoyed it but quite hadn't thought that I wanted to do a tenure track position, research lab. Everything that I'm doing now, I had not thought that I wanted to do that. So I saw the lecturer position and I applied as sort of a transition period to give me some downtime to think, OK, well, I could use this downtime to think about next steps, figure out where I was going to go next. But boy, was I surprised that when I stepped in that classroom that first semester there and the relationships that I built with students watching them grow, maybe struggle at first, but then to see them grow and then working and serving with faculty on campus, all of that coupled together just kind of captured my heart. And I love people. I'll talk to anyone and so I love being on a college campus. It reminded me of when I was in college as well. And so all of those things together, of been around on a college campus, working with students, and then still I was still involved with my research as well, so that after a while it was evident that this is what I'm called to do. And that this is where I'm supposed to be. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Science can be intimidating for students, and I know that ETSU is a popular destination for students who are seeking careers. Many of these students likely end up in your biology 1110 lecture course. Overall, how many students do you have in this course? And can you estimate how many of those are first-time-in-college freshman? Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes. So I teach two sections of biology 1110, and typically about maybe 200 to 250 in each section. And that has changed over the years. So a total of, you know, I think 400, so 450 to maybe 500 students total that I've had kind of average over the years. It's been less of course lately since the pandemic, but this is just the fall semester. And then typically it's about 70% of those students are first-time freshmen. So you can think maybe 300, 350 students, and the spring it's less, we have about a hundred students in that class and most of those students are upper level students that are not biology majors. Many of these students are pre-med, pre-nursing, pre-pharmacy or pre-health-sciences. So the grade that they will earn will matter later on when they're applying to these graduate programs. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What are the critical studies skills that students need to learn in order to be successful in these courses? Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes, you are absolutely right. And so critical reading and critical thinking are absolutely pivotal in this course. Data analysis and application of the content as well, particularly to real world problems that they're going to be solving in their careers, I would say, are major skills that they need for some of the majors and careers that you mentioned. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle You've also done research on student retention. Talk with us about that work. Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes, so after my first year, actually, during that first year teaching, I noticed that students were struggling with the skills that I just mentioned and so in talking with the students, many of them talked about that their high school preparation just lacked a lot of these skills. And then it was varied across the board. You have so many students, so you had varied experiences, and then it was also affecting their motivation and their success in the course. And so I really just felt compelled that I needed to do something. And I think that's that scientist in me, that when there's a problem or there's a question at hand you want to fix it, and you find answers to those questions to be able to solve the problem. So that's what I did. I received some grants from the Tennessee Board of Regents to do a sort of course to revitalization and implement some things, and then also a grant from Pearson Biology to do some changes. And a few of those, the most notable, we're seeing some– some dramatic changes, great changes, rather, was revising the course content where we were using case studies and sort of this flipped classroom model where students read and do questions ahead of time to prepare. When we come to class, we're problem solving we're applying it. And I could think of one example where we talked about the opioid epidemic and we took a topic from biology and applied it to drug transport, but had the students write a reflection on their lives and their careers and how what they're learning and what they're doing can intertwined with how they could fix the opioid epidemic in their in their communities. And many of them even shared stories of how their communities and families have been devastated by this. And so it was just really transformational for students to see purpose in what they were learning in the classroom. And we saw that, you know, being able to learn in this manner, we had a decrease in the failure rate in the class. And then students also were able to to do well on higher-level cognitive questions on Bloom's taxonomy. I've worked with Ray Mohseni in Department of Chemistry where we merged some of our content or we synched our content with chemistry and biology. And then we used the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis as sort of a backdrop to teach both biology and chemistry. So students who were in our classes at the same time were seeing this example, seeing the chemistry side of it, but then the biology side of it, literally during the same week of classes. And then Ray in his chemistry class saw that there was a 7% increase in the– the students take the ACS chemistry final sort of as their final exam. And so this is a national standard exam, but the students had a 7% increase than previous years on this exam. And so we're seeing that you can get results and that students can do well. You just need to work with them and teach them the skills that they need. We do a lot of metacognitive strategies, teaching students to see: "how do I learn?" and to reflect on those and then looking at growth mindset in the classroom. I partnered with the CFAA. My class was the first class to introduce a supplemental instruction and so that was a great experience. And now several classes on campus are using it and it is absolutely pivotal for my class. I'm working with Florida Atlantic International University as well as Auburn University on reading primary scientific literature and how students are engaging with scientific journals. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Speaking of research, you were recently named Associate Director for Undergraduate Research in our Honors College. Congratulations. Tell us about this new role. Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes, thank you so much. I am really excited about this new role. It really encompasses everything that I love and that I'm passionate about. And one of the main roles is to increase the number of students participating in undergraduate research and creative activities across campus in all disciplines, and then also assisting faculty on how to create these mentor research experiences or creative experiences for students as well. It's important because students who engage in undergraduate research have higher retention, greater persistence toward graduation, and a stronger sense of belonging. They are also better prepared for graduate school and careers. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle With hundreds of students in your courses and this new role, how do you find time to continue your own research? Dr. Cerrone Foster I do. I currently have a grant from the American Heart Association and I'm studying the impacts of estrogen loss and aging on heart failure. It's a tight balance, but I get it done. My students help, and we work as a team with calendars and organization systems. It all connects. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle When I opened the podcast, I referenced the Crosstalk listing naming you among the 100 inspiring Black scientists. Will you tell us a little more about that? Dr. Cerrone Foster Yes. It was an honor. I think about the Black scientists who came before me who did not have the freedoms I have today. I stand on their shoulders. I am also the first person in my family to attend college and earn a Ph.D., so I did not have many role models in science growing up. But I had teachers who saw something in me early on and encouraged me to pursue science. I have been doing science since I was 12 years old. And I also recognize the importance of representation in STEM, because students need to see people who look like them in these fields. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle The last question for every guest: What impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Dr. Cerrone Foster I teach a seminar called "Movers and Shakers: Becoming Students of Impact and Influence." I tell students they are next in line to lead the world. They have a responsibility to use what they have learned to make change, speak up when something is wrong, and help improve society. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Dr. Foster. We are so glad that you made the decision to come to ETSU for our McNair program when you were still an undergraduate student. It was a transformative moment for you and for ETSU. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach.  

From teaching dosage calculations to understanding the intense demands of working on the critical care unit, Rhonda Brodrick from the College of Nursing is inspiring the next generation of nursing professionals. Podcast Transcript:  Professor Rhonda Brodrick And we would let them– we would have them watch it. And I said: I want you to look at the teamwork and the communication. These are skills that you didn't have when you were first semester, but now that you're fifth semester, look how far you've come. And it was really great to be able to let them watch themselves and to see the growth that had happened over the last two and a half years. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Rhonda Brodrick, an award-winning faculty member from the ETSU College of Nursing, and hear what it has been like teaching nursing students while working in the intensive care unit during COVID. Enjoy the show. Professor Brodrick, welcome and thank you for joining us today. A question that I always ask nursing faculty members: When did you first know that you wanted to be a nurse? Professor Rhonda Brodrick Well, first, thank you for having me. You know, that's an interesting question. My– my project this summer is, uh, is that I'm cleaning out drawers and doing all that accumulation stuff; and so I actually ran across a– a paper that I had done in elementary school, and apparently it was a paper about two career choices. And so I had written about a registered nurse and mortuary science. So it apparently was on my radar very early in life. I guess I'm a little thankful that I went the nursing route, rather than the mortuary science route – not that there's anything wrong with mortuary science – but my family's full of nurses and teachers. So I had an aunt who meant the world to me and she inspired me. She and her friend inspired me to be a nurse. So I think from a very early age, nursing was where I was destined to be. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I love it. And you were inspired to be a nurse. I start this podcast with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Professor Rhonda Brodrick Oh, I was– I was so nervous. I think my piece of advice would have been just to relax. I think my biggest fear was that somebody would ask a question that I wouldn't know the answer to. And I've learned over the years that it's OK to say, I don't know. As I tell my students the way you say I don't know is key. There's a way that you can say, I don't know, which means: "I don't know and I don't care to find out." And then there's a way that you can say, I don't know, and it means: "I don't know, but let me see if I can find the answer for you." So, you know, learning to s– learning it was OK to say I don't know was– it is has been a good thing. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great advice. So tell me about the courses– courses that you teach at ETSU, and when did you first join the faculty? Professor Rhonda Brodrick I joined the faculty in the early 1990s. I taught here for about five years. Then I left. I went back into practice for five years. My coworkers at the time called it my sabbatical. Then I came back and I have been back since. In most semesters – I guess when I first started teaching I taught more at the foundations level; their– their early semesters in the program. My background is med-surg, and so I tell the students I'm great if it's adult medical issues, I'm not really great if it's women in labor and kids in the hospital. But I tend to teach early in the program, and then in the last several years, I have taught their final clinical experience. So early in the program, I teach dosage calculations, which is where the students learn to calculate medication doses for all types of medicine that they'll administer. My other course I teach primarily in is Adult Care III: Practicum, and these are students that are going to graduate at the end of that semester. And so we're usually on the high acuity med-surg units over at the hospitals. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, I would imagine that your students are a bit nervous when they first come into the intensive care unit. How do you navigate helping ease their anxieties, but at the same time reminding them of the seriousness of the important work that's done in the critical care unit? Professor Rhonda Brodrick What I've learned is it's important to focus on the student because your students are different. I have students that are overwhelmed and intimidated by the complexity of the patients. I have other students that at times can be a little overconfident – and not that they're not incredibly bright students, they are; they oftentimes have teched and done– and had jobs in ICU, and they've seen so much, which is great in terms of experience – there's still a lot they have to learn. So when I approach the students, I try to look at where they are and to get a grasp. The first couple weeks of any clinical is trying to figure out where they are in terms of what they know and then looking at where are you now and what can I do to help you level up to wherever you need to get to. So for the students that maybe are overwhelmed and intimidated, it's taking some of that pressure off in terms of – there's no way you're going to figure all this out in one or two days on this unit, it takes years for these nurses to get this level of expertise, so let's see what we can get out of today. If we learn a few things today, we can come back next week and learn a few more things. For the student that is overconfident, sometimes it's asking questions that they may not know the answer to and helping them see that there– there are more things to learn. There's always something to learn. It's always interesting to me when a student says they're bored in clinical, because there's just– there's always something to learn. Even having been a nurse over 30 years, when I go in for any clinical, I'm still learning something new. There's new medications, there's new technology, and even people skills in terms of communication, in terms of management, leadership, I just can't imagine being bored on the unit. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us what is a typical day like for students in a nursing clinical? I hear that your day starts most days before 8 a.m. Professor Rhonda Brodrick Way before 8 a.m. Shift– Our students, when they go to clinical, they do– in most cases they do a full shift, just like what the nurses do. So shift change for most of our hospitals in this area is at 6:30 in the morning. So usually we want to have a little bit of time with the student before we get them up to the units, but it's also important to get them to the unit before the nurse receives report. It's professional courtesy, in terms of, it's– it's hard for the nurses to get report and then to have to go back and try to catch a student up. So the students are usually there somewhere around six in the morning. For faculty, we are usually there around 5:30 in the morning. So those are very early mornings on our, you know, on our days. We go at 5:30 to go to the units to see what's going on in the units, to make sure that things are appropriate for a student to be there on the unit, and that type of stuff. So our students come at 6:30, they receive report with their nurses, and then it really depends on the day. They usually are directed to work with certain patients on that unit, so there's tremendous variety in terms of what they may encounter during the day. And I think that's what makes teaching... challenging, I guess, is the word; because you don't know when you go in in the morning what you're going to have in terms of that patient combination, so it's a lot of you thinking on your feet in terms of what the students are doing, and then in terms of helping your students work with those patients. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What has it been like working in the critical care unit during the pandemic? Professor Rhonda Brodrick Hard. I think that... it's just hard. The patients are are so– when we were at the height of COVID, the patients were so sick. And it was– it was interesting in that it wasn't always... you had elderly patients that you would expect to be very sick with COVID that did fine, you had patients that were very young that you would have expected not to have a problem and they didn't do as well. The patients that were in the intensive– in the COVID intensive care units were really, really tremendously sick. I'm sure probably most people have seen those pictures in the news or in the magazines where, you know, you've got, you know, six or eight I.V. pumps outside the room and the nurses are all garbed out, and we had that here. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So you have been teaching at ETSU for over two decades. How has the way you teach changed, but what's remained the same? Professor Rhonda Brodrick I think the methods of teaching have changed. I did undergraduate here at ETSU, so I'm an ETSU– ETSU nurse, but I did my graduate work... When I was doing my graduate work, word processors had just come on the scene. So there were no handheld devices and there was very little technology. So I always tell the students I'm "PT," pre-technology, so you have to be patient with me, because it takes me time to get there. I– I joke with them, I say, OK, I've already been through like, you know, 78s, and 35s, and all the LP's, and then we went to eight-track, and then we went to cassette, and you know, and we've done CDs and we're doing DVDs, and, so, I'm... The technology is just amazing. It's amazing in the sense that the students have access. They have so much at their fingertips now. And it's– it's so much easier to get to. You know, when I was here as a student – and this is nothing related to ETSU, but it was what– what it was – when you got your research topic, you went to the library and you pulled those great books off the shelf, and you had to look up all your words in the book, and then you would go and you would look... It would give you some references and you'd go look to see if your library even had that journal, and you prayed the whole time, oh, please, oh, please let them have the journal. And then you would go to the stacks and get the journal, only to find that somebody had torn those pages out of your journal. So I love technology in the sense that I don't have to do that anymore. It's so easy to– to, you know, do your data searches from home in your PJ's. So in that sense, technology is great. I think COVID challenged us in so many ways, in terms of, we had to figure out ways that the students could keep learning when we were– we– when we were blocked out of hospitals for that period of time. And so the technology in terms of ways that we can teach has improved tremendously. With that huge technology leap, though, our students are responsible for so much more information and there's so much out there that sometimes I feel like it can be a little overwhelming for our students. You know, you can get lost in the technology trying to figure out what you're trying to do. So, technology, methodology... I came into teaching with practice– I had a lot of nursing practice, I didn't have any– I hadn't had any background in nursing education. So I've learned a lot by trial and error, by making mistakes and having, um, and some successes through the years to learn really how to be a teacher. I am eternally thankful for the nurses that mentored me in the hospital and that mentored me when I came here. They were phenomenal, and they really... it was such a blessing to have that person that you could go to and say, I have no idea what to do with this. And– And you got, you know, you had some of that really gave you good advice. What hasn't changed for me is the motivation to teach. And, and, and my heart's the same in that I really want my students to be successful. It's so important to me, not that they just graduate, but they graduate at a level where they can be successful. Something I'll never forget in graduate school was one of the professors was talking to the class, to our class of students, and the professor said to us that we were like, 10th or 12th priority on his list. And having been in academia now, I– I guess I understand it a little bit better, because at this institution I'm sure he had to generate a lot of scholarly activity and all of that stuff; but he basically said his research, his scholarship and all of that came ahead of his teaching responsibility. And I remember sitting there thinking, man, I paid a lot of money to come to this school, to be 10th or 12th priority on somebody's list. And I never wanted my students to feel that way. You know, I really try to show up and give them 100% so that they know that they're high on my priority list. I care. I mean, you know, if I'm not doing something well, I want to know if there is something I'm doing. Sometimes you think you know what works, as a faculty member, but, you know, sometimes what you think's working is actually not what is most beneficial for your students. So when they take the time to give me that feedback, it really means a lot. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us a bit about how you use simulations in teaching. Professor Rhonda Brodrick I'm glad you brought that up, because you asked how methodology had changed; and simulation is a great new type of technology that we're able to use with the students, we used building 60, Bishop Hall, to do some simulation with our– our fifth semester students that were getting ready to graduate. And unfortunately with COVID, the spacing guidelines and that kind of stopped our simulation process for a while; but the students really enjoyed simulation. Before COVID, we were doing – In– in my clinical – we were doing six different simulations with the students. And so it was really interesting to have them in the sim lab and to be able to set up experiences and to take the pressure off of them being with a real patient, but at the same time to explore and have to think through, what would I do if this happened? How can I put this– these pieces of information together to understand what's going on, what's happening with my patient, and how do I make appropriate decisions? And there's– there was so much variety in what we were able to do. We could do anything from a skills refresher, which never hurts for nurses; even practicing nurses have to go back and do skills fairs, to make sure that they stay competent in their skills. But it also gave us an opportunity to provide patient scenarios that they may not necessarily see. We had patient scenarios related to burn patients, we had patients that were having cardiac issues, and it allowed us to show the students what they might see if they needed– what they might have to do in terms of how to manipulate the monitors if they were... needed to cardio– cardiovert a patient, or if they needed to attach a patient to a pacemaker, a temporary pacemaker. One of the... a couple of them that the students really appreciated, we did mock Code Blue, and, which, we would basically call the code, we would have the students come in, and the students would run the code; and they really came to appreciate how difficult it is to do CPR for 2 minutes straight before you can change off. We also in that scenario would take them through... our codes weren't always successful, and we would walk them through, we would– we would, if we could, we would have a family, someone acting as the family member at the bedside, and we would bring the family member to the bedside, and the students would– we would continue until the students had to address with the family member that they had done everything that they knew to do, and it hadn't been successful. We also did a disaster drill where ETSU had been hit by a tornado, and we basically had a group of students come in and triage, do the first set of triage. So it's from a faculty perspective, it's fun, you get to be creative. From the students' side of it, though, they really liked the ability to be able to think through issues and problems and have that time that you don't always get at the bedside, but... and to figure out what was going on with the patient. And then that sense of accomplishment when they did figure out, and they knew what to do, and they made appropriate decisions, that was a real confidence booster for them. And one of the things that I like about simulation as a teaching method is that it allows students the opportunity to get immediate feedback, to review how they acted and then to have feedback from the faculty member. Now, the challenge for that from a faculty side is, in simulation, they always tell you whatever amount of time you spend in simulation, you spend double that amount of time in debriefing. And the hard thing for faculty is– is learning to keep your mouth closed. You have to– you really want to... If you're talking in debriefing, it's– you're not debriefing, you're not giving them the chance. So learning how to get them to do the talking, to get them to do the thinking, you know. And in the code sim, what was– I always enjoyed that debriefing because what was... I would always ask them at the end, if you– if we had given you this scenario your first semester in nursing school, would you– what would you have done? And you know, a lot of the students say, I would have just cried, or I would have quit; just quit and never come back. And I said, so you know, the purpose of this isn't to win the Code Blue Award. We are not, you know... You don't win the code Blue Award until you've done 100 codes. We're not there. But I want you to look at the at yourselves on the screen – because we would we would video it, we didn't tell them we were videoing it, but we would – and we would let them watch it. And I said, I want you to look at the teamwork and the communication. These are skills that you didn't have when you were first semester, but now that you're fifth semester, look how far you've come. And it was really great to be able to let them watch themselves and to see the growth that had happened over the last two and a half years. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. Thank you. Tell us what advice you have for someone who's considering a career in nursing. Professor Rhonda Brodrick Think it through. Yeah. There are... It's– it's a great profession. And, you know, nursing has– has been a blessing for me, and it's given me so many opportunities, and nursing is a profession that will give you amazing opportunities. You know, there are jobs available. There is so much– so much flexibility within nursing. You can change your career path without having to go back and get another degree. There's a tremendous need for nursing now, and there will continue to be a tremendous need for nursing moving forward. All of that said, I think you need to understand that it's going to take a whole lot of hard work to get that degree. And the hard work is not going to stop there. You know, the salaries can– are good, you know, and like I said, the opportunities are good, but you're going to work hard and you're going to have those days. It's– it's an amazing– it's– it's an amazing amount of responsibility because when you go in to work, you really are holding people's lives in their hands, in your hands. The decisions you make are important. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I really appreciate the way you've described your approach to teaching. So can you share with us what are some of the most rewarding moments that you've experienced in your role as a teacher? Professor Rhonda Brodrick Well, I love my students. You know, just having a smile or running into a student that I've had before or receiving an email about, I just thought about you today, or I remember when you were teach– we were teaching– you were teaching dosage and calc, and I've never had to worry about my math, and I just really appreciate the time that you spent. The notes from the students – one thing that Dr. Nolan does at graduation that I've always really liked was he always takes time to– to make that appeal for students to take the time just to send a note. And over the years, I have a stack of notes and I really... I don't throw those away. They're in my office. When I do have those days where I think, Oh, man, is this really what... it's just been one of those days, but, you know, I'll pull those cards out and look to see, you know, to read those notes, to remember why I do what I do. But I think the other thing that meant a whole lot to me was I graduated from ETSU on ETSU's 75th anniversary year. The centennial year, they had a... they went to the colleges on campus and they asked students to nominate a faculty member and I can't remember if they called it like... Anyway, it was a way for the students to recognize a faculty that had meant something. And I– I got that award for the College of Nursing, but I got it on the hundredth anniversary. And so it was kind of neat to look at from, you know, in 25 years I had actually come back to my school and, you know, was making a difference, and that meant a lot. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So meaningful. Congratulations. Thank you. So the last question I like to ask every guest is: What impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Professor Rhonda Brodrick That's such a hard question. There's so much. There's– there are so many opportunities for nurses to make a difference, whether it's at the patient– with the patient at the bedside. Within a facility. Um, you know, our students are incredibly talented. The profession itself, our students are so different. When I look back over the last 30 years, the nursing profession, I don't think I could have envisioned the nursing profession being the way it is today. And I think for the students, one– one way I– one thing I say to them is in terms of technology, because now we have students that have grown up with technology, and I'm kind of excited to see where these students will take technology. Maybe it'll become more intuitive, in terms of working with patients at the bedside, and less of a distraction, I think there's a lot of potential there. But for me, our students have so much potential to meet whatever they choose to do – and they're all different, and they're all going to have different strengths – but whatever they choose to do, I just want them to do their best, and I want them to do it with integrity, to be willing to make those hard decisions, you know, to stand up when everybody else is backing down. But if they're able– you know, if they do that, they will make change, and they'll make positive change. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Rhonda. It has been a pleasure having you. And I thank you for all you do for our students and for our health care system. You truly made a difference at ETSU and positively impacted your students, and we're so fortunate to have you on our faculty. Thanks for listening to "Why I teach." For more information on Professor Brodrick or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash provost. You can follow me on Twitter @ETSUProvost, and if you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to your podcasts.  

In 2021, a group of ETSU students decided to nominate their professor Dr. Sean Fox for a teaching award.  He went on to receive the Distinguished Faculty Award, the highest honor presented to an ETSU faculty member. Podcast Transcript:  [Music] Dr. Sean Fox Graduation is always a special time. You get to meet your students' families that you've been interacting with for the past four or five years. There was one student, a nursing student, and she was in one of the first classes I ever taught, so it was very neat to be able to see her in that whole transition from me being a brand-new teacher and her being a brand new student to us both being on the same stage at the same time many years [Music] later. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior vice president for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way that they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Sean Fox, an instructor and laboratory coordinator in the Department of Health Sciences in ETSU's College of Public Health. Last fall, we presented Dr. Fox with the highest honor ever given to an ETSU faculty member, the Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching. Dr. Fox, as I was driving into campus today and passed University School, I was reminded that you began your ETSU story there as a seventh grader and now you're a faculty member at the university. Dr. Sean Fox That's correct, yes. My family moved here, and I started seventh grade and finished through high school at University school, and I enjoyed it, and it's kind of surreal to come back here and teach. In fact, if you had cornered me uh back then and said I would be an instructor here at ETSU I probably would have laughed ’cause I I was like many teenagers: I wanted to go away from home and experience things and and so yeah it my roots brought me back here to ETSU. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Now you have kids there at University School is that right? Dr. Sean Fox Yes, I have three kids, two of them are there. I have one that is in kindergarten and one that is in, ironically enough, seventh grade right now. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So I want to start this podcast out with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day at teaching at ETSU as a faculty member and looking back on that day what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Sean Fox Well, I have two bits of advice I would give myself rather than one. One is a funny one, and one is a little more serious one. The funny one would be that you should always bring an extra change of clothes with you. It's the first day of classes I was getting ready to go teach my first lecture and we in the microbiology department have an autoclave and we have to  put media in there to sterilize it before we use it in classes. And I had taken it out and I was kind of rushing to get ready for class and one of the bottles broke and the liquid that was in there went on my clothes and saturated it and it was some chemicals that was making my  skin itch and so I had to change. But being an avid runner, the only clothes I had in my car were some running shorts, so I attended my first lecture, ever, at ETSU as a faculty member wearing a nice button-up shirt and running shorts. So memorable. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely absolutely. Dr. Sean Fox So, yes please bring an extra change of clothes with you always, but the the more serious thing I would go back and tell myself is that it's going to be okay. I know in these big life moments when you when you make these big big leaps in your career you get a little nervous that you're not prepared or maybe you're not ready for it but I would go back and say you you've got this great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So walk me through your journey going back to when you graduated from University school and eventually returned as a doctoral student. Dr. Sean Fox Sure. University school was great. I had a fantastic high school education there and then I went to Virginia Commonwealth University for undergraduate school. I had ambitions and got my undergraduate degree in forensic science, which was a little bit different than what I'm doing now, but I had a really great mentor who kind of fashioned my interests there and helped me explore some different avenues. And so I finished my degree there, and my wife and I knew we wanted to come back to the the area uh we were planning on starting a family and so uh the Stars aligned and came back here and started the Ph.D. program at Quillen and had a great experience there as well. And then the opportunity to join as a faculty member opened up serendipitously at the end of my tenure in my Ph.D. and kind of made the smooth transition over to main campus. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Tell us more about the mentor that you had at VCU. Dr. Sean Fox Sure. Her name was Dr. Lloyd, and I had just on the chance reached out to one of her post doc students who was teaching one of my classes and said that I really wanted to get some research experience more so to help me in my career because I was pursuing forensic science at the time and lab experience would always be very beneficial to that. And so I was very appreciative that she took a chance on me, and she gave me a kind of wide open range to explore things in the laboratory, and it really paid off. I was a published author as an undergraduate. It really opened up the door for me down the road, so I'm always very appreciative of the chances that she took, and I try to keep that in mind whenever I take on research students as well. I try to keep that door open because you never know how it's going to shape or affect someone's life. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yes, the impact of mentors—absolutely, absolutely. Tell us about the courses that you teach at ETSU. I I understand you teach in some semesters over 100 students per semester. Dr. Sean Fox Yes. In some of my classes, I have 100 students in just that one class, but um uh most of the classes I teach are for the health science department. We have General Microbiology, which is a nice introductory course that our college uses, but also the College Arts and Sciences, so it's kind of a mixed bag of students that come in there. It's their first introduction to a real microbiology-based course, and it's got a lab associated with it. I also teach human genetics and I know I'm very very biased but I feel I'm very blessed to have those two topics because I think those are the two biggest topics that are out there right now. We’ve got this whole new world of microbiology, particularly pertaining to the pandemic we just went through, but also human genetics and genetics in general. Our advancement in that is just exploding now, so I feel very fortunate to be able to teach those classes. I also teach a biomedical techniques class which is a very hands-on class where we teach students hands-on skills in research and development. We have a health care simulation class where we try to get our students some exposure to kind of the real-life experiences they would see out in healthcare facilities, uh, and then I also teach a supervised teaching class for master students, and what I do in there is help students learn to become their own teachers. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle You have a range of students, then some who are laser focused, maybe on a career in microbiology or science, but you have others who are taking your class as a pre-med profession requirement, right? Dr. Sean Fox Right correct yes I'd say about 90% of the students that I come into contact with have some kind of future ambition in health care whether it be medical school or physicians assistant school or things like that, It's also interesting about 10% of the students I have no connection to it they're taking microbiology as maybe an elective that they've always been interested in or they want to know more about microbes or genetics so those are kind of a fun group and I always try to tease them and tell them I'm going to try to sway to the dark side in this class and over and try to pursue this. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great. As I mentioned at the beginning of this segment, you received the Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching last fall, and that's a huge honor, especially for someone who hasn't been teaching here for many years. What was your first reaction when you learned that you received that award? Dr. Sean Fox I'll be honest I was I was blown away by it. I had just received the college-level award for teaching, and I had no idea that this would be something in the works as well, so uh I was very humbled by it, but also very appreciative. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle And I remember that the nomination for that award was actually spearheaded by your students, who collected over 20 nomination letters that had to have had special meaning for you. Dr. Sean Fox Absolutely, um, it was very neat to be able to see the impact that those 20 students took upon their own initiative. I had no idea that they were doing this, but seeing the letters of impact they had written to the committee, uh, was probably one of the highlights of my teaching career. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So, as the winner of that award, we asked you to deliver the commencement address last December, and you and I sat together on the stage, and I noticed that many of the graduates who crossed the stage seemed to know you. I'm assuming those were your former students. Tell me about that. Dr. Sean Fox Graduation is always a special time. You get to meet your students’ families that you've been interacting with for the past four or five years. There was one student in particular I think you're probably referring to and she was a nursing student and she was in one of the first classes I ever taught so it was very you know very neat to be able to see her in that whole transition from me being a brand new teacher and her being a brand new student to us both being on the same stage at the same time many years later. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle You shared that moment? Dr. Sean Fox Yes, it was, it was wonderful. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So you talked about teaching the genetics course. So much groundbreaking information and discoveries are being introduced in that field. How do you stay abreast of new topics? Dr. Sean Fox It is really hard genetics we've probably learned more about it in the last 20 years than we have in the last 100 years and so there's constantly new information and new discoveries and we're even finding things that we've kind of held tried and true over the many years that they're actually different than what we thought they were going to be so I typically have to update that class every year and we've got a lot of things in the works right now to kind of expand that just because we're seeing the impact that genetics has we've seen we're seeing professional schools overhaul their curriculum because genetics is so important to include it and so yes staying abreast of that is a daunting task. But it's very beneficial to most of the students that we have right now because this will be their first introduction to genetics that they've ever had most often. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle And you joined the faculty as a lecturer in 2013, which is certainly less than 10 years ago, but I imagine that you've already seen tremendous changes in the field of teaching that have taken place during that time. Tell us a little bit about what you've observed there. Dr. Sean Fox There probably two areas that I've seen the most impact –one is more of a long-term change that I've seen and one is more of a short-term. The long-term one would be that we're seeing that more employers, more professional schools, and even students are expecting more hands-on kind of real-life experiences in their classes. It's not so much the I get up and I lecture for an hour and then that's it they want those Hands-On skills and those are very essential jobwise or professional school wise so the biggest transition I've seen is trying to incorporate real life scenarios or real life hands on skills into those classes and so that's one thing we've really worked hard on the past say 10 years in our department is to bring those into the classroom. The short-term change I've seen is obviously the big thing that's affected all of us the past two, almost three years now, and that's COVID. So while it's been a rough transition for all of us, it's really kind of ignited more of a catalyst on how we deliver our education. It used to be we would stand up in lecture room and people would be in the lecture hall, but now we have the zoom is ubiquitous through all facets of life now and so it's easy to pop on there and see someone across the country --  maybe a specialist or someone who is lecturing on a certain item -- so that's really been a good thing in the fact that we all kind of needed that catalyst to see where the next kind of evolution of education is going to be. And I still am very big on in person learning. I think that's absolutely paramount, but making it so that we can kind of mend some of these newer technologies and newer ways of distributing education is something I've seen in the short term that we're not going to be going back to what we were pre-pandemic. Silver Lining moment of the pandemic, right? Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely, yeah, there is absolutely some good to be taken from it, yeah. So I'm curious how a faculty member with hundreds of students each semester would balance the demands of work and family life? Dr. Sean Fox I live my life 30 minutes at a time so I teach a lot. I have about 20 research students that work with me, and then I've got three kids at home, um my wife has a job uh we have soccer practices and swim lessons and all kinds of different things so I've really learned plan things out as well as you can but live every 30 minutes at a time to keep it on line. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. And speaking of family, you come from a family of educators, right? Dr. Sean Fox Both my parents prior worked at ETSU uh my father was in the College of Education and my mother worked in the Department of English. So yeah, you could kind of say it's in my blood a little bit. I kind of, you know, made my own little path by going the science route, uh, but yeah, definitely a long history of teaching in my family. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It's wonderful. So the last question for every guest. What impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Dr. Sean Fox That's a good question and I would probably say the thing that I usually try to tell them at the very end of the semester when they're leaving is just to do good and you can take that as a number of different things you know be good at something or to be good to other people. And I always from my research students I print off this photo that my wife and I found just we were hiking and it was in the backwoods and you would never thought of anybody of putting something like this up. But they had tacked up a wooden sign on the tree that said, “Do the best with what you have where you are.” Yeah and that's kind of a good hallmark of wherever you go after ETSU is you know do the best that you can with whatever career that you choose and wherever that place may put you. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great that's a wonderful message for students. Dr. Sean Fox Absolutely, yeah. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Sean. It’s been great having you, and I thank you for all that you do for our students. Clearly, you have transformed the lives of so many people, and we are so lucky to have you as part of the ETSU faculty. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Fox or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu slash Provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to why I Teach " wherever you listen to podcasts.  [Music]  

Dr. Tom Kwasigroch is one of the inaugural faculty members at the Quillen College of Medicine.  He has taught every medical school student since the school was established. Hear about his passion for medical education and how the instruction of gross anatomy has transformed during the past four decades. He also discusses the Human Anatomical Gifts Program and what it is like for medical students when they meet their first “patient,” which is a cadaver. Podcast Transcript: KWASIGROCH: (opening audio clip) The other project that I'm involved in is the Center for Surgical Innovation and Training. We have a unique embalming process. It gives us donors that are very lifelike, allowing our students, our fourth year students, to actually perform surgery. That's not done anywhere. Residents will be able to perform surgery on our donors before they have to do it on me. So, it's pretty selfish on my part. MCCORKLE: Hi, I'm Kimberly McCORKLE, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I've been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU to hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Tom Kwasigroch, who was one of the inaugural faculty members at the Quillen College of Medicine. He has served as the school's associate dean, having worked closely with curriculum planning and student affairs and has also taught the gross anatomy course for every class. Dr. Kwasigroch, welcome to our podcast. The first time I met you, we both talked about our love for teaching and I also learned that we share a hobby: Rollerblading. So out of curiosity, did you rollerblade here to the station today? KWASIGROCH: Well, Dr. McCORKLE, first of all, thank you for inviting me to do this. I'm honored to do it. And please call me Kwas. It's just easier to say than Kwasigroch, if you don't mind. As far as rollerblading here, It's all uphill; so that would have been problematic on the front end. The other thing is I haven't managed to teach my service dog how to rollerblade. That's a problem because she's here with me. And the other part of it is I have tried to eliminate all contact sports because of my advanced age. I'm no kid anymore. And so contact sports, things like basketball, I don't play it anymore even though I love it; and every time I try to play it again, it takes me about a month to recover. So basketball, hockey, which is– I love to– use to love to play hockey, and hockey, like rollerblading, it's– Rollerblading isn't a contact sport, but the contact part of it is you with the ground. So I look upon that as a contact sport as well. So nowadays I do things, I ride my bike a lot, I go to spin class at the CPA, I do things like that, like kind of cross training stuff, and ride safe things, like my golf cart, so– It makes it a lot safer, and I haven't fallen out of that yet. So that's a good thing. So, no, I did not ride the roller blades up here today. MCCORKLE: Okay. Well, and I did neither, it was too windy today, so there you go. I want to thank you for joining me today, and I want to start the podcast out with the same question for every guest. Would you please take me back to your first day of teaching at the College of Medicine, and looking back on that day: What's one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? KWASIGROCH: I had the opportunity to be involved in teaching in the military, which I'll talk about probably a little bit later. So I learned very early on that you don't teach. I don't think you teach. You facilitate learning. And so that's my job, is to facilitate the learning. And I've been involved in athletics my entire life, either as an athlete or as a coach. And to me, it's much the same as coaching a team of athletes. Your job is to try to improve their skill set. Try to get them comfortable with what they are doing. Trying to let them realize that teamwork makes the dream work. (I had to get that in there. Everybody would be upset if I didn't.) But teamwork does make the dream work, and they need to work together to become better at what they do. The other aspect of it is as far as being a facilitator, and trying to take students that want to know everything, you have to get them to realize that less is more. It's far more effective, far more beneficial to the learner, to get foundational things and get them really, really well, so that they can apply that information, rather than try to learn everything and do it so superficially that they really don't have a strong skill set. So it doesn't matter who you're teaching. Obviously, I teach medical students. I've also taught physical therapy students. We started that program, what, 27 years ago. So it's the same thing. It's to do our best to try to get them to do their best. That's what I mean by facilitating and, just, help them understand and be passionate about the process. So that's one of the things that I keep asking the students, are they having fun today, because if they're not there in the wrong place, frankly. Those are the big things. You know, being a coach, letting them know that less is more, and being a good facilitator. MCCORKLE: I love the concept of being the facilitator of learning, and I think that describes it so well. As one of the inaugural faculty members at Quillen, you have taught every graduate of the college of medicine, and that is so impressive. And I'm doing the math in my head, and I'm thinking that that's about 2200 graduates. How many of those names might you remember if you saw them today, or saw them face to face, remember having taught them? KWASIGROCH: I think it's over 2200 now. But nonetheless, your math is still good. I think I remember most. When I get a phone call, or whatever from a student, or if they ask for help, for whatever reason, or if we meet them at various events, occasionally it will take me a minute or two to to make the connection, because whether we like it or not, as time passes, we do look a little different. Maybe a little weight gain, a little weight loss, a little hair loss or things, things along those lines. But I think that I would remember most of them. Here's an interesting thing that I've learned over the years: When I do get a phone call or an email or some kind of request from a student, I walk down the hallway in our admissions region. I want to refresh my memory of what they looked like, and what things were like when they were there, and the timeline, and those kinds of things. And here's what's remarkable about our minds: I will walk down the hall and I will usually find the composite of that class, and I will say: That's their class. And then find the individual of concern. It amazes me how we link the group together, and it also helps me, I think, try to be more effective in what I do with the students, because I try to help them establish that visual image, like I think I have established with their class. So it's a combined thing, and you didn't ask about that, but it is a combined situation, where, I think, we we learn that way, we learn visually. COVID has been terrible at affecting my ability to really get to know the members of the class, because I see them, I recognize their eyes, but nothing else. And that's a problem. You know, I'm an old guy and, you know, memory is probably not what it used to be, but still, the, you know, the COVID effect, if we talk about all of those things, it is a problem. So, you know, ten years from now, if I'm trying to figure out who is in the class of 2025 or something like that, it might be a bit of a problem, because I won't recognize them quite so well. McCORKLE: For most of our graduating classes, the Gross Anatomy course is one of the first classes that they'll take during their first semester, and I would imagine that students arrive on the first day of medical school with some trepidation and anxiety about many things, but about that course. I recall that was certainly the case for me, my first day of law school. How do you help these students navigate this? So on the one hand, you want them to feel confident that they're going to be successful, but they also need to understand that medical schools is much different than their undergraduate program. KWASIGROCH: You hit on a lot of things there. The first thing that I do and, you know, as you know, I was the associate dean for student affairs for sixteen years, and so I met them as the first person that introduced them to the college day one, and that kind of thing. But even outside that, when we walk into the gross lab, the first question I ask them is: Are they excited to be here? And of course they are. And that's terrific, and that's wonderful, and part of my job is to make sure that excitement continues as– Through all four years, and the rest of their careers. So I do everything I can to maintain that enthusiasm, that excitement. And the second question I ask them is: Are they apprehensive? And virtually every student will raise their hand or nod or whatever. And that's definitely understandable, you know, I mention to them that if you didn't raise your hand, if you don't think you're apprehensive, you're not facing reality. So it is a bit of a problem for them when they first come here. The things that are important for me to get across to them is that life is now different. McCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: I tell them that they are no longer in school. I tell them that this is their first real job. I mean, some of them have worked before, but this is a real job. And in reality, it's probably two full time jobs. And I also tell them that they'd better be ready to change, to make adjustments in their lifestyle, and how they are as a learner, and every aspect of what they do. This one's a hard one for them to accept, but I think they need to to be aware of what is ahead of them. And in order to get into medical school or law school, or one of these advanced degree situations, you have to be, in med school, in the top 10% of your graduating class. And most of our students are not only that, but they're higher up, and they're in the top 10% of everything they've done. They've been accomplished athletes, or musicians, or a whole host of things that really has been part of their life. So they need to embrace that, but they have to realize that 90% of them will no longer be in the top 10% of the class. McCORKLE: Right. KWASIGROCH: And, you know, they look at me like I'm from a different planet when I say that, but that is the truth. 90% of you will no longer be in the top 10% of your class, and that that's okay, as long as you are doing your best, and gaining that fundamental knowledge that you build on the rest of your life. Because medicine does change and you need to be a constant life-long learner and that is one of the main things that we really try to stress is the fact that, yes, you need to get, as I said earlier, that foundational information, and build on it, and be confident of it, but continually add; and a lot of information, we all know, changes in medicine. And if you feel that when you're done with med school, you're done with school, done with learning, you're absolutely wrong as well. So I think med school, in addition to helping them get that foundational, that initial information that they will build on, it's helping them understand that they're– They really need to organize their life a little differently. McCORKLE: They're entering a profession. KWASIGROCH: They are entering a profession. That is very true. McCORKLE: And you're laying the foundation for a new level of rigor and learning for them that they may not have been accustomed to prior to that. KWASIGROCH: That's exactly true. And organizing their lives so that they use the time appropriately. I'm not saying they've got to be studying 24/7. They don't. They shouldn't be. They need to learn how to study efficiently and effectively. And most of us, when we went through undergrad, we weren't terribly efficient and effective. I can tell you that I wasn't, maybe I shouldn't admit this here but, you know, I was more interested in athletics. I mean, in the back of my head, that's what got me moving forward and excelling and stuff like that was athletics, more than academics. The fortunate thing is I really just happened to go to the right schools, so that it made a difference, in spite of me. That is what they need to understand, is that the rest or the life is a continual improvement process. And they can do it. They do do it. Some of them have to make some dramatic changes to be more successful and accomplished, but it it amazes me day after day after day, the passion and the drive and the enthusiasm that they bring to the table in this process. So that's that's why working with medical students, working with PT students, is so rewarding. Because I usually don't have to worry about motivation. I just worry about, you know, kind of staying out of the way. And that facilitating. MCCORKLE: Facilitating the learning. Yes. Well, I'm interested in hearing about– More about the gross anatomy course; so talk with us about how teaching the gross anatomy course has changed over the years, from the first time you taught it in the 1970s to the way that you might teach it now. KWASIGROCH: It has changed dramatically. And I'll go back to when I took it at Virginia, when I was a student there, and Gross Anatomy was actually two semesters and it was 200 contact hours in each of those semesters. But we were in class from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 at night every day and a half a day on Saturday. You can't do that with, with learners and let them be effective. Back in those days it was, you know, you accept the student body and attrition took its toll on that group of individuals, which I don't think any of us really want to see. So we want to make sure that the people that we get in the seats are the right people. And we are confident that they can succeed as an undergraduate or in any of our graduate programs. I think as far as the gross course is concerned, you know, we don't have full contact hours, when I came here, we had close to 200 contact hours, so it was already half the size. We don't have anywhere near that now, we have about 145 contact hours with the students. So we all have had to adjust. The amount of information that they really should know hasn't changed, you know, anatomy is anatomy, the head bone still connected to the neck bone, and you've got to know that. So you're right. When we started, for most of those years, we were the first course that they were exposed to. And, you know, it helped the students get used to what medicine was about, because one of the things that we tell the students, day one, is they are now working with their first patient and they need to take that seriously, just like any patient that they will see as they progress through their education, or beyond when they get out to be a practitioner, you have to be a very good observer. You've got to know your information. You have to have a strong knowledge base and you've got to, you know, got to take care of that patient with all of the things they have. So by telling the students day one, this is their first patient, gets them, I think, into the right mindset. So that's a constant, but things that have changed is– Are things like lectures. We don't really lecture anymore. Everybody knows lecture is inefficient, and the data says, if you remember 20% of what you hear in a lecture, that's pretty good. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: And I don't think we want to be that inefficient. If you're only getting 20% of the information, there is a problem there. So what we have done, we have progressed with a bunch of different steps, but where we are now, where that has gotten us is to a flip classroom where all the learning materials are front ended. And they can learn those at their own pace, not the pace of my lecture. They can get into it in depth, and there are a variety of things that we have learned about learning over time. We still don't really know how the brain works, but we know that in order to learn things properly, you really have to stretch your mind, you have to engage your mind, you have to take the information that you're trying to learn and use it. You can't just hope and assume that that information is going to be in there when you need it on an exam, or when you need it with a patient. So the more you push yourself to recover information that you're trying to learn, the better off you're going to be. And, when we were talking about the composite information, you know, the composite of a student class, trying to create a package, we remember things because we relate them to something else we know. And that's how we remember. The initial learning is repetition. And our job is to build a bunch of repetition into the course, which we have done through the learning materials and through our class activities, that are very engaging. But, so, that's the repetition part of it, and then linking it; so that's where we spend a lot of time, dialog in the classroom, about: You learned this yesterday here's how this relates to this topic that we are discussing today. So, summary: It's a– It used to be a pretty passive process (Although the gross lab is anything but passive regardless of when you took the course), but every minute of the class, now, every minute is an active engagement with the learning materials. MCCORKLE: Yes. KWASIGROCH: And that's what we have to do, is get them to engage with that information, have dialog, be confident in their answers. Even if they're wrong, we can fix that. But if we don't know, if they don't know, what they know, then we can't fix that. So that engagement process is really critical and that's the biggest change, if you will, from where we were, or where I was when I took this, to where we are now. MCCORKLE: Yeah. So some of our listeners may not know that the gross anatomy course requires medical students to use cadavers. Can you talk to us about that process for students and getting used to working with cadavers in the classroom? And I would imagine that this is a big step for them. KWASIGROCH: It is a big step for them. Most students have never dealt with this kind of a learning environment, and many, many of our students are young, and they really haven't had to face death, even in their family situations. So to be able to face this, and approach it from a learning perspective, is a huge adjustment. Some of the students are more uncomfortable in the process than others, and we try to let them know that it is an adjustment. And if and if they feel uncomfortable or whatever, you know, let's talk and let's move around. Let's get out of the lab, and discuss the issue, and work into it slowly. But I think the thing that affects them from a positive standpoint is the fact that we do discuss the fact that this is their first patient and they really take that seriously. This is not just a learning tool, this is someone just like their mother, just like their father, or their brother, whatever it happens to be; and they have to do their absolute best to take that individual, and learn as much as possible from it. And the unique thing is, of course, we are all different. We're different on the outside, we're different on the inside. And there's a lot of virtual reality things that are out there, and they're terrific, and they're just great for students that are learning materials, but it does not replace what they get in an active cadaver lab. You just never know what these 21 patients that we see every year are going to present to the students, and our responsibility is to make that real for them, because it is real. MCCORKLE: Yes. The bodies that are used in the gross anatomy are people who have agreed to have their bodies donated to Quillen for medical education purposes. Can you talk with us about the Human Anatomical Gifts Program, the program that you oversee, and why this is such a special gift that people decide to make? KWASIGROCH: Well, I can't tell you enough about the importance of that program. When you realize what the learners get from it (And I just touched on that with the kidney and the pancreas), and that the students are learning from community members. These are individuals that have, as you indicated, donated their remains, by a conscious gift. And we've had, as you can probably imagine, everybody in the community, at all levels of society, if you want to use that kind of a term. We've had politicians, we've had, you know, and I won't go into details because confidentiality is huge, but we've had all phases of individuals in this community. And it's remarkable. And the family support, when a donor makes that decision that they want to donate their remains, we make sure they understand what goes on and we make sure that the family is supportive of it. And that has to happen in order for that donation to occur. But when– If– We all talk about in the military that when somebody is killed in combat in the military, they have made the ultimate gift. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: And I'm prior service, so I get that. But the gift that these individuals make, the number of people that it affects downstream, is unbelievable. And I'm going to throw out a number here, that I think will surprise you, but one individual, one gift, one donor, that 80 of our students learned from. MCCORKLE: Yes. KWASIGROCH: Right. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: From that, each one of those physicians in their lifetime will usually treat between 40,000 and 60,000 patients. So if you think of that one donation by that individual and how– The breadth of that effect downstream, it's unbelievable. MCCORKLE: An amazing impact. KWASIGROCH: It is an amazing impact. And we try to let the students, you know, understand that this is a chance of a lifetime, to be able to do this. And they're obviously very respectful of the process, and, you know, so; we do have rules and regulations in the lab and all that, but those rules and regulations are just incidental, they understand the significance of this gift by individuals in our community, that have donated specifically for physicians, learning physicians, in this community. MCCORKLE: And at the end of the semester, or the year, the students will hold a memorial service. KWASIGROCH: That is correct. This is their memorial service that they conduct, that they design. It is not the faculty or the staff that do this. They do it themselves. We provide them information about what this donor had done for a living, you know, whether they were in the military or, you know, some information that doesn't affect confidentiality, and what they died of, and what their age was, and those kinds of things, but minimal information; so that they can connect to these donors as people, like I said, their first patient. So that's critical. And by the time the course is over, they really have made that connection. They have named their donor, their own name, whatever they have chosen. That's how they interact with that person. When we refer to them, they refer to them by name. So those things are remarkable. Now, as I said, the memorial service is of their own doing, they design it, they conduct it. We've had everything you could possibly imagine. Students have written songs and performed various things. They've written poems. They have read scripture. We had one individual who played bagpipes, and that was pretty remarkable in that space and all. And one really stands out in my mind was a young man from, oh, about eight years ago. I'll have to go down the hall and look, make sure. I'm saying about eight years ago. And he wrote a rap poem, and that's the first time we had anything like that. And when he was done, there was not a dry eye in the house. It was absolutely remarkable. I still have a copy of that, that, just, I pull out periodically, just to remind myself of, you know, the compassion, the understanding, the heartfelt sincerity, from him and all of the other individuals. It's a remarkable experience. MCCORKLE: Thank you for sharing that part of medical education with us. I suspect that a lot of people did not realize that happens. So I want I want to talk to you now about teaching a little more, but specifically, would you tell us what led you into the field of teaching? KWASIGROCH: Well, here we go. This is a circuitous route. So, growing up, I was going to be a surgeon, I can't remember when I wasn't going to be a surgeon, let's put it that way. So it's, you know, from as long as I can remember. And I kept reinforcing that, when I graduated from college, from Niagara, I went back to Syracuse, and I worked at Upstate Medical Center, and I worked in the Department of Surgery, and I ran the research lab. And I trained residents in a variety of skills, in dog labs, and in conjunction with the Department of Anatomy at Upstate Medical Center. And I did that, and I loved every minute of it, and, you know, that really got me in another position, you know, getting ready for going back to school and becoming a surgeon. And then the military decided they needed me first. So that was Vietnam time. That's a long time ago. And so, I volunteered for the military and went through officer candidate school, and jump school, and special forces training and all, because I knew I was going to be in combat and I wanted to be as well-trained as I could be. So when I finished with Special Forces training and had my nice shiny green beret and all that stuff, I reported for my first assignment with the Sixth Special Forces Group, and the colonel that was there said (Some things you never forget), he said: "Oh, I've been waiting for you." And that didn't sound good to me. I wasn't sure what that meant. So I asked him, what did he mean by that? And he said, well, with your background, we need somebody to teach at the chemical, biological, radiological warfare school. And your background makes you perfect for that assignment. And I said, with all due respect, colonel, I'm the guy that dropped public speaking after two days in college because I'm going to be a surgeon. I'm not going to need, you know, this skill set, and I am not the kind of person that you want in in a classroom. I'm a pretty significant introvert, and stuff like that, and it just wouldn't work. So anyway, I ended up at the chemical, biological, radiological warfare school. That's only part of the story. Here's what– Here's the part that really made the difference. I was so ill prepared for that, that my notes for the first class (And I was teaching two classes that day was I can remember this again, like it was yesterday); the commandant taught at 8:00 and at 9:00, and I was teaching at 10:00 and 11:00. So my notes for the class where word-for-word, everything I was going to say. So I was just going to read those notes, and I had some audio-visual aids and stuff, but you know, everything else was going to be written down. Word-for-word. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: So the fortunate thing– Didn't seem so at the time –But the fortunate thing is right before I went on– We had a– This is North Carolina, Fort Bragg, and there was a really severe thunderstorm. The power went out, the room was dark, no audio-visual AIDS, couldn't read my notes, everything went south. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: And so I asked the commandant: How long can we delay the class before we start again? And that particular class was all the field grade officers at Fort Bragg, all the generals, all the colonels, of which there are a lot at Fort Bragg. So he said: "You can't delay the class for these folks. We drive on." So we pulled up the curtains, and opened the doors, and tried to do everything we could to get some light in there, but I could not read my notes. And the only thing I had were some index cards where I just scribbled down an outline, and I got off the stage, and I used my outline, and started doing my best to recover that information that I had word for word on my notes. And, when– I will tell you that I was pretty excited when I finished, I got a nice round of applause from these people, and the commandant met me afterward and he said: "Boy, you've got a great career in teaching." And I said: I'm going to be a– I'm going to be a surgeon. But it changed my life. It literally changed my life. I, after time doing this, developed a passion for the process. MCCORKLE: I'm curious then, what led you to the Quillen College of Medicine? And then, beyond that, why did you decide to make this your home for 42-plus-years? KWASIGROCH: Well, there's another long story. So after– I had a tough decision about whether or not to stay in the military, things were going so well there, and I was getting early promotions and all that stuff, and I thought, well, I could teach at the Uniformed Health Services School in Washington. So I really did carefully consider whether or not I was going to stay in or get out. But I wanted to do research. I wanted to do research and birth defects. Again, I can't really explain why, but knowing the number of defects and stuff like that that do exist, and, I just wanted to do that. And so I didn't think I could do that in the military. And I probably should have thought more about that. But, you know, there was– That's not fertile ground for that kind of research. But the University of Virginia was. That was the premier place in the country. That and Cincinnati, at that point in time. And so I was lucky enough to be accepted to UVA, and I think all of the things that I had done, military-wise and everything like that, really helped get me in that institution. I think without that it wouldn't have happened. But we had a remarkable program. Everybody that was anybody in birth defects research or developmental biology came through the University of Virginia, and we got a chance to meet those people, and have really rich dialog with them, which, you know, if you're a student like that, and you're involved, it just lights your fires. So that was pretty remarkable. And then when I was getting ready to decide the next step, you know, whether I would go to NIH, I had that opportunity, or various other things; but one of the individuals that had come through Virginia, and [I] had nice conversations with, was Dr. Neubert, and Dr. Neubert was the director of the Institute for Toxicology and Embryonic Pharmacology in Berlin, which was the place in Europe to go for birth defects. There were a couple of spots in England, but the Institute in Berlin was amazing. And I told Dr. Neubert when he came, he came to Charlottesville to talk to me about this from Berlin, so, you know, I had to take that seriously. And I said, I don't speak German, I am German, but I don't speak German. And he said: That doesn't matter, everybody speaks English, and you'll be helpful to them. Anyway, I went to Berlin. A remarkable experience. All of those people that had come to UVA to speak, or whatever, I get a chance to interact with those folks again in Europe at various meetings. It was just a remarkable experience. So, fast forward, four years later, after my fellowship was ending, they offered me a job to stay there, which again was a tough decision because I loved it there. The wall was still up and everything but still, I loved the whole environment, and the enthusiasm, and the dedication to the research and all. The funding mechanism was a lot different, that was a lot better. But anyway, I felt I had to come back to the U.S. and be closer to my family. I'm from Syracuse, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to end up in Tennessee. But I sent letters to all of the schools in the Southeast, because I wanted to come back to the Southeast. I did not want to go back to Syracuse. So, bottom line was I had ten job offers at that point in time, after visiting Jefferson, and back to UVA, and Wake, and Duke, and Carolina, etc., all of those places. So I had a decision to make and of course, at that same time, Quillen was starting and I got a letter inviting me, because the chair of Anatomy was one of those individuals that came through UVA, and I had known him for a long time and he did a sabbatical in Berlin. So I got to know him a whole lot better even there. And so they wanted me to come here as well. So, I visited all the places, and I created– Excel didn't exist at that time, but my wife and I created a spreadsheet, and we did all the right things. And frankly, because Quillen was brand new, it wouldn't be high on the list in comparison to some of these other programs. But I just felt that, you don't get an opportunity to go on the ground floor, and establish a program, and be involved in those kinds of things, in most institutions. If I went back to UVA, I could never have done the things that I've been able to do here; or Duke, or, you know, Wake, those– Some of those institutions like Wake and Jefferson have subsequently offered offered me jobs over the years, and to get back to your point, 42 years later, I've probably had 10 or 12, well, closer to 10, job opportunities since then. And I'm still here. For the same reasons. It's an opportunity to do things where people have gotten us to a flip classroom where all the learning materials are front-end. And they can learn those at their own pace, not the pace of my lecture. They can get into it in depth, and there are a variety of things that we have learned about learning over time. We still don't really know how the brain works, but we know that in order to learn things properly, you really have to stretch your mind, you have to engage your mind, you have to take the information that you're trying to learn and use it. You can't just hope and assume that that information is going to be in there when you need it on an exam, or when you need it with a patient. So the more you push yourself to recover information that you're trying to learn, the better off you're going to be. And, when we were talking about the composite information, you know, the composite of a student class, trying to create a package, we remember things because we relate them to something else we know. And that's how we remember. The initial learning is repetition. And our job is to build a bunch of repetition into the course, which we have done through the learning materials and through our class activities, that are very engaging. But, so, that's the repetition part of it, and then linking it; so that's where we spend a lot of time, dialog in the classroom, about: You learned this yesterday here's how this relates to this topic that we are discussing today. So, summary: It's a– It used to be a pretty passive process (Although the gross lab is anything but passive regardless of when you took the course), but every minute of the class, now, every minute is an active engagement with the learning materials. MCCORKLE: Yes. KWASIGROCH: And that's what we have to do, is get them to engage with that information, have dialog, be confident in their answers. Even if they're wrong, we can fix that. But if we don't know, if they don't know, what they know, then we can't fix that. So that engagement process is really critical and that's the biggest change, if you will, from where we were, or where I was when I took this, to where we are now. MCCORKLE: Yeah. So some of our listeners may not know that the gross anatomy course requires medical students to use cadavers. Can you talk to us about that process for students and getting used to working with cadavers in the classroom? And I would imagine that this is a big step for them. KWASIGROCH: It is a big step for them. Most students have never dealt with this kind of a learning environment, and many, many of our students are young, and they really haven't had to face death, even in their family situations. So to be able to face this, and approach it from a learning perspective, is a huge adjustment. Some of the students are more uncomfortable in the process than others, and we try to let them know that it is an adjustment. And if and if they feel uncomfortable or whatever, you know, let's talk and let's move around. Let's get out of the lab, and discuss the issue, and work into it slowly. But I think the thing that affects them from a positive standpoint is the fact that we do discuss the fact that this is their first patient and they really take that seriously. This is not just a learning tool, this is someone just like their mother, just like their father, or their brother, whatever it happens to be; and they have to do their absolute best to take that individual, and learn as much as possible from it. And the unique thing is, of course, we are all different. We're different on the outside, we're different on the inside. And there's a lot of virtual reality things that are out there, and they're terrific, and they're just great for students that are learning materials, but it does not replace what they get in an active cadaver lab. You just never know what these 21 patients that we see every year are going to present to the students, and our responsibility is to make that real for them, because it is real. MCCORKLE: Yes. The bodies that are used in the gross anatomy are people who have agreed to have their bodies donated to Quillen for medical education purposes. Can you talk with us about the Human Anatomical Gifts Program, the program that you oversee, and why this is such a special gift that people decide to make? KWASIGROCH: Well, I can't tell you enough about the importance of that program. When you realize what the learners get from it (And I just touched on that with the kidney and the pancreas), and that the students are learning from community members. These are individuals that have, as you indicated, donated their remains, by a conscious gift. And we've had, as you can probably imagine, everybody in the community, at all levels of society, if you want to use that kind of a term. We've had politicians, we've had, you know, and I won't go into details because confidentiality is huge, but we've had all phases of individuals in this community. And it's remarkable. And the family support, when a donor makes that decision that they want to donate their remains, we make sure they understand what goes on and we make sure that the family is supportive of it. And that has to happen in order for that donation to occur. But when– If– We all talk about in the military that when somebody is killed in combat in the military, they have made the ultimate gift. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: And I'm prior service, so I get that. But the gift that these individuals make, the number of people that it affects downstream, is unbelievable. And I'm going to throw out a number here, that I think will surprise you, but one individual, one gift, one donor, that 80 of our students learned from. MCCORKLE: Yes. KWASIGROCH: Right. MCCORKLE: Yeah. KWASIGROCH: From that, each one of those physicians in their lifetime will usually treat between 40,000 and 60,000 patients. So if you think of that one donation by that individual and how– The breadth of that effect downstream, it's unbelievable. MCCORKLE: An amazing impact. KWASIGROCH: It is an amazing impact. And we try to let the students, you know, understand that this is a chance of a lifetime, to be able to do this. And they're obviously very respectful of the process, and, you know, so; we do have rules and regulations in the lab and all that, but those rules and regulations are just incidental, they understand the significance of this gift by individuals in our community, that have donated specifically for physicians, learning physicians, in this community. MCCORKLE: And at the end of the semester, or the year, the students will hold a memorial service. KWASIGROCH: That is correct. This is their memorial service that they conduct, that they design. It is not the faculty or the staff that do this. They do it themselves. We provide them information about what this donor had done for a living, you know, whether they were in the military or, you know, some information that doesn't affect confidentiality, and what they died of, and what their age was, and those kinds of things, but minimal information; so that they can connect to these donors as people, like I said, their first patient. So that's critical. And by the time the course is over, they really have made that connection. They have named their donor, their own name, whatever they have chosen. That's how they interact with that person. When we refer to them, they refer to them by name. So those things are remarkable. Now, as I said, the memorial service is of their own doing, they design it, they conduct it. We've had everything you could possibly imagine. Students have written songs and performed various things. They've written poems. They have read scripture. We had one individual who played bagpipes, and that was pretty remarkable in that space and all. And one really stands out in my mind was a young man from, oh, about eight years ago. I'll have to go down the hall and look, make sure. I'm saying about eight years ago. And he wrote a rap poem, and that's the first time we had anything like that. And when he was done, there was not a dry eye in the house. It was absolutely remarkable. I still have a copy of that, that, just, I pull out periodically, just to remind myself of, you know, the compassion, the understanding, the heartfelt sincerity, from him and all of the other individuals. It's a remarkable experience. MCCORKLE: Thank you for sharing that part of medical education with us. I suspect that a lot of people did not realize that happens. So I want I want to talk to you now about teaching a little more, but specifically, would you tell us what led you into the field of teaching? KWASIGROCH: Well, here we go. This is a circuitous route. So, growing up, I was going to be a surgeon, I can't remember when I wasn't going to be a surgeon, let's put it that way. So it's, you know, from as long as I can remember. And I kept reinforcing that, when I graduated from college, from Niagara, I went back to Syracuse, and I worked at Upstate Medical Center, and I worked in the Department of Surgery, and I ran the research lab. And I trained residents in a variety of skills, in dog labs, and in conjunction with the Department of Anatomy at Upstate Medical Center. And I did that, and I loved every minute of it, and, you know, that really got me in another position, you know, getting ready for going back to school and becoming a surgeon. And then the military decided they needed me first. So that was Vietnam time. That's a long time ago. And so, I volunteered for the military and went through officer candidate school, and jump school, and special forces training and all, because I knew I was going to be in combat and I wanted to be as well-trained as I could be. So when I finished with Special Forces training and had my nice shiny green beret and all that stuff, I reported for my first assignment with the Sixth Special Forces Group, and the colonel that was there said (Some things you never forget), he said: "Oh, I've been waiting for you." And that didn't sound good to me. I wasn't sure what that meant. So I asked him, what did he mean by that? And he said, well, with your background, we need somebody to teach at the chemical, biological, radiological warfare school. And your background makes you perfect for that assignment. And I said, with all due respect, colonel, I'm the guy that dropped public speaking after two days in college because I'm going to be a surgeon. I'm not going to need, you know, this skill set, and I am not the kind of person that you want in in a classroom. I'm a pretty significant introvert, and stuff like that, and it just wouldn't work. So anyway, I ended up at the chemical, biological, radiological warfare school. That's only part of the story. Here's what– Here's the part that really made the difference. I was so ill prepared for that, that my notes for the first class (And I was teaching two classes that day was I can remember this again, like it was yesterday); the commandant taught at 8:00 and at 9:00, and I was teaching at 10:00 and 11:00. So my notes for the class where word-for-word, everything I was going to say. So I was just going to read those notes, and I had some audio-visual aids and stuff, but you know, everything else was going to be written down. Word-for-word. So the fortunate thing– Didn't seem so at the time –But the fortunate thing is right before I went on– We had a– This is North Carolina, Fort Bragg, and there was a really severe thunderstorm. The power went out, the room was dark, no audio-visual AIDS, couldn't read my notes, everything went south. And so I asked the commandant: How long can we delay the class before we start again? And that particular class was all the field grade officers at Fort Bragg, all the generals, all the colonels, of which there are a lot at Fort Bragg. So he said: "You can't delay the class for these folks. We drive on." So we pulled up the curtains, and opened the doors, and tried to do everything we could to get some light in there, but I could not read my notes. And the only thing I had were some index cards where I just scribbled down an outline, and I got off the stage, and I used my outline, and started doing my best to recover that information that I had word for word on my notes. And, when– I will tell you that I was pretty excited when I finished, I got a nice round of applause from these people, and the commandant met me afterward and he said: "Boy, you've got a great career in teaching." And I said: I'm going to be a– I'm going to be a surgeon. But it changed my life. It literally changed my life. I, after time doing this, developed a passion for the process. MCCORKLE: I'm curious then, what led you to the Quillen College of Medicine? And then, beyond that, why did you decide to make this your home for 42-plus-years? KWASIGROCH: Well, there's another long story. So after– I had a tough decision about whether or not to stay in the military, things were going so well there, and I was getting early promotions and all that stuff, and I thought, well, I could teach at the Uniformed Health Services School in Washington. So I really did carefully consider whether or not I was going to stay in or get out. But I wanted to do research. I wanted to do research and birth defects. Again, I can't really explain why, but knowing the number of defects and stuff like that that do exist, and, I just wanted to do that. And so I didn't think I could do that in the military. And I probably should have thought more about that. But, you know, there was– That's not fertile ground for that kind of research. But the University of Virginia was. That was the premier place in the country. That and Cincinnati, at that point in time. And so I was lucky enough to be accepted to UVA, and I think all of the things that I had done, military-wise and everything like that, really helped get me in that institution. I think without that it wouldn't have happened. But we had a remarkable program. Everybody that was anybody in birth defects research or developmental biology came through the University of Virginia, and we got a chance to meet those people, and have really rich dialog with them, which, you know, if you're a student like that, and you're involved, it just lights your fires. So that was pretty remarkable. And then when I was getting ready to decide the next step, you know, whether I would go to NIH, I had that opportunity, or various other things; but one of the individuals that had come through Virginia, and had nice conversations with, was Dr. Neubert, and Dr. Neubert was the director of the Institute for Toxicology and Embryonic Pharmacology in Berlin, which was the place in Europe to go for birth defects. There were a couple of spots in England, but the Institute in Berlin was amazing. And I told Dr. Neubert when he came, he came to Charlottesville to talk to me about this from Berlin, so, you know, I had to take that seriously. And I said, I don't speak German, I am German, but I don't speak German. And he said: That doesn't matter, everybody speaks English, and you'll be helpful to them. Anyway, I went to Berlin. A remarkable experience. All of those people that had come to UVA to speak, or whatever, I get a chance to interact with those folks again in Europe at various meetings. It was just a remarkable experience. So, fast forward, four years later, after my fellowship was ending, they offered me a job to stay there, which again was a tough decision because I loved it there. The wall was still up and everything but still, I loved the whole environment, and the enthusiasm, and the dedication to the research and all. The funding mechanism was a lot different, that was a lot better. But anyway, I felt I had to come back to the U.S. and be closer to my family. I'm from Syracuse, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to end up in Tennessee. But I sent letters to all of the schools in the Southeast, because I wanted to come back to the Southeast. I did not want to go back to Syracuse. So, bottom line was I had ten job offers at that point in time, after visiting Jefferson, and back to UVA, and Wake, and Duke, and Carolina, etc., all of those places. So I had a decision to make and of course, at that same time, Quillen was starting and I got a letter inviting me, because the chair of Anatomy was one of those individuals that came through UVA, and I had known him for a long time and he did a sabbatical in Berlin. So I got to know him a whole lot better even there. And so they wanted me to come here as well. So, I visited all the places, and I created– Excel didn't exist at that time, but my wife and I created a spreadsheet, and we did all the right things. And frankly, because Quillen was brand new, it wouldn't be high on the list in comparison to some of these other programs. But I just felt that, you don't get an opportunity to go on the ground floor, and establish a program, and be involved in those kinds of things, in most institutions. If I went back to UVA, I could never have done the things that I've been able to do here; or Duke, or Wake, those– Some of those institutions like Wake and Jefferson have subsequently offered me jobs over the years, and to get back to your point, 42 years later, I've probably had 10 or 12, well, closer to 10, job opportunities since then. And I'm still here. For the same reasons. It's opportunity to do things where people listen. They don't say: "We don't do that at Duke;" they listen. They're willing to hear. One of those is building the surgical training center that we are in the process of doing. That wouldn't happen at other institute. MCCORKLE: Dr. Kwasigroch, tell us what you're working on now that you're excited about. KWASIGROCH: If I could, Dr. McCorkle, I'd like to kind of close the loop. When we first started talking, I talked about why I came to Quillen, and– Essentially against all advice. But the things that I've been able to accomplish, or Quillen has been able to accomplish and I've been involved, have really been exciting over the years. So, some simple things: I had a wonderful research career before I was asked to join the administration and be an assistant dean for curriculum and an associate dean for student affairs. Those things are remarkable, just wonderful experiences that I had with those, as well as my research. And I've been blessed to have numerous teaching awards in the College of Medicine, you know, double digit teaching wards, to be honest. And then two national teaching awards, one from the McCann Foundation and one from Alpha Omega Alpha, the Honor Society. I don't think those things would have been accomplished anywhere else. It just allowed me really to to be myself and be as good as I could be. Other things that have really been exciting to me: I was involved with the design of Stanton Gerber Hall, which is our College of Medicine building, the main one on the VA campus. That was an exciting adventure. Another thing that was incredibly exciting to me was when Stanton Gerber was built, it wasn't built for students. It was built for research. "Students" as far as having having classrooms, but not really student study and those kinds of things. So, the Student Study Center was designed at my dining room table with the architect, six students, a lot of pizza and Diet Coke (Because we went kind of late into the evenings), and a wish list from the entire student body. And if you haven't seen it, you need to come and visit the Student Study Center because it is a unique place and it's got a variety of things that really help support the students regardless of their method of study. So those are things that I don't– I just don't think I would have accomplished anywhere else. So that's why my 43 years here have been so remarkable. And where are we going now? To answer your question: We are redesigning our curriculum. I've been involved with that since the very beginning of this particular process. We're going away from traditional teaching, which is a lot of lecture based, and traditional content like anatomy and physiology, to an integrated, non lecture, kind of curriculum; where students will really be engaged. It's not us talking to them, it's us having conversations with them, and them with each other, about what the information means, in relation to the particular system we're studying, like cardiovascular; so it'll be all of the elements included in there. That's exciting. That puts us in a different category from the educational process, and I think is really important. And going along with that, I've been involved with, for several years, redesigning our teaching spaces; that need to be more modern and fit the kind of teaching methods that we are using as we move forward. And I think that will be transformative also for our students, where we'll be able to gather better in small groups, and have better discussion; and be modular, so we can move those around for other kinds of activities, and hopefully for whatever comes forward in the future. And in the other project that I'm involved in is really a one of a kind for Quillen and ETSU: It's a center for surgical innovation and training. We talked about our donor process and all of that, and we have a unique embalming process that we learned about from the literature; it gives us donors that are very lifelike that we can do unique things with. And I think I mention the fact that we can do physical exam skills and all that with them. But at 2:00 in the morning, literally one morning, I woke up and I said: We're selling ourselves short here. We need to be able to take these donors that are so unique and use them for another objective; and that is allowing our students, our fourth year students, to actually perform surgery. That's not done anywhere. You don't– You observe surgery as a fourth your student, whether it's– Regardless of the discipline, but you never really get the opportunity to be hands-on. And so, this obviously will be with guidance, but students that are headed for general surgery, or orthopedics, or ENT, or OB-GYN, or any procedural discipline, will be able to come into this space, which will be a complete operating room, with all of the bells and whistles that a normal operating room has. And we'll be able to capture videos of that process, that we can then debrief the students, and share with other students, and those kinds of things. Not only will it affect our students, especially fourth year students, but our residents, and all of the residency programs that are procedural that we have. So residents will be able to perform surgery on our donors before they have to do it on me. So that's that's pretty selfish on my part. But if you're a surgeon, and you're going to do a Whipple procedure on somebody like myself, I'd much rather you do it a couple of times in this particular center. And then transform that again into our community physicians: This will give them an opportunity to try a new device that just showed up on the market, before they have to put it into someone like myself that is in need of that particular surgery. So for continuing education things, which are vital, and we do a lot of those in our spaces, so it'll give us that kind of opportunity. And to my knowledge, and we've done a lot of investigating, there's no other institution in the country that has a facility like this for our students, our residents, and our community physicians; where we really can collaborate, and hopefully not only train each other better, but maybe even come up with better ways of accomplishing some objectives through this particular process. So I'm really excited about this for for us, for ETSU and for Quillen. Most importantly, it's for the educational process, but it will be a significant recruitment tool for students, for residents, and for area physicians, faculty or community. So I'm really excited about that one. And when I get those done, then I think I can retire, and enjoy the fact that we've really done a lot since we've been here. And it's been wonderful. MCCORKLE: Wonderful transformative opportunities for students. KWASIGROCH: I hope so. I hope so. The deans that I've talked with about this, it's been a process. They've been very supportive. You know, also we do a lot of fundraising. We did a lot of fundraising for the Student Study Center, for example, and hopefully we'll be able to pay for this with the support of the community and other individuals who are out there. So we're working on that, too. So, teamwork does make the dream work. I had to bring that back. Teamwork does make the dream work. MCCORKLE: Well, I do have a final question, but before I get to the final question, I do want to bring up something that you mentioned earlier. You talked about how you love being a coach. You understand that you coached soccer for years at the University School here on ETSU campus, and one of the students that you coached at University School was Sean Fox, now Dr. Sean Fox, who's actually on the ETSU faculty, and will be my next guest on the next podcast. I'm assuming that you remember Dr. Fox as one of your athletes; so tell us a little bit about that. KWASIGROCH: Absolutely remember him. You'll have a good podcast from him. He will ramble like I do. I told you, you know, I mentioned that I was in athletics my whole life and I coached soccer a long time, I coached basketball, I coached track, a variety of things, but I started the program, the soccer program at U.H. I was really excited about that. And I got a chance to work with, you know, kids that I knew, and loved every minute of it. And like I said before, it actually improved my teaching skills, because, you know, when I got to that level, and working with folks, a lot of whom hadn't played a lot of soccer, and tried to get them to be the best they can be, and watch them develop and all, it really enhanced my ability to communicate those kinds of things. Sean Fox in particular, was, just an outstanding young man. He was a very, very good athlete, and an outstanding young man. And I knew– I mean, you meet people and you know: This individual is going to do great stuff. And that's what I thought about Sean. Fortunately, I was right about that, for the benefit of ETSU and the benefit of Sean himself. He's just a delightful, gifted individual, and I'm really glad that I had the chance to work with him. And I'm really glad that we have him here. MCCORKLE: That's great. I love that connection. But I also like the point you made about how coaching is similar to teaching. KWASIGROCH: Well, it's very similar. It's very similar. MCCORKLE: So I have one last question, and this is a question I'm going to ask every guest: What impact do you hope your students will make on the world? KWASIGROCH: Well, there's a tough one. You know, when you train 2200 of those, and the PT students as well, and however many that's been over the years, you do want them to be the best they can be, and make an impact. The things that I tell students though, that I, I think just frankly are most important, you know, we've all been a patient at some point in time, or maybe our parents have, or whatever, and we've seen good, bad, and ugly; and one of the things that really is important to me is that our students treat their patients like people. They don't treat the disease. They treat the person. The disease is what the individual happens to have, but if you don't pay attention to the individual, to the person, there are things that you will not do for them that you should do. You know, I'm dealing with this right now with my sister up in Syracuse, who I just don't think getting good care, for that very reason. They're taking care of symptoms she has and all of that stuff, but they're not taking care of the individual, and so, the other kinds of things that exist are just being ignored, and that's not good. So we, you know, that's really important: That they learn to take care of their patients as if it were their grandmother (Unless they don't like grandma, you know, but I mean, that's another thing). And the other one that's huge, and we all know this is huge, but they have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to try to improve health care. Health care for all. And we know about disparities. We, I mean, that's– All you have to do is go into any hospital, or any setting, and you're going to see it firsthand. And that shouldn't be the way it is. So these folks are, if you will, the boots on the ground, and they can make a difference. And they can make a difference whether it's in their own institution, their own clinic, their community, their state, and beyond. And they can't ignore that. It's a responsibility. But it's an opportunity as well. And they need to embrace both of those. The fact that it is a responsibility, and the fact that it is an opportunity. So if they do nothing else other than provide good health care to the individuals, treating the patient, and then trying to address the health disparities, then I'm a happy camper. And I think, you know, we've done our job at Quillen. MCCORKLE: Thank you, Tom. It has been wonderful having you. And on behalf of hundreds and hundreds of students who've been in your course and who you have guided during their journey at Quillen and beyond, we want to thank you for being such an amazing and inspiring teacher and mentor. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information on Dr. Kwasigroch or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website. You can follow me on Twitter at @ETSUProvost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to the Why I Teach podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.