13th Annual Faculty Center Conference--In Person

Lauren Scharff is the Director for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Program and Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she has worked since 2008. Prior to that she was a professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Stephen F. Austin State University where she worked beginning in 1993. She completed her Ph.D. in Human Experimental Psychology in December, 1992 from the University of Texas at Austin. Courses she has taught include introductory psychology, leadership, research methods, biopsychology, and perception, and she has won several teaching awards. Her current research focuses on a variety of topics within SoTL, although she sometimes still collaborates on research projects in the human factors or visual perception areas.

Dr. Scharff is a past president of the Southwestern Psychological Association and is currently serving as the United States Regional Vice President for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is co-creator of the award-winning Improve with Metacognition website.

 

Dr. Mary Villani, Associate Professor, Computer Systems Department

After a 15-year computer consulting career, Dr. Villani has been teaching for the past 20+ years in the Computer Systems Department.  She holds a Doctoral degree from Pace University, Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. She has been teaching and acting as the Course Marshall for the Senior Project capstone course for over a decade where she has mentored many women students in the program. Dr. Villani is the recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence, 2012.

Dr. Ilknur Aydin, Associate Professor, Computer Systems Department

Dr. Aydin has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and has taught a broad range of CS courses in the undergraduate curriculum in the last 15 years. She has been a vivid supporter of women in the field where she mentored a diverse group of high school and undergrad research students, co-organized women in computing events on campus, and spearheaded efforts to take students to women in computing events. Dr. Aydin is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching award of FSC Foundation, 2023.

 

Both Drs. Aydin and Villani have worked to analyze the issue and address the gender disparity and broaden participation in computing programs at FSC since 2019. They have raised money through campus grants and other funding sources to provide Women Student Orientation programs for the past four years, taken students to women in computing events, and have been scholarly active publishing and presenting their work within the research communities [ISECON 2020, ACM SIGSCE 2021, IEEE RESPECT 2021, ACM CCSC 2022, ASEE 2022, ASEE 2023, ACM CCSC 2023].  Drs. Aydin and Villani are the co-advisors of the Supporting Women in Computing club, which became the ACM-W student chapter of the college in 2022.

Jaime Hartless is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and the current coordinator of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor at Farmingdale State College. She regularly teaches DEI-focused courses, such as Intro to LGBTQ+ Studies and Sex, Gender, and Sexuality. Her research explores the politics of allyship and Intersectionality in feminist and LGBTQ+ activism. She has also published work on using horror in the classroom to teach about gender and sexualities.