Current Provost Fellows
2019-2021 Fellows
Amy Ando
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
As a Provost Fellow, Professor Amy Ando is working on a project to enhance Illinois’ policies and procedures for evaluation of teaching effectiveness. Well-designed teaching evaluation systems help instructors to be more effective. Teaching evaluations also play important roles in decisions regarding promotion and tenure, specialized faculty contracts, and award selection. Thus, it’s vital that evaluation systems produce valid and unbiased measures of performance.
Modern best practices in teaching evaluation draw on evidence from sources such as student feedback, self evaluation, and peer assessment to show dimensions of accomplishment and highlight areas for improvement. At a large research university, a successful teaching evaluation system must also minimize the administrative burden it places on all participants.
Professor Ando will engage instructors, students, administrators, and staff across campus in a process to design a teaching evaluation system for Illinois that is constructive, unbiased, administratively efficient, and mindful of diverse teaching needs and styles across campus.
Ollie Watts Davis
School of Music
College of Fine and Applied Arts
Professor Ollie Watts Davis is working with the Student Success Initiative and will focus on matters related to undergraduate education and student achievement. Engaging with the Council of Undergraduate Deans, Students Affairs, the Campus Center for Advising and Academic Services, as well as faculty, advisors, and students from across campus, Professor Davis is looking to develop campus-wide student success initiatives improving retention, graduation rates, and reducing time-to-degree. Through a series of interactive conversations, this initiative will gather campus stakeholders for meaningful dialogues and emerge with actionable items for implementation.
As this initiative evolves, Professor Davis welcomes suggestions on specific areas by which to order systematic best practices to ensure successful navigation by all students in the living and learning spaces at Illinois.
Eva Pomerantz
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The primary focus of Professor Pomerantz’s Provost Fellow appointment is on updating the promotion and tenure process at Illinois. Working with faculty from across campus, her emphasis is on addressing issues of (1) diversity, equity, and inclusion; (2) interdisciplinary scholarship; and (3) misconduct in the promotion and tenure process.
In addition, given the importance that Illinois places on public engagement, a key aim is to better integrate public engagement into the promotion and tenure process, with attention to establishing criteria for evaluating the quality of public engagement among faculty.
Professor Pomerantz also hopes to identify how to best support faculty development in regards to public engagement.