CETLI's Graduate Fellowship for Teaching Excellence program honors graduate students who are dedicated to excellent teaching and is designed to foster conversations about teaching to help graduate students develop as teachers. Graduate fellows facilitate teaching workshops in their departments and across the university, observe graduate students teaching and offer feedback, and meet regularly as a fellows group to discuss teaching practices.
Candidates for this fellowship must be nominated by their department; the call for nominations goes out to graduate chairs in the spring semester. For more information about the Graduate Fellows Program, contact Ian Petrie.
Current Graduate Fellows for Teaching Excellence
Cami Berlin
Chemistry
Cami is a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry. Her research in the Kozlowski lab focuses on the total synthesis of natural products and the development of new organic reactions. Prior to Penn, Cami received her BS in chemistry from Bucknell University. At Penn, Cami has been a TA for several organic chemistry courses. She has served as a research mentor for multiple high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. She is passionate about creating welcoming and inclusive environments within STEM communities. Cami is also a member in the Women+ in Chemistry club, the Penn Chemistry Sunshine Committee, and the Chemistry DEI committee.
Tess Bernhard
Education
Tess is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education program within the Graduate School of Education. Her research examines the teaching practices of urban high school science teachers, with a critical eye towards how the proliferation of edtech platforms shapes their instruction and increases demands on their time. Prior to her time at Penn, she was a high school biology teacher and instructional coach in Boston. At Penn, she has taught courses in the Urban Teaching Apprenticeship Program and has been a TA for various educational research courses.
Krishan Canzius
Mathematics
Krishan (he/him) is a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Mathematics. His research is in mathematical logic. More specifically, Krishan is interested in the intersection between model theory and combinatorics. Prior to Penn, he earned degrees in mathematics and physics from Dartmouth College. At Penn, he has spent four semesters as a TA in the math department, and he currently serves as one of the department’s master TAs. Outside of Penn, Krishan has spent the past year as a volunteer instructor with Princeton’s Prison Teaching Initiative. Additionally, he has spent the past two summers teaching at the Canada/USA Mathcamp, a camp for gifted high school students. He is excited to work with passionate teachers from all parts of the Penn community in the coming year.
Julia Cope
Communication
Julia is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication. She uses natural language processing and qualitative methods to study how different groups of actors, such as corporations and activists, negotiate the meaning of and solutions to the climate crisis. For example, one of her current projects looks at how the use of environmental claims within TV advertisements has changed over time. At Annenberg, she has been a teaching fellow and given guest lectures for Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s Political Communication course and Professor Yph Lelkes’ Communication Behavior course, both large undergraduate courses that introduce students to social science research, mediated communication, and political communication. She received her BS and MS in information science from the University of Pittsburgh and worked in Pittsburgh at the intersection of sustainability and data science before moving to Philadelphia for graduate school. Julia enjoys working with students in class and during office hours and is very excited to work with fellow graduate students with a passion for teaching in the 2024-2025 academic year.
Jonathan Dick
English
Jonathan Dick is a PhD candidate in English specializing in 19th century British literature and 20th century literary history. His dissertation is a classroom history of literary form, and it works out a political genealogy for the tropes essential to English education in the modern period by examining the cultural products that enabled their consolidation as pedagogical devices within universities across the Anglophone world. He holds a BA and MA in English and comparative literature from the University of Toronto and has been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright program, the Mellon Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For the 2024-2025 academic year, Jonathan will be a Valerian Lada-Mocarski Fellow at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.
At Penn, Jonathan has taught or helped teach courses on modern and contemporary US poetry, queer theory, psychoanalysis, Victorian literature, literature and medicine, and composition, particularly for first-generation university students. His teaching is guided by the belief that all students have the capacity for advanced literary critical work and that it is his job to provide them with the metalanguage, confidence, and skills to do so. He received the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students for his One Series course, Reading Middlemarch, in 2024.
VanJessica Gladney
History
VanJessica Gladney (she/her) is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the Department of History and is currently writing a dissertation about the Massachusetts Regulation of 1786-1787, more commonly known as Shays’s Rebellion. She is also the lead Public Historian for the Penn & Slavery Project. Her teaching experience began back in her days as an undergraduate at Penn when she served as a teaching assistant for an introductory-level computer science course. As a doctoral student, she has served as a teaching assistant or a grader for five lecture courses in the history department. She has received consistent praise from her professors and undergraduate students for the dedication, energy, and passion she brings to the classroom, and from her fellow doctoral students for her commitment to strengthening the pedagogical pillar of graduate training at Penn. When VanJessica is not combing through archives or planning CETLI Workshops, she crochets and makes candles.
Shafagh Keyvanian
Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
Shafagh is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM). Her research is focused on rehabilitation robotics and human-robot interaction, and she is advised by Profs. Nadia Figueroa and Michelle Johnson. Prior to her PhD, she received her BSc in mechanical engineering from KNT. University, and MSc in automotive engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. Shafagh developed her teaching and mentorship skills during her BS, MS and PhD programs by serving as a TA for undergraduate and graduate courses, tutoring and mentoring students, and supervising research teams comprising both undergraduate and graduate students. As a CETLI fellow, she aims to build a supportive and dynamic teaching community within the department, empowering graduate students and TAs to excel as educators and contribute to their educational mission. She emphasizes the use of creative teaching methods that build a productive classroom community, enhance the transfer of knowledge, and center around students’ needs and experiences.
Henrique Laurino Dos Santos
Marketing
Henrique is a sixth-year doctoral student in quantitative marketing at the Wharton School. He studies momentum-based marketing policies, such as how not to annoy users with excessive digital advertising, and how to forecast dynamic patterns in large-scale consumption networks. Sporadically, he contributes to computational narratology literature. He has previously worked as a teaching assistant in business intelligence courses at the undergraduate and MBA levels. He also has mentored both undergraduate and graduate students at Penn and looks forward to working further in our vibrant student community.
Ellen Munsterman
Nursing
Ellen is a doctoral candidate in the Penn School of Nursing and the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, completing a dual degree in the Master’s in Bioethics (MBE) program. She is an associate fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and a second-year scholar in the Christopher M. Clark Scholars Program. Ellen’s research interests center on the care and experiences of hospitalized persons with dementia and their families. At Penn, Ellen has served as a teaching resident and teaching assistant in the undergraduate nursing program. Before starting her doctoral studies, Ellen taught nursing clinical courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Tiffany Nguyen
Classical Studies
Tiffany is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Classical Studies department. Her research focuses on crucial moments of decision making in the works of Seneca the Younger. At Penn, she has taught multiple Latin courses and TA’d for Greek and Roman Mythology. Additionally, as a part of the Classics department’s Anti-Racism Working group, she was part of a committee to put on a yearlong workshop series, “First Fridays,” on topics of anti-racist theory, pedagogy, and the impact of white supremacy.
Qiran Shang
Architecture
Qiran Shang is a PhD Candidate in the history and theory of architecture at the Weitzman School of Design. Her research focuses on the histories of queer space-making in postsocialist China, examining the intersections between queer nightlife spaces, global capitalism, state governance, and queer resistance. At Penn, she has taught as an instructor for a seminar course on architectural and urban history in China from 1949 to 2008 and has served as a teaching fellow for various courses on architectural history and theory. In her teaching, she invites students to critically reflect on architecture’s role within broader socio-political processes, and to recognize the diverse forms of spatial agency from marginalized individuals and communities. Qiran holds a BArch and a MArch from Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Besides teaching and research, she is passionate about rock climbing, plants, and her cats.
Jessica Shi
Computer & Information Science
Jessica is a fourth-year PhD student in computer science. Her research is at the intersection of programming languages and human-computer interaction, with a focus on improving the usability of proof assistants. At Penn, she has taught a mini-course on the Haskell programming language, served as a teaching assistant for a course on formal verification, and co-taught a summer class as part of an undergraduate research program. Prior to Penn, she completed her undergraduate degree in computer science and mathematics at MIT.
Rebecca Winkler
Anthropology
Rebecca Winkler is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her research with indigenous Karen elephant-keeping communities in Thailand seeks to understand how alternative forms of interspecies kinship, cohabitation, and conflict survive on the margins of militarized conservation and corporate enclosure. She has served as a TA for courses in the anthropology of globalization, medical anthropology, and interdisciplinary courses intersecting with environmental and veterinary sciences. Rebecca believes anthropology is for everyone and is passionate about making anthropological theory accessible. Outside of Penn, Rebecca is a volunteer with Philadelphia’s Karen refugee organization, KCAP – The Karen Community Association of Philadelphia, where she teaches English and helps organize community events, and she enjoys woodworking and hiking.
Oscar Qiu Jun Zheng
East Asian Languages & Civilizations
Oscar Qiu Jun Zheng is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. His dissertation focuses on excavated instruction manuals on medicine and spirit practices from second-century BCE to second-century CE China, examining their codicology, textual organization, transmission, and language, to explore how these manuals interacted with their readers, as well as how they facilitated the performance of medical knowledge and spirit power. He has served as teaching fellow for the courses Introduction to Chinese Civilization, Introduction to Korean Civilization, and Sex and Society in Ancient China. As a teacher, he is interested in course structuring, object-based learning, academic writing, and building an inclusive learning environment for students who have different language backgrounds.
Current Graduate Fellows for Inclusive & Equitable Teaching
Anirudh Karnick
Comparative Literature and South Asia Studies
Anirudh is a dual PhD candidate in the Comparative Literature Program and Department of South Asia Studies. His dissertation studies the transformation in the conception of language, poetry, and aesthetics in North India between 1880-1930. He is interested in these processes—the transformation of poetic practices, the reorganization of literary historiography, and the massification of standardized languages—in both modern South Asia and elsewhere. He also translates regularly. He taught undergraduates at the University of Delhi before starting his doctorate at Penn, teaching both survey classes and advanced courses in South Asian literature, history, and the literature of the Anglophone world. He has always been interested in diverse literary and academic materials becoming a part of world literature/history courses, and in having students from widely varying backgrounds participate in greater numbers in their study.
Thomas “Hank” Owings
Political Theory
Thomas “Hank” Owings is a doctoral candidate in political theory specializing in feminist and queer theory, contemporary political theory, and political theology. His dissertation thinks between affect theory, the phenomenology of the body, theology, and rightwing populism to argue that certain ways of experiencing gender, sex, and labor are central to and constitutive of contemporary populist movements. He previously received a master’s in political science from Ohio University and a master’s in religious studies from the University of Chicago. He holds graduate certificates in gender and sexuality studies from both Ohio University and Penn.
At both Ohio and Penn, Hank has taught or assisted in teaching courses on international relations theory, American politics, political theory, and gender and sexuality studies. He is a first-generation and low-income student, which motivates his passion for making academia accessible and building the confidence of fellow FGLI students in the classroom. At Penn, he was a finalist for a teaching award during his second year, and recently won the Department of Political Science’s award for graduate teaching. He was also previously awarded for his teaching at Ohio University.
Hunter Stufflebeam
Mathematics
Hunter is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mathematics, whose research in geometry and partial differential equations concerns the shape and structure of curved spaces. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Hunter received a BS in pure mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. At UPenn, they are active in the math department as a longtime mentor of undergraduates in the Directed Reading Program, as a conference organizer with GeMs in Math, an organization which supports gender minorities in the field, and as a lecturer and TA in math courses at all levels of study. They are especially interested in being at the forefront of teaching innovation and modern pedagogy, with a particular interest in the experiences of gender minorities in mathematics and the hard sciences. Outside of academia, they can be found performing as the bass trombonist of the Penn Symphony Orchestra, and bouldering wherever a good foothold can be spotted.
Previous Graduate Fellows for Teaching Excellence
Addison Buxton-Martin
Biology
Gregory Campbell
Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
Lourdes Contreras
Italian Studies
Jaydee Edwards
Earth & Environmental Sciences
Ari Gzesh
Social Policy & Practice
Liz Hallgren
Communication
Kyndall Nicholas
Neuroscience
Aoife O’Farrell
Bioengineering
Artemis Panagopoulou
Computer & Information Science
Cerulean S. Payne-Passmore
Music
Miranda Sklaroff
Political Science
Jeremy Steinberg
Religious Studies
Marcus Tomaino
Economics
Taylor Tomlinson
Chemistry
Stacey Bevan
Nursing
Thomas Brazelton
Mathematics
Deion Dresser
Italian Studies
Elizabeth Dunens
Higher Education
Jesse Hanlan
Physics & Astronomy
Paul He
Computer & Information Science
Bryce Heatherly
East Asian Languages & Civilizations
Tessa Huttenlocher
Sociology
Tyler Leigh
Communication
Chloe Ricks
Political Science
Jeremy Rubin
Biostatistics
Michael Shea
Comparative Literature
Jessica Weakly
Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
Alexandra Zborovsky
History
Ada Aka
Psychology
Natalia Enid Aponte Borges
Earth & Environmental Science
Lauren Bridges
Communication
Alexis Crockett
Neuroscience
Abigail Dym
Political Science
Taylor Dysart
History & Sociology of Science
Marisa Egan
Cell and Molecular Biology
Sheng Gao
Statistics
Tony Liu
Computer and Information Science
Mercedes Mayna-Medrano
Hispanic Studies
Jane Robbins Mize
English
Paradorn (Joe) Rummaneethorn
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Kimberly White
History
Angela Xia
Religious Studies
Matt DeCross
Physics and Astronomy
Mohammad Fereydounian
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Shivajee Govind
Chemistry
Lauren Harris
Sociology
Antoine Haywood
Communication
Davy Knittle
English
Kristina Lewis
Education
Zachary Loeb
History and Sociology of Science
Theodora Naqvi
Classical Studies
Bruno Saconi
Nursing
Adam Sax
Comparative Literature & Literary Theory
Zachary Smith
Political Science
Daniel Wilde
Management
Tamir Williams
History of Art
Sonia Bansal
Bioengineering
Emilie Benson
Physics
Irteza Binte-Farid
Education
Alexandra Brown
Romance Languages
Rui Castro
Architecture
Joseph Cooke
Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
McFeely Jackson Goodman
Mathematics
Erynn Johnson
Earth & Environmental Science
Karren Knowlton
Management
Erica Lawrence
Biology
Alexis Rider
History & Sociology of Science
Anna Leigh Todd
History
Rachel Wise
History of Art
Naomi Zucker
Anthropology
Cameron Anglum
Education
Phoebe Askelson
Chemistry
Elizabeth Bynum
Music
Ava Creemers
Linguistics
Dana Cypress
English
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Comparative Literature
Maryam Khojasteh
City and Regional Planning
Alex Miller
Operations, Information and Decisions
Samantha Oliver
Communication
Ryan Pilipow
Ancient History
Katerina Placek
Neuroscience
Brian Reese
Philosophy
Didem Uca
German
Shantee Rosado
Senior Graduate Fellow
Diego Arispe-Bazán
Anthropology
Chelsea Chamberlain
History
Welton Chang
Psychology
Danielle Hanley
Political Science
Kathryn Hasz
Mechanical Enginering & Applied Mechanics
Elaine LaFay
History & Sociology of Science
Mark Lewis
Education
Santiago Paternain
Electrical & Systems Engineering
Steven Renette
Art & Archaeology of the Mediterranean World
Maria Ryan
Music
Hao Jun (Howie) Tam
English
Noa Hegesh
East Asian Languages & Civilizations
Joseph Hoisington
Mathematics
Najnin Islam
English
Erika Kontulainen
German
Theo Lim
City & Regional Planning
Elena Maris
Communication
Paul Mitchell
Anthropology
Stan Najmr
Chemistry
Trishala Parthasarathi
Neuroscience
Rebecca Rivard
Cancer Biology, Perelman School of Medicine
Shantee Rosado
Sociology
Jane Sancinito
Ancient History
SaraEllen Strongman
Africana Studies
Helen Teng
Nursing
Osman Balkan
Political Science
Katie Clonan-Roy
Education
Mitra Eghbal
Biology
Naomi Fitter
Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
Alison Howard
Comparative Literature
Jin Woo Jang
Mathematics
Dianne Mitchell
English
Jake Morton
Ancient History
Raha Rafii
Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Kyle Smith
Chemistry
Tim Sowicz
Nursing
Kelsey Speer
Cell & Molecular Biology, Perelman School of Medicine
Kristian Taketomo
History
Bronwyn Wallace
Senior Graduate Fellow
Justin Bernstein
Philosophy
Ben Chrisinger
City & Regional Planning
Peter Sachs Collopy
History and Sociology of Science
Lili Dworkin
Computer and Information Science
Ian M. Hartshorn
Political Science
Alice Hu
Classical Studies
Jacob Nagy
Chemistry
Emmabeth Parrish
Materials Science and Engineering
Tanya Singh
Biology
Colin Smith
Neuroscience
Phillip Webster
Religious Studies
Vanessa Williams
Music
Richard Eisenberg
Computer and Information Science
Lindsey Fiorelli
Philosophy
Jay Lucci
Classical Studies
Rose Muravchick
Religious Studies
Sal Nicolazzo
Comparative Literature
Rebecca Pierce
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
Irene Sibbing Plantholt
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Bridget Swanson
German
Bronwyn Wallace
English
Tanya Weerakkody
Neuroscience
Eric Bellin
Architecture
Derek Blackwell
Communication
Carolyn Chernoff
Education and Sociology
Wiebke Deimling
Philosophy
Emily Gerstell
English
Bryan Jones
Romance Languages
JR Keller
Management
Matthew Kruer
History
Peter-Michael Osera
Computer and Information Science
Olivia Padovan-Merhar
Physics
Will Schmenner
History of Art
Max Topaz
Nursing
Madeleine Wilcox
East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Ursula Williams
Chemistry
Megan Potteiger
Senior Graduate Fellow
Claire Bourne
English
Rosella Cappella
Political Science
Meghan Crnic
History & Sociology of Science
Daniel DiMassa
German
Jen Gerrish
Classical Studies
Rachel Guberman
History
Beth Hallowell
Anthropology
Grace Lavery
Comparative Literature
Tara Liss-Marino
Communication
Emil Pitkin
Statistics
Melanie Adley
German
Adam Aviv
Computer & Information Science
Carolyn Brunelle
Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Andrew Crocco
Communication
Britt Dahlberg
Anthropology
Glenn Holtzman
Music
Catherine Kopil
Neuroscience
Shimul Melwani
Management
Megan Potteiger
Chemistry
Miranda Routh
History of Art
Charles Thomas
Physics
Bryan Cameron
Romance Languages
Barbara Elias
Political Science
Rosemary Frasso
Social Policy & Practice
Jessica Lautin
History
Nathaniel Prottas
History of Art
Amanda Reiterman
Art & Archaeology of the Mediterranean World
Nicole Ruedy
Operations & Information Management
Paul White
Mechanical Engineering
Megan Phifer-Rixey
Senior Graduate Fellow
Drew Hilton
Computer and Information Science
Greta LaFleur
English
Peter Mondelli
Music
Roberto Salguero-Gomez
Biology
Clayton Shonkwiler
Math
Nicole Myers Turner
History
Noah Drezner
Education
Daniela Fera
Chemistry
Sarah Manekin
History
Megan Phifer-Rixey
Biology
Angelina Stelmach
Romance Languages
Brandon Woods
English
Kate Baldanza
East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Andrew Knight
Management
Sarah Manekin
History
Melody Mark
Ancient History
Jennifer Pastore
Biology
Deniz Selman
Economics
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