FOR RELEASE: Thursday, July 12, 2018
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Course Hero, Woodrow Wilson Foundation Announce First Class of Excellence in Teaching Fellows

New Fellowship Created to Honor Higher Ed Teaching Excellence; Provide “Genius” Grants to Tenure-Track Professors to Help Balance Scholarship, Teaching

PRINCETON, NJ (July 12, 2018) — The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and Course Hero today announced the first recipients of their Excellence in Teaching Fellowship, a new program developed to support emerging faculty leaders in higher education classrooms across the country.

“This fellowship was created to honor teachers who go above and beyond what the profession calls for to find innovative ways to teach students lessons that stick with them for a lifetime,” said Andrew Grauer, cofounder and CEO of Course Hero. “This inaugural class of recipients embodies these values of excellence and innovation in teaching, expanding the walls of the classroom and opening the minds of their students to new ways of learning. We sought to honor excellence in teaching, and we are incredibly impressed by the applicants for this year’s award.”

The inaugural class of Course Hero–Woodrow Wilson Excellence in Teaching Fellows include:

• Max Berkelhammer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), researches the natural and anthropogenic processes that influence the atmospheric branch of the water cycle. Dr. Berkelhammer received a PhD in earth sciences from the University of Southern California and postdoctoral training in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Berkelhammer recently received the Silver Circle Award for Excellence in Teaching UIC.

• Adam Bjorndahl, assistant professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, conducts work on epistemic modal logics and their applications in game theory and decision theory. Dr. Bjorndahl received a PhD in mathematics from Cornell University. Bjorndahl received a Wimmer Faculty Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University to enhance teaching through course redesign.

• Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, conducts research that seeks to understand why disparities (racial and economic) may persist, and in some cases grow. Dr. Brown-Iannuzzi received a PhD in social psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brown-Iannuzzi’s teaching was recognized with an Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Teaching honor at the University of Kentucky.

• Lauren D’Innocenzo, assistant professor of organizational behavior in the Department of Management at the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, examines team effectiveness by exploring emergent dynamics, shared leadership, cross-level influences, and temporal factors. Dr. D’Innocenzo received a PhD in management from the University of Connecticut School of Business.

• Ellen Matson, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester, conducts research with a synthetic inorganic chemistry perspective to address current global issues related to energy storage and production. Dr. Matson received a PhD in chemistry from Purdue University and postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Created by Course Hero and administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the new fellowship program supports rising postsecondary educators who demonstrate excellence as educators in and beyond the classroom and are poised to shape their fields. Designed for scholars working toward tenure, the Course Hero–WW Fellowship is conceived as a “genius grant,” emphasizing the balance between scholarly excellence and commitment to outstanding undergraduate teaching practice.

“It is essential that we provide robust opportunities to ensure strong scholarship and research for those seeking a career in higher education,” said Stephanie J. Hull, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. “Each of these Course Hero–Woodrow Wilson Fellows exemplifies excellence and innovation in teaching at the undergraduate level, while inspiring students to achieve their own postsecondary education dreams. These fellows represent the very best of what is to come in higher education.”

A panel of distinguished university scholars selected the five 2018–19 Course Hero–Woodrow Wilson Fellows from a large pool of qualified candidates. Panel members included:

• John Branch, clinical assistant professor of business administration at the University of Michigan
• James Johnson, professor of political science at the University of Rochester
• Willie Rockward, chair and associate professor of physics at Morehouse College
• Amy Dru Stanley, associate professor of history at the University of Chicago
• Emily Wiley, professor of biology at Claremont McKenna College

All Course Hero–Woodrow Wilson Fellows are tenure-track faculty either in the arts and sciences or in a business school, and they have successfully completed their institutional review at the midpoint of their progress. Each fellow provided evidence of excellence and innovation in teaching at the undergraduate level, as well as of outstanding progress in developing a research dossier for tenure. Fellows receive one-year, one-time fellowships of $40,000; the majority will support the engagement of a graduate assistant, and the balance will be used for research and travel. All fellows will be invited to attend the Course Hero Education Summit later this month, where they will collaborate with Course Hero’s Master Educators.

For more information on the Course Hero–WW Fellowship, please visit www.woodrow.org/coursehero.

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About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (www.woodrow.org) identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society.

About Course Hero
Course Hero is an online learning library where members can access over 20 million course-specific study resources contributed by a community of students and educators. Find practice problems, study guides, videos, class notes, and step-by-step explanations for every subject students are studying—from economics to literature, biology to history, accounting to psychology, and everything in between. Course Hero has been recognized as one of the 2017 Technology Fast 500 by Deloitte. Learn more at www.coursehero.com.

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