About the Center

The Center for Scholarship and Teaching was founded in 2008 to support faculty in both scholarship and pedagogy. We believe faculty development support in both areas strengthens and sustains our faculty’s ability to help our students learn. The Center provides funding for faculty research, scholarship and creative work, as well as course and curriculum development, student-faculty collaborative research, and travel to workshops and conferences. The Center also offers a variety of events such as Lunchtime Seminars, workshops and speakers, and collaborates with Academic Affairs, A.C. Buehler Library, the Assessment Board and the Faculty Development Committee on program offerings.

Staff

Kimberly A. Lawler-Sagarin, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Scholarship and Teaching
Associate Professor, Chemistry

Dr. Sagarin joined the Chemistry Faculty at Elmhurst in 2002 after serving as Associate Director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University from 2000 to 2002. Prior to her work at the Searle Center, she was a tenured faculty member in Chemistry at California State University, Fresno. In addition to here CST duties, she teaches courses in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry and specialty courses for non-science majors. Dr. Sagarin received her Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from Cornell University and her B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College.

David Basener, M.A., M.S.
Instructional Technologist, Center for Scholarship and Teaching

Mr. Basener joined the center in 2012. He has an M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, an M.A. in Philosophy from DePaul University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Benedictine. He was a software developer and systems analyst at Lucent Technologies, a systems administrator at Aurora University and, most recently, an instructional technologist at Roosevelt University. He has also taught Philosophy courses at several local colleges.

Earl C. Swallow, Ph.D.
Founding Director Emeritus, Center for Scholarship and Teaching
Professor Emeritus, Physics

Dr. Swallow served as founding director of the Center from 2008-2011. A prolific researcher in high energy physics with 100+ publications, Dr. Swallow served as Chairperson of the Physics Department for over thirty years. In this capacity as Chairperson of the Faculty Development Committee , Dr. Swallow was deeply involved in efforts to enhance the Elmhurst College Faculty Development Program and the Mentoring Program for New Faculty. Dr. Swallow received his Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University (St. Louis) and his B.A. in Physics from Earlham College. In retirement, Dr. Swallow continues to teach for the college and work with the CST on ongoing programs.