Kacey Cowburn
Department of Allied and Public Health
Innovation
Abstract: Kacey Cowburn has conducted research and applied evidence-based practice in language-literacy interventions to benefit graduate student training in speech-language pathology and the local school district. Cowburn has integrated an innovative approach to service delivery that provides a scaffolded instructional model for novice, graduate student clinicians while also providing efficient and impactful language-literacy interventions to hundreds of local elementary students. Her work is being recognized with outcome data, program partnership contracts, and invited speaker invitations.
Chauna Craig
Department of Language, Literature, and Writing/Honors
Content Pedagogy
Abstract: Chauna Craig has taught at IUP for 25 years, everything from literature and creative writing in her home department of Language, Literature, and Writing to interdisciplinary courses in women’s and gender studies and honors. As someone who believes that doing leads to the richest kind of learning, she incorporates creative writing into literature courses, asking students to reflect on how their own experiences inform their critical readings of texts. Most recently, she had honors students create their own memoirs with visual components while studying Art Spiegelman’s graphic memoir, Maus, in the context of the honors core question, “How do we create and use the past?” In her time at IUP, she has served as the director of Women’s and Gender Studies, a dean’s associate, and her department’s assistant chair. She has been the director of the Cook Honors College since 2019 and is currently at work on her own memoir about working as a radio deejay in Montana.
Elizabeth Laughlin
Department of English
Teaching Associate
Abstract: In late summer 2024, Elizabeth Laughlin taught two fall Composition 1 courses at IUP and one at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, solidifying her love for teaching. Her teaching method focuses on creating a safe, discussion-based environment using essays and reflective freewriting prompts. She underscores the importance of writing as an ongoing process, providing opportunities for revision and personalized feedback to bolster students’ confidence. An advocate for diversity, she incorporates works from a variety of authors and values the richness of different experiences and perspectives, ensuring that all students are treated with respect and are included.
Brian Sateriale
Department of Language, Literature, and Writing
Teaching Excellence for Temporary Faculty
Abstract: Brian Sateriale has been part of the English faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania since 2022. Beginning with his first assignment as a teaching associate, Professor Sateriale has demonstrated an exemplary pedagogical approach, highlighted in laudatory classroom observations and emphatic student feedback. Paramount to teaching success, Sateriale has exercised incredible flexibility and malleability, adjusting to any course assigned to him. He has taught a wide range of courses from ENGL 103 to ENGL 202, always approaching them with the same alacrity and ability to teach the diverse and nontraditional student body of IUP. When challenged with the task of teaching a hybridized class (spring 2024), in which there were in-person students and Zoom students simultaneously, Sateriale’s efficacy did not wane; he simply adjusted to the situation, and the class was a great success. To augment his student-centered approach, Sateriale has adopted a multimodal approach to help his students see the relevance and importance of effective rhetorical writing in the digital age. He has taught his students how to use artificial intelligence ethically to produce exceptional results. For example, one student created a website for her professional photography business, another for her mobile spray-tanning service, and one student even launched his professional singing career via a TikTok video he produced in his final presentation. Sateriale is currently in the final stages of his PhD in Literature and Criticism at IUP, planning to graduate in May 2025. Sateriale has proven to be a valuable asset to IUP, and, upon graduation, will continue to improve and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of education to remain one of the most effective pedagogues at IUP.
Congratulations to all of the winners!