Sandy Neumann

Remembering Matt & Nex: Lessons learned about teaching in support of, and as an advocate for, Queer students

Sandy Neumann is an associate professor of psychology at the UW-Stevens Point. Although she teaches on all three campuses, she is primarily housed at the Marshfield campus. She teaches a variety of courses, including Introductory Psychology, Human Development, Social Psychology, The Psychology of Disasters, and Statistics for Psychologists. Her research focuses on animal shelter volunteer retention, disaster responses at colleges, and the ethics of disaster planning at animal shelters. Neumann serves her community by offering continuing education classes on disaster preparedness and volunteering for the Marshfield Animal Pet Shelter. She is chair of the UWSP Marshfield Steering Committee.

Amanda Woodward

Thinking big and small: how to increase student belonging in the classroom 

Amanda Woodward is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland in 2020. In her current role, she primarily teaches classes in statistics and advanced research methods, including courses on Open Science and R programming. She also works with undergraduate students to conduct Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects focusing on factors related to how students learn statistics. Outside of her teaching role, Amanda is currently serving as the Chair of the Early Career Psychology Committee for STP and working to promote Open Science resources with Project FORRT.  

Vishal Thakkar

A Journal Club Classroom to Learn from All Voices

Vishal Thakkar, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. Prior to joining UTSW, he completed his graduate training at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. In the Department of Psychiatry, he serves as a biostatistician on multiple externally-funded clinical and observational research trials. Outside the lab, he thoroughly enjoys his time interacting with students in the clinical psychology doctoral program. Within the program, he teaches a course on research design and statistics and a course on cognition and affect. Additionally, he mentors students through being on dissertation committees and works within the program on recruitment and retention and curriculum committees to help progress the goals of the program.

Laura Freberg

Classroom Inclusivity Implications of Fat Stigma and Diet Culture in the Age of Ozempic

Laura Freberg is a Professor of Psychology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, specializing in behavioral neuroscience and introductory psychology. She received her PhD from UCLA after conducting research at Yale University. Freberg is the author or co-author of textbooks on introductory psychology, behavioral neuroscience, applied behavioral neuroscience, and research methods in psychological science. She served as the Psychology Consultant to the New York Times InEducation program. Freberg was the 2018-2019 President of the Western Psychological Association (WPA) and received the WPA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.

Steve Joordens

Enhancing Inclusion while Confronting Social Isolation in Incoming Students:

The Power of the Indigenous Welcome 

Professor Steve Joordens teaches the extremely large (i.e., 2000 student) Introduction to Psychology course at the University of Toronto Scarborough.  Much of his research is focused on the effective use of technology to enhance skills of success in students.  More recently, his work has also focused on explicit ways of supporting social connection among students as a way to facilitate their physical and mental health, while positively impacting their success and overall happiness.  His work has been recognized by awards at the institutional, provincial and national levels including him being named a 3M Teaching Fellow in 2015, the highest National Prize that recognize significant and sustained impact on Higher Education in Canada.

Steven Ross

Pass Psych Tonight: Delivering Psychology Lectures in a Satirical News Show Format

Steve Ross grew up in the Adirondack region of upstate New York and earned his undergraduate degree from Plattsburgh State University. He then obtained his M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of North Dakota, where he discovered his passion for teaching while leading general psychology lab courses and teaching Introduction to Statistics. This love of teaching led him to realize that he belongs in a community college setting. Over the past 15 years, he has been dedicated to supporting the needs of community college students, teaching a wide range of psychology courses at institutions in Ohio and Michigan. Professor Ross aims to create a fun and welcoming learning space for students where they feel comfortable being their authentic selves. He strives to present course material in ways that actively engage students. In his free time, he enjoys pub trivia, tennis, and dozing off while his partner watches reality television.