Ellen Yezierski

Miami University-Oxford

Ellen is the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. As CTE Director, she networks with faculty and programs across campus to fulfill the Center’s mission and support student learning through faculty development and innovation in teaching. She has been recognized with a Miami University Faculty Scholar Award (2021), a Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction and Mentoring (2018), a Distinguished Teaching Award (2015), and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. She has taught large undergraduate courses as well as graduate courses. Her research group focuses on improving conceptual understanding of chemistry by examining the dynamics of teaching and teacher change. The goal of their work is to markedly reform instruction and improve chemistry learning across a variety of grade levels (high school and college). Projects employ quasi-experimental designs as well as phenomenological methods to explore teacher beliefs and change. She currently is the Principal Investigator for the NSF-supported VisChem professional development and research project.