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Department: College of Letters Arts and Sciences

Wilfredo Alvarez

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Wilfredo Alvarez, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Jasmine Harris

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Jasmine Harris, Ph.D. is a professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Christy Ann Carello

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Christy Ann Carello, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Erin Roberson

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Erin Roberson, M.S., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

David Merriam

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David Merriam, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Biology at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Michael Kolb

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Michael Kolb, Ph.D. is a professor of Anthropology at The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Nicole Predki

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Nicole Predki, is a senior lecturer and the co-director of the Dance Program in the Theatre and Dance Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include general dance, dance and the brain, dance and holistic health, entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurship and the arts, creativity/multidisciplinary creative process, and community engagement through the arts.

Predki helped create and is currently co-directing an innovative MSU Denver dance program in collaboration with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company. She presented “Dancing Our Way to Certainty” in 2021 and co-presented “The Power of Movement” in 2019 at the TEDxMSUDenver event. She authored “Dance Education, Creative Process, and Entrepreneurial Mindset” featured in the Dance Education in Practice Journal. Her contributions also extend to the Small Business Institute Journal, which published a piece she co-authored: “Preparing Business Students for Success in the 4th Industrial Revolution.”

Predki has received several accolades, including the Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator designation, Association of College and University Educators Effective Teaching Practices designation, CU Boulder ATLAS Innovator Residency, ACE performance grant, and Charlotte York Irey Award for talent in performance, choreography and teaching.

Predki earned her Master’s of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder and Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science from Columbia University in New York City.

Ziyao Ma

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Ziyao Ma, Ph.D., serves as an assistant professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Jeff Loats

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Jeff Loats, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design. at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He joined MSU Denver in 2008 as an assistant professor of Physics. He has taught courses from across the physics curriculum, including a senior-level course on nuclear and particle physics, as well as general studies courses such as the Physics of Nature and Physics of Music.

Loats became the director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design in 2018. In this role, his areas of expertise include the impact of generative AI in higher education, scholarly teaching, research-based instructional strategies, and active engagement.

Loats has won multiple teaching awards and has presented on teaching and technology to a wide variety of audiences. He was the keynote speaker at the 2014 Teacher-Scholar Forum at MSU Denver and was a featured speaker at the Lilly West Conference on College and University Teaching in March 2012.

Loats earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Oregon State University and his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Fort Lewis College.

Megan Lazorski

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Megan Lazorski, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Metropolitan State University of Denver and joint appointee at the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

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