Presenter Bio - Becca Edwards
Becca Edwards serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director for the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder. In this role, she is implementing the DEI Strategic Plan for the institute which involves seeking and hiring a diverse workforce, creating an inclusive workplace culture and creating authentic partnerships with our local communities that use climate change research to build environmental justice policy.
Becca (she/her) completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry at Harvey Mudd College, a master's degree in teaching at Colorado College and a PhD in chemistry at CU Boulder. She spent several years as a chemistry academic specialist teaching supplementary instruction courses for the Student Academic Success Center (SASC), a multicultural learning community that promotes academic excellence and leadership among first generation, low-income and underrepresented students. These one-credit courses were designed to support SASC students in successfully completing General Chemistry courses at CU Boulder. After several years in this position, Edwards was hired as the first STEM Coordinator for SASC. She built an instruction program that allowed SASC students to take small lecture sections of gateway courses such as General Chemistry, General Biology and Anatomy & Physiology, improving retention of STEM majors. This program also included a yearly poster presentation symposium where students would present research projects to their community as well as academic seminars designed to support students in pursuing graduate degrees. She ran a research program investigating metacognitive strategies in General Chemistry courses.
In 2020, Edwards transitioned to a faculty development role, as Inclusive Pedagogy Lead, designing and presenting inclusive teaching practices at the Center for Teaching and Learning at CU Boulder. She developed an Anti-Racism online course which had 1000 enrollments in the first year. She coordinated learning communities in which participants could discuss the material and design anti-racist practices for their classrooms. She also developed a badging program, called Just & Equitable Teaching, which allowed faculty members to explore inclusive teaching practices and implement a classroom project. She transferred to the University of Denver’s Office of Teaching and Learning as the Director of Inclusive Teaching Practices. She led the implementation of the Faculty Institute for Inclusive Teaching, developed another badging program on inclusive teaching practices and facilitated several faculty learning communities.
