Carolyn Keller is a communications strategist in the Center for Teaching Innovation. She works collaboratively with her CTI colleagues to create a storytelling culture at CTI, and to promote CTI’s innovative teaching & learning projects and practices with the broader Cornell community. Before joining CTI, Carolyn taught English and creative writing at Binghamton University, and English for Speakers of Other Languages at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. She has a PhD in English from Binghamton University, and a M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, and loves to write and travel.

Jolene Dieffenbach provides executive support and communication assistance for the Center for Teaching Innovation. She joined Cornell University following nine years in the financial services industry, where her focus was on business development, community engagement, customer service, project management, and schedule coordination.  She holds an associate degree in humanities and social sciences from Corning Community College, and a bachelor of science degree in organizational management from Keuka College.

Mia is the event specialist in the Center for Teaching innovation. She assists in planning and coordinating all the logistical elements of meetings, workshops, conferences, and functions. Mia previously worked in Cornell’s Alumni Affairs and Development on their event management team, which managed VIP-level events. She interfaced and directed events for then-first lady Hillary Clinton, Desmond Tutu, and Janet Reno to name a few. She also helped plan and coordinate presidential events, as well as annual on-campus alumni events. After she left Cornell to raise her family, she created and ran a very successful childcare business for 16 years. She received her associate’s degree in early childhood education from Champlain College and her bachelor’s degree in health education from Ithaca College. 

Leslie Williams provides support for the Center for Teaching Innovation initiatives, including faculty programming, GET SET programming for graduate students, future educators, and teaching assistants and the International Teaching Assistant Program. She holds an associate degree in liberal arts, social science from Tompkins Cortland Community College, a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a clinical concentration from Ithaca College and a master’s degree in business administration from LeTourneau University. Prior to joining the center, Leslie worked for the Advocacy Center, formerly known as the Task Force for Battered Women/Child Sexual Abuse Project. While there, she served as director and instructor for domestic violence education. 

Kelly Chan is the manager of the Creative Technology Lab.  In this role, he assists instructors in integrating technology with their teaching and oversees the student Creative Technologists. Before joining the Center, he worked with Cornell Information Technology in the instructional labs group operating closely with the CU Library, then with the course technologies team in Academic Technologies. Kelly is originally from the Boston area and came to Ithaca to earn his bachelor’s degree from Cornell. He has been here ever since. 

Lisa Sanfilippo is a teaching support specialist who works with courses in the College of Arts & Sciences on the Active Learning Initiative (ALI). She surveys students, organizes small group discussions about their learning, and observes in the classroom in order to understand the student experience as courses transition to a model that incorporates research-based and innovative teaching methods. She works closely with instructors, providing them with student feedback and assessment support as they undertake these changes. Before joining ALI, Lisa worked for Cornell assessing the service needs of military families. In the years prior, she worked as a data analyst and archivist at the Chapin Hall Center for Children, a children’s policy research center at the University of Chicago. Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in sociology from SUNY Buffalo. 

Jody Gabler is an Instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) at the Center for Teaching Innovation. She specializes in teaching oral English communication and pronunciation and enjoys working with multilingual graduate students in ALS-5780 and ALS-5790. She also conducts English Language Assessments with the ITAP team. Jody has more than 15 years of English language teaching experience and has held teaching positions at Georgetown University, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Minnesota Literacy Council, and the International Language Institute in Washington, DC. She was the lead teacher for the Summer Program for English and Culture within Cornell’s Master of Engineering program and worked as a pronunciation tutor in Cornell’s English Language Support Office. Jody holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from American University in Washington, DC.

Radmila Veshcherevich is an instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) at the Center for Teaching Innovation. In addition to teaching ALS 5780, she conducts assessment with the ITAP team. Mila has twenty years of college teaching experience and has taught English grammar, speaking, writing, and Russian at Cornell, Ithaca College, Elmira College, Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3), and SUNY-Cortland. Mila holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Linguistics from Novosibirsk State University.

Alice Wu enjoys teaching international graduate students in the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) and the ITAP Summer Program, and helps conduct language assessments with the ITAP team. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in linguistics from Cornell. Before working for the Center, Alice worked in the Intensive English Program, Summer English Program, International Students and Scholars Office, and the Learning Strategies Center. She worked in Stockholm, Sweden for SAS Intercultural Communication, facilitating pre-departure training for Swedish and Norwegian business people and families. She also taught English in Swedish companies and studied at Stockholm University. She received a USIA NAFSA Cooperative grant to produce a video on global nomad students at Cornell, and has written articles about global nomads and intercultural communication. 

Jay Williamson is a Creative Media Specialist for the Center for Teaching Innovation, focused on immersive and educational technology integration into teaching and learning. Jay holds a BS in Television-Radio with minors in Education Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies. After graduating from Ithaca College in 2018, he decided to stay in Ithaca and joined the Information Technology department as an Emergent/Innovative Technology Specialist. He worked alongside Becky Lane to launch an initiative for exploring the impact of VR on education and successfully launched a multidisciplinary makerspace open to all faculty, students, and staff at IC. Jay joined the CTI team in March 2024 to provide VR development and instructional technology support for a project with the Cornell Nanoscale Facility, creating immersive learning modules on the processes and procedures of the cleanroom facilities and equipment. He is passionate about experiential and active learning, maker methodologies, and project-based learning, and works with faculty to integrate these engaging learning strategies into any course curriculum. Jay is a proud member of the Ithaca Generator community makerspace and an INHS Community Housing Trust homeowner of a 135-year-old house located in downtown Ithaca.