"Betsy Barre" Archive

Anti-Racist Pedagogy Faculty Panel to be held April 7

Informational flier for the Anti-Racist Pedagogy Panel Discussion on April 7, 2021 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. The flier shows headshots of WFU faculty moderator Betsy Barre and faculty panelists Katherine A. Shaner, Corey D. B. Walker and Betina Wilkinson.

The Wake Forest University School of Divinity will host a virtual faculty panel on anti-racist pedagogies on Wednesday, April 7, from 11 a.m. to noon. The event offers faculty across the University the opportunity to think more deeply, dialogue more broadly and act more decisively in implementing anti-racist pedagogies in their courses. The interdisciplinary panel will discuss the challenges and opportunities of engaging anti-racist pedagogy in the classroom.

“Grassroots movements across the U.S. are urgently calling for bold action to eradicate racial injustice and violence at its core,” said Jill Crainshaw, Vice Dean for faculty development and academic initiatives. “Through intentional dialogue, we hope to explore our role as educators in embodying bold action through teaching and ways to enhance our pedagogy to better prepare students for critically conscious, anti-racist leadership.”

The conversation will be moderated by Betsy Barre, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Panelists include:

  • Katherine A. Shaner, associate professor of New Testament
  • Corey D. B. Walker, Wake Forest professor of the Humanities
  • Betina Cutaia Wilkinson, associate professor and associate chair of Politics and International Affairs, and director of the Race, Inequality and Policy Initiative (RIPI)

This event is co-sponsored by the WFU Race, Inequality and Policy Initiative (RIPI) and made possible through a departmental grant from the Program for Leadership and Character.

Registration is required.

Categories: EventsFaculty NewsInside WFU

Updates from HR: Wente named WFU President, employee survey, events and Zoom accessibility

Welcome to Wake, Dr. Wente!

After an international search, Dr. Susan R. Wente has been named the 14th President of Wake Forest. An ironwork arch frames the cupola of the library just before dawn, on the campus of Wake Forest University, Friday

Visit the Wake Forest News website to learn more.

COVID-19 vaccine employee survey

All active full- and part-time faculty and staff should check their email for the “COVID-19 Vaccination Planning – Employee Survey.” Please complete the survey by Friday, Feb. 12.

View the message from Wake Forest University Human Resources on Inside WFU.

Flexible Spending Account (FSA) relief

In December, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which provides relief for employer-sponsored Health Care and Dependent Care FSAs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wake Forest has elected to move forward with select special provisions and is working to amend current plan documents. Impacted faculty and staff will receive an email with additional information in the coming week.

Learn more about FSAs on the HR website.

Live transcriptions in Zoom

Live transcription, which allows attendees to enable on-screen machine-generated subtitles/captions, is now available within Zoom meetings for WFU accounts.

Visit the Information Systems (IS) website to learn more and register for an upcoming training session with the IS Technology Accessibility Team.

Black History Month

Faculty and staff are invited to take part in upcoming Black History Month programs, coordinated by the Intercultural Center, throughout February.

View the calendar of events on the Intercultural Center website.

“Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea”: Feb. 4

Join Joshua Horwitz, J.D., executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, for a conversation on guns, militia groups and the violence that took place on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6. The event will be moderated by Kami Chavis, vice provost, professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Program.

Use this link to register for the webinar.

The Workload Dilemma

ICYMI: Betsy Barre, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT), shares her thoughts on managing workload expectations for our students.

Read Barre’s article on the CAT website.

Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Collaborative appointed

Betsy Barre

On March 15, Kami Chavis, Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives, emailed this announcement to faculty and staff:

Dear Wake Forest faculty and staff,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Betsy Barre has accepted the university’s offer to serve as our next Executive Director of the Teaching and Learning Collaborative. Betsy joins us from Rice University, where she is currently the Associate Director of their Center for Teaching Excellence.

Trained as a comparative ethicist, Betsy began her academic career as a faculty member in departments of religion and philosophy at two small liberal arts colleges: Marymount Manhattan in New York City and Lake Forest College in Chicago. She transitioned to a hybrid faculty-administrative role at Rice University in 2012, working in their newly developed Program in Writing and Communication. In this role, she taught a series of disciplinary-based first-year writing courses and led pedagogical programming for other faculty teaching within the program. Two years later, when Rice launched a formal teaching center, she was appointed as one of two founding Assistant Directors. And in 2016, she was promoted to Associate Director.

In these positions she developed and oversaw numerous instructional development initiatives, all with an eye toward reshaping the culture of an elite research university to further support, value, and ultimately reward excellent teaching on campus. With this came significant collaboration with key partners across campus to work toward significant organizational and institutional change.

Earlier this year, the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education selected her as the winner of the 2017 Innovation Award for the development of a tool to help faculty, students, and administrators estimate the out-of-class workload assigned in their courses.

Betsy will officially join us on May 14. My sincere appreciation to the search committee for their extensive involvement in this process: Chris Copeland (Divinity), Adam Friedman (Education), Laura Giovanelli (English), Kenny Herbst (Business), Shayla Herndon-Edmunds (Diversity and Inclusion), Alyssa Howards (German and Russian), Tony Marsh (Health and Exercise Science), Ellen Murphy (Law), and Tim Pyatt (ZSR). Many thanks, as well, to Kristi Verbeke who has served as the Interim Executive Director since fall 2017.

Betsy may be reached at barreea@wfu.edu. Please join me in welcoming Betsy to Wake Forest!

Kami Chavis
Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law

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