Skylight Administration
Jackie Stewart MSc, PhD
Associate Dean, Academic
stewart@science.ubc.ca
604-827-0043
Jackie was a member of Skylight from 2005 to 2010 as an embedded education expert in the Department of Chemistry. She is happy to have returned to lead Skylight as part of her Associate Dean, Academic portfolio. In her Associate Dean role, Jackie is responsible for the Faculty of Science's curriculum process; administering programs, including Science One, First-Year Focus, Integrated Sciences, Cognitive Systems, SCIE 113, and Science 101; and managing teaching prize adjudication and teaching evaluations.
Gülnur Birol MSc, PhD
Director
birol@science.ubc.ca
604-827-3414
Gülnur is responsible for providing strategic leadership and vision in planning and delivery of Faculty of Science-wide teaching and learning initiatives; and for managing the ongoing operations of Skylight to advance science and mathematics education through evidence-based practices and scholarship of teaching and learning.
Warren Code MSc, PhD
Associate Director
warcode@science.ubc.ca
604-822-4691
Warren leads, advises and assists in planning, research/evaluation and management for a range of teaching and learning projects across the Faculty of Science, with a particular focus on the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative and related UBC initiatives. Warren is responsible for advising and professional development for department-based teaching and learning fellows, evaluating impact on students and faculty, and connecting (via correspondence and on-campus visits) with people from UBC and other institutions interested in the accomplishments in teaching and learning within the Faculty of Science.
Amber Schroeder
Administrative and Communications Coordinator
amber.schroeder@science.ubc.ca
604-822-2749
Amber provides Skylight and its team with administrative and communications support. She organizes meetings, coordinates events, and responds to general enquiries. Amber also helps with drafting and editing documents, email announcements, and surveys, coordinating funding competitions, and developing website content.
Science Education Specialists (SESs)
Adele Ruosi MSc, PhD
Senior SES, Physics & Astronomy
aruosi@phas.ubc.ca
604-822-5527
As a Science Education Specialist jointly appointed with Skylight and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Adele advises faculty instructors, including instructors in a paired-teaching arrangement, on pedagogical improvement, curriculum revisions, and assessment of teaching and learning effectiveness. She also works on a longitudinal tracking project to assess students' learning effectiveness and to identify their challenges in physics throughout their entire curriculum.
Alexis Gonzalez-Donoso PhD
SES, Chemistry
alexis.gonzalez@chem.ubc.ca
604-822-4979
As a Science Education Specialist in the Department of Chemistry, Alexis collaborates with faculty to enhance teaching and learning. He supports instructors in designing engaging learning experiences and advises on course- and program-level revisions. His work includes facilitating professional development workshops, coaching faculty and teaching assistants, and leading scholarship of teaching and learning projects. With a PhD in Curriculum Studies focused on science education and model-based assessment, and over eight years of experience in teaching, curriculum design, and educational research, he is committed to fostering collaboration and building teaching communities within Chemistry and across UBC.
Christine Goedhart PhD
SES, Botany
christine.goedhart@botany.ubc.ca
604-822-0980
As a Science Education Specialist in the Botany department, Christine works with instructors to help them navigate the process of pedagogical change and develop personalized teaching philosophies and practices that are student-centered, inclusive, and evidence-based. She is also working collaboratively with others to improve communication, integration, implementation, and assessment of program-level learning outcomes and competencies.
Erica Jeffery MSc
SES, Zoology
jefferye@mail.ubc.ca
604-827-2043
As a Life Sciences SES within the Zoology Department, Erica aims to empower graduate students, postdocs, and faculty to use evidence-based methods to achieve their teaching and learning goals. She is particularly interested in leveraging technology to make student learning inside and outside the classroom more effective, and in ways that instructors can efficiently collect and make use of data to inform their teaching practices. Her goals include supporting instructors in undertaking pedagogical projects, fostering connections within and between the department and the UBC teaching and learning community, and assessing and improving the alignment between course-level and program-level learning outcomes.
Katie Faulkner MSc, PhD
SES, Mathematics
Katie is a Science Education Specialist for the Mathematics Department. She works with faculty, staff, and teaching assistants to develop curriculum and to support and train educators. Current work includes expanding the computational curriculum in mathematics courses, and lowering the barrier for instructors to innovate in the classroom.
Kirsty McIntyre BSc (Hons), PhD, PGDip Academic Practice, SFHEA
SES, Microbiology & Immunology
kirsty.mcintyre@ubc.ca
604-822-2801
Kirsty is the Science Education Specialist for the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She works alongside faculty, staff and students to co-develop the curriculum and foster an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative learning environment. Kirsty applies her academic knowledge and expertise in educational research to support evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning in the department.
Sarah Bean Sherman MSc, PhD
Senior SES, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
ssherman@eoas.ubc.ca
604-822-2821
As the Science Education Specialist in the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) department, Sarah collaborates with faculty to incorporate evidence-based educational strategies in their courses. She conducts classroom observations, gives feedback to instructors, measures student learning and course experiences via surveys and other assessments, and helps to provide a teaching development experience. Current areas of development include Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity (EDII), investigating the potential benefits of pairing new and experienced instructors as a way of transferring best practices in teaching, assessing the spatial visualization skills of undergraduate students in EOAS, and helping to map the curriculum in EOAS.
Silvia Mazabel MA, PhD
SES, First-Year Programs
In her role as a Science Education Specialist, Silvia supports the Faculty of Science's interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and first-year programs. She works closely with program directors, faculty, and teaching assistants to advance evidence-informed teaching practices, curriculum and assessment design, and the evaluation of student learning and educational initiatives. A key focus of her work is fostering Indigenization and inclusive teaching approaches in science teaching and evaluating the impact of these curricular and pedagogical efforts on student learning.
Stephan Koenig PhD
SES, Computer Science
stephan.koenig@ubc.ca
604-822-4401
As the Science Education Specialist in the Computer Science Department, Stephan supports instructors with the migration to a new online assessment tool offering students the opportunity to practice with randomized questions for mastery learning and more flexibility when scheduling exams in a new computer-based testing facility. He focuses on the impact of learning technologies on student learning, well-being and inclusivity and how their implementation and course design should inform each other.
Strategic Specialists
Ashley Welsh MA, PhD
Senior Strategist, Educational Leadership Development and Curriculum Initiatives
ashley.welsh@ubc.ca
604-822-9876
Ashley provides strategic leadership and support for Educational Leadership (EL) and Curriculum initiatives in the Faculty of Science. She cultivates partnerships across UBC units and collaborates with leadership on strategies and programs to enhance EL faculty capacity, foster engagement in Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and advance curriculum development and renewal.
Zohreh Moradi-Clare MA, MSc
Research Analyst
moradi@science.ubc.ca
604-822-9846
Zohreh is responsible for planning, implementing, and collaborating with faculty and staff on research and projects to explore and analyze data sets relevant to teaching and learning (including but not limited to learner demographics and performance data; course and project evaluation data; data relating to equity and inclusion, survey data, and other data extracted from other learning technologies). She also facilitates data access requests and liaises with units across campus.
TBD
Faculty Liaison
The Faculty Liaison supports the development, administration, and evaluation of teaching and learning enhancement projects within and across the Faculty of Science. The Liaison is also the key point of contact between Skylight, the Faculty of Science, and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT).
This position is temporarily vacant.
Learning Technology Support Team
Maxime Collier MBA
Learning Technologies Support Analyst
max.collier@ubc.ca
604-809-5802
Max provides support and guidance to faculty and staff on the use of various learning technologies, such as Canvas, WebWork, and iClicker. He also oversees Skylight’s Learning Technology Rovers.
Jenny Wong MET
Learning Technologies Support Analyst (on leave until December 2026)
jenny.wong@ubc.ca
604-822-0864
Jenny provides support and guidance to faculty and staff on the use of various learning technologies, such as Canvas, WebWork, and iClicker. She also oversees Skylight’s Learning Technology Rovers. Jenny is interested in exploring how learning technologies can be used to facilitate and improve teaching and learning experiences.
Bonnie Situ
UBC Science Learning Technology Rover (LTR)
Bonnie is a Co-op student studying Cognitive Systems in the Brain and Cognition stream within the Faculty of Science. She’s passionate about effective communication and hopes to live up to that standard as an LT Rover to connect faculty members and staff with tech in an easy and valuable way! Outside of work, she enjoys reading, scrapbooking, and photography!
Richard Pan
UBC Science Learning Technology Rover (LTR)
Richard is a Co-op student studying Global Resources System under LFS with a minor in Data Science. He is passionate about a sustainable development of technology in the environmental perspective and genuinely enjoying helping people. He is motivated to combine his technical skills with his explorative personalities in fostering a supportive learning experience for the UBC Science faculty. Outside of work, he enjoys photography, backpacking, skiing and rock-climbing.
Sonny Raminafshar
UBC Science Learning Technology Rover (LTR)
Sonny is a Co-op student studying Computer Engineering in the faculty of Applied Sciences. He is excited to work with an amazing team and support the UBC community! Sonny expands his learning by working on coding projects to better understand how learning technologies work behind the scenes. In his free time, he enjoys kickboxing, swimming, and trying flips off the diving board.