Communities of Practice

Facilitator: Robert Alexander 

At the heart of an enriching and transformative educational experience is the ability to cultivate supportive and meaningful connections with students. This CoP will bring together faculty members who are passionate about fostering a culture of empathy and care in their interactions with students—both in and beyond the classroom—while also honoring their own professional goals and boundaries. Through shared stories and discussions, we will explore creating nurturing learning environments that promote belonging, trust, and student success. We’ll also focus on setting goals and boundaries that can sustain our ability to support students. Participants will connect, share experiences and insights, and uplift one another in our teaching journey.

Facilitators: Amanda Golden & Jessica Hautsch

This Community of Practice will focus on strategies for teaching writing in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Writing is inseparable from thinking, and course assignments invite different types of thought as students formulate ideas and arguments. Meetings will consider the changing use of AI and emphasize the importance of utilizing it as a tool for thinking rather than allowing it to think for us. We will discuss strategies to promote and maintain academic integrity, including activities and assignments—from narrative writing to literary analysis, research, and professional writing—that foster intellectual growth and self-expression. Our meetings will be held over Zoom. Full-time and part-time instructors from all disciplines are welcome. Instructors of FCWR 101, 111, 151, and 161 are also encouraged to join. Part-time instructors will receive half their hourly rate for participation in meetings. By the end of the year, participants will complete at least one new or revised assignment.

Facilitator: Amerigo Rossi

The External Grant Writing Community of Practice (CoP) will support individual faculty and staff engaged in developing proposals for external funding. Regular meetings will provide a forum to share resources, provide peer feedback, and engage in structured writing sessions aimed at advancing grant writing goals. This CoP will foster an environment of mutual support and accountability, while strengthening applied skills in grant development and submission. Open to novice through experienced grant writers, the CoP will emphasize creating a sustainable writing practice, demystifying the external funding process, and promoting a culture of scholarly productivity across the university.

Facilitator: Adrienne McNally

With a new graduation requirement that students take at least one course identified as Experiential Education, this Community will enable you to build consistent practices, share ideas, provide support, and encourage assessment strategies that can help demonstrate impact on student learning and community engagement. Open to people who will be teaching an experiential education course during the 25-26 academic year.

Facilitator: Millie Gonzalez

Textbook prices have outpaced the cost of inflation, making the high cost of course materials an equity issue that can influence which classes students enroll in or how many classes they can afford. Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use.” Studies have shown that access to OER benefits students by reducing costs, enhancing overall learning experience, and improving academic performance. The OER COP will be a space to discuss discipline-specific OER needs, to share best practices on implementing OER in the classroom, and to learn about open licensing, open pedagogy, and creating ancillary materials using AI. Faculty will be exposed to OER training resources developed by IOWA OER.

Facilitator: Beatrice Figueroa

This Community of Practice is dedicated to exploring and advancing the intersection of AI, creative educational design, and holistic human development. This community will bring together individuals who would like to deepen their understanding and practice in these dynamic fields. We will focus on the overall growth and well-being of learners, integrating emotional, social, and cognitive aspects into our educational practices

Facilitator: Dongsei Kim

The Collaborative Grant Writing Community of Practice (CoP) will support faculty and staff engaged in developing external funding proposals as a team. Regular meetings will provide a forum to share resources, peer feedback, and engage in structured sessions aimed at identifying and developing competitive grant applications. This CoP will foster an environment of mutual support and accountability, while strengthening applied skills in grant development and submission. Open to novice through experienced grant writers, priority will be given to teams interested in developing long-term research projects with undergraduate students.

Facilitator: Kyle Karen

Where does the strength of purpose, resilience and sense of hope that allow one to rewrite and resubmit a manuscript for publication — two, three, or even four times — come from? Sadly, I don’t know. No one can give it to you. But others can give you a shared sense of purpose, shared experience, a sense of belonging – and accountability. I believe that knowing you are not alone in your noble quest to publish that damn dissertation is very helpful. I participated in a scholarly writing CoP for the first time in 2024-25. I found increased productivity through belonging, increased motivation, and accountability to my peers. But I haven’t published my dissertation yet. So, my plan is to try it again. We will meet once a month, setting goals for ourselves, sharing ideas, reporting progress, and then settling down to write quietly, companionably, and productively. I hope you will join me.

Facilitator: Bryan Gibb

In our professional world, we spend most of our time communicating with other experts and students training to become experts within our discipline. Most of us have little training or practice in effective communication of our expertise to the general public. This is confounded by an ever-changing media consumption environment that currently centers on social media and AI.

In this community of practice, participants will learn strategies to communicate, educate, and inform a lay audience of non-experts. This will include exploring different formats for communicating, language used to persuade, and platforms to use in disseminating messages to best reach a target audience.

Facilitators: Elaine Brown & Jessica Boudouris

Are you an adjunct faculty member looking to connect, collaborate, and grow professionally within the New York Tech community? Join our Community of Practice for Adjunct Faculty, a supportive environment where you can share ideas and build meaningful connections with colleagues across disciplines. Whether you’re seeking fresh teaching strategies, navigating campus resources, or simply looking to feel more integrated into campus life, this community is here to support you. Meetings will be informal, interactive, and tailored to the interests of the group.

• Set personal goals and collaborate on a shared group goal.
• Commit to producing a final group product by the end of the academic year—examples include:
  • A revised assignment or syllabus
  • A poster presentation or manuscript draft
  • Evidence of improved teaching or student outcomes
• Engage actively in discussions, activities, and peer learning.

Participants are eligible to receive up to $500 in professional development support. These funds can be used for:

• Conference attendance
• Membership in a professional organization
• Registration for webinars or short courses
• Books or resources related to your area of interest

To receive funding, participants must:

• Attend all meetings (one absence per semester is permitted).
• Submit all required reflections.
• Submit an individual “deliverable” to the CoP facilitator before the final meeting.