TAC Member: Leilani Serafin

 Hello!  I'm a new TA Consultant, and am very excited to continue my teaching education.  I'm a third-year Ph.D student in the English department, and have started work on my dissertation prospectus, which will focus on theatrical adaptations of sensation novels.  For the rest of this year, I will be teaching UWP 1: Expository Writing, before moving on to teaching English 3 next year.  Before coming to UC Davis, I taught various levels of introductory writing at Cal State Los Angeles, where I also worked in a Writing Center.  While I was there, I loved interacting with students from a wide variety of academic disciplines, and I look forward to continuing that exchange now, as a TA Consultant!

As a teacher, I'm currently interested in student motivation, and in designing assignments that will help students learn critical thinking skills while also inspiring them to think more deeply about their own interests.  My students have taught me a lot interesting things so far, so I'm looking forward to another fun and educational year!

TAC Member: Philip Matern

I am very excited for the opportunity to assist the graduate teaching community in evaluating and improving teaching techniques.  As a TA consultant, I hope to share the insights and strategies I’ve developed through my teaching experiences while continuing to learn and develop new teaching approaches across a variety of disciplines.  I'm a proponent of incorporating active learning strategies in the classroom to get students engaged in constructing knowledge, and look forward to improving my understanding and use of active learning techniques throughout my time with the TAC program.

I'm a Ph.D. student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology (MCIP) department currently studying the regulation of skeletal and cardiac muscle mass and the role specific E3 ligases play in atrophy and hypertrophy.

Outside of work I love playing with my daughter and enjoying family time.  I also love growing a beard and being barefoot.  I'm a big fan of barefoot shoes and you should be too.  We aren't meant to walk on thick wedges.  Free your feet!

TAC Member: Kelly Neil

Hello! I'm thrilled to begin work as a TA Consultant this year, and I look forward to collaborating with you in UCD's vibrant and innovative teaching community! I am a doctoral candidate in the English Department working on a dissertation that focuses on law, gender, and identity in sixteenth and seventeenth century drama. I am currently teaching Enl 3: Survey of English Literature, and before coming to UCD 5 years ago, I taught composition at a community college in North Carolina.

In the early modern period that I study, English men and women were deeply concerned about how to articulate and define the concept of self-hood, particularly in regards to how one defined him or herself in relation to others. This drive to analyze the "self," in all its various forms, is something I find useful and productive when thinking about how students can produce their own learning, how instructors facilitate that learning by appreciating and encouraging diversity, and how to navigate the often complex but rewarding relationship between students and instructors in the classroom. I'm excited to work with fellow grad students to think through these and other questions about teaching effectively.

When I'm not reading early modern plays or teaching, I'm usually spending time with my dog, Lucy, who is a Huskie/Greyhound/Border Collie mix, experimenting with a new recipe in the kitchen, or exploring the amazing hikes, trails, and wineries that Northern California offers.

TAC Member: Nicholas Hall

Hello everyone.  I'm a new TA Consultant this year.  I'm very excited to be a part of the program and especially for the opportunities I will have to interact with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars across many different disciplines.  I look forward to working with you to grow in our understanding of how to teach effectively and to help improve our teaching in the many different classroom environments on campus.  

I'm a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Physics Department.  I do cosmology research (not to be confused with cosmetology research, though I'm sure that's an exciting field as well) and physics education research.  My physics education research has thus far focused on how the student experience (e.g., confidence, interest, anxiety, etc.) depends on how in tune the instructor is with what the students are experiencing.  I love teaching and I enjoy having opportunities to teach in a variety of settings.

I really like to try new things.  My hobbies include classical guitar, wake boarding, surfing, soccer, hiking and cooking.  I would say that my favorite thing to do is travel, especially in East Asia over the last couple years.

TAC Member: Robert Lynch

       Aloha!  My name's Robert and I'm a TAC.  I am honored and enthused to be part of this community.  I am a 4th year Physics Education Research [PER] Ph.D. student. I began my graduate work in pure physics before deciding that I was more interested in how to teach and learn physics.  To that end I transferred from UC San Diego up to Davis. I have found a supportive research home here in UC Davis Physics Education Research Group, creatively names I know. In PER my interests are broad, including the effects of gender in the classroom, though I am currently studying the effects of taking physics in the first year of college over later.
       This is my first year as a TAC, though I have participated in other CETL activities.  Currently I am co-coordinating the Graduate Teaching Community, where we are offering a certificate series on teaching and technology.

TAC Member: Henry Yeung

Hi Everyone,

It's great to be back and working with the previous and new TA consultants!
Over spring break, I got trained to be a rescue swimmer and a white water rafting guide with the UC Davis Recreation Department - Outdoor adventures. I've learned a great deal about team work, when to be authoritative, and my own physical and mental limits. The educational frame work and method of learning and teaching swift water rescue and white water guiding will be one of my many new contributions to share with the other TA consultants in this up coming year.

STACC: Ann T. Chang

Hello again UCD TA Consultants' blog readers. I'm so happy to be part of the TAC for yet another quarter! This quarter I'm taking an even more behind-the-scenes role as the Senior TA Consultant Coordinator as Heather and Jamiella take the reins as Coordinators. For those of you that regularly follow the blog, that means you'll be hearing a lot less from me and a whole lot more from other TACs. I'm happy to say I'm leaving you in immensely capable hands.


For those of you who don't know me, I am a finishing ecology Ph.D. student (6th year) and have been with the TAC since April 2010. My time in the TAC has changed my teaching in so many positive ways and I know with the new cohort of TACs and consultations I will be learning so much more this quarter. I hope to meet you in your classroom and consultation room soon!


When I'm not thinking about teaching, consulting, and my thesis, I'm knitting, crafting, or experimenting in the kitchen. I also enjoy taking my dog (and my husband) on long walks and coming home to a good glass of red wine.

TAC Member: Miki Mori

Hello everyone. My name is Miki and I am one of this year’s incoming TA Consultants. I am looking forward to working with all of you fellow graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on your endeavors and adventures in the classroom. I hope to not only enhance your teaching experience through consultations, workshops, and the TA orientation but also learn from you and grow myself as an instructor and graduate student. More importantly, I hope to make some meaningful connections with other students at UC Davis. 

I have been a graduate student in the Linguistics Department for three years now, where I focus on academic writing development, as I am also doing a Designated Emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition through the University Writing Program. My teaching assignments are mainly teaching undergraduate and graduate ESL writing but I also TA for an introductory Linguistics course. Through being an ESL instructor over the years, I have developed a passion for teaching while also enjoying collaborating with colleagues on lesson ideas, approaches to learning, and the everyday issues of being an educator in the classroom. 

While being a graduate student consumes most of my life, when I do have free time I like to spend it outdoors, in the mountains or on the sea…and really anywhere in between. I also have a passion for being wedged into airplanes, particularly the middle seat, which I fulfill by gallivanting around the world. No, but really, I do love traveling, again pretty much anywhere.

TACC Member: Jamiella Brooks

Rebonjour! I'm excited to be back for another year with the TAC. This year I am a TAC Coordinator, which means I'll be involved with a lot of what goes on behind-the-scenes: advertising, this blog, and more. I am also a third year Ph.D student in the French department.

This year I am thrilled to be serving the graduate teachers here at UCD with a cohort of skilled TACs, new and old. Being a TAC brings forward all new kinds of creativity and innovation, and with my cohorts I get to encounter a diversity of experiences in a collaborative environment. There are so many kinds of teaching approaches and ideas out there, and each new consultation and TAC meeting is a fresh experience to rethink my ideas on teaching.

Beyond the TAC, I spend much of my time speaking French to my 3 month old daughter, Amaris, and trying to convince her dad about the wonders of cloth diapering. I am also furiously working towards a dissertation on language theory in North African Francophone literature.

TACC: Heather Dwyer

I'm so excited to start my second year with the TAC program. This cycle I will be sharing the role of TAC Coordinator with Jamiella Brooks. The TAC program has been such a rewarding experience and I'm looking forward to continuing working with the graduate student teaching community at UC Davis.

Since starting at UC Davis as a graduate student in ecology, my interest in teaching has grown stronger and stronger. I love interacting with undergraduates and am constantly looking for ways to enrich their learning experience. My goal is to have a lasting impact on students, whether that occurs at the level of truly understanding material, developing enthusiasm for the subject matter, or strengthening critical thinking skills. In the past year, working with other TAC consultants has taught me much about diversifying my approach to teaching. In the future I hope to teach undergraduates full-time at a community college or other teaching- focused institution.

My graduate research interests lie in speciation and hybridization of butterflies. When I'm not in the classroom or chasing little yellow butterflies around, I love to read, knit, explore San Francisco, and go wine-tasting.

Today is the first day of the new TAC cycle

The quarter has begun! We at the TAC are just getting to know each other here. So stay tuned for TAC profiles.