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Current Graduate Teaching Consultants

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Graduate Teaching Consultants 2023-2024

ANNA KOGLER (Graduate Teaching Consultant Coordinator)

Anna Kogler smiling

Anna Kogler is a PhD candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a minor in Arabic. Anna’s research focuses on designing and evaluating processes that extract valuable products from wastewaters. Anna learned to love teaching as a tutor at her high school and has since TAed multiple science, engineering, and language classes for undergraduate and graduate students at WashU and Stanford. She also mentors undergraduate researchers in her lab. Outside of school, Anna enjoys triathlons, camping, and spending time with her cat. 

MPHO MOLEFE

Mpho Molefe smiling in front of a brick wall

Mpho Molefe is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department where she specializes in South African literature. She has acquired teaching experiences that include work as a teaching assistant for undergraduate and graduate courses in Stanford’s English Department; the development and facilitation of interactive humanities seminars (in-person and online) for international and American high school students; curriculum-based SAT preparation courses in Taiwan; and online English tutoring with elementary school students. As an educator and graduate teaching consultant, Mpho consistently explores inclusive and learner-centered pedagogical practices. In implementing these practices, she hopes that her students become more resilient, developing greater reflexivity towards themselves as learners and a firm conviction in their ability to grow.  

RACHEL HERMANSON 

Rachel Hermanson smiling

Rachel is a PhD candidate in the Chemical Engineering Department. Prior to starting at Stanford, she received BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Her research interests are in the field of thermal heterogeneous catalysis where she is working to make industrial catalytic processes more sustainable. She found her passion for teaching during her time in higher education through working as a TA in a variety of class types: from traditional classrooms to lab courses and capstone projects. She is passionate about applying research-based teaching techniques to STEM education and improving learning outcomes for STEM students.

JULIA MARKEL

Julia Markel, smiling and standing in front of a stone wall

Julia (she/her) is a second year PhD student in the computer science department. She works at the intersection of human-computer interaction and computational education, with specific interests in using multimodality (voice, text, gestures, etc) for online learning experiences (e.g. textbooks, problem sets, discussion forums). Julia believes deeply in the power of peer teaching and is eager to explore how we can design and build tools to support peer teaching at scale and, more broadly, at a global level.

ALEXIA AINSWORTH

Alexia Ainsworth smiling in the snow

Alexia Mandla Ainsworth is a PhD student in English. Her work centers on the reception of theatre in literature. As a student, she was lucky to have a broad spectrum of educational opportunities, from homeschooling and public high school classes to community college courses and undergraduate studies at a private liberal arts college. As a result, she is committed to learner-centered pedagogy that emphasizes the unique backgrounds and goals individual students bring to their classroom communities. Alexia has worked for elementary school, middle school, high school, and college students both in-person and online. She is committed to equity initiatives serving nontraditional and transfer students, as well as students from underrepresented backgrounds. Outside of teaching and research, Alexia also enjoys baking and discovering new outdoor study spaces at Stanford.

RITA KAMANI-RENEDO

Rita Kamani-Renedo in front of a blank background

Rita Kamani-Renedo is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education, specializing in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education and Curriculum and Teacher Education. Prior to starting her PhD, she was a high school educator in New York City for ten years and a teacher educator in the Bilingual Education program at Hunter College, CUNY. She worked as a high school history, English, and “English as a New Language” teacher at a public high school for newcomer immigrant and refugee students. Her research examines critical pedagogies with transnational, multilingual, and immigrant youth. 

CALLAN MONETTE

Callan Monette

Callan Monette is a PhD candidate in the Bioengineering department. She is from Virginia, where she attended the College of William & Mary and earned her BS in Computational & Applied Mathematics and Statistics (with a focus in mathematical biology). Now, her PhD research focuses on the development of 3D tissue engineered models for high-throughput cancer drug discovery. Callan has 4 years of TA and teaching experience, having TA-ed a diverse set of lab, lecture, and seminar-style courses in biology, mathematics, and engineering. She is passionate about building inclusive communities within STEM fields, and believes that equitable teaching, mentorship and communication practices are critical to any STEM career. At Stanford, with the support of the CTL’s Leadership in Inclusive Teaching (LIT) Fellowship, Callan co-developed and co-instructed a new course, BIOE 296: Promoting Effective and Equitable Teaching in Bioengineering, which provides graduate students with the opportunity to learn and practice inclusive teaching and communication strategies.

GRACE HUCKINS (Graduate Teaching Consultant Coordinator)

Grace Huckins

Grace Huckins is a Ph.D. candidate in Stanford's Neurosciences Program. Their research centers on questions about the ethical obligations of neuroscientific research. Using the machinery of the philosophy of science, they are working to understand how neuroscience can build better and more beneficial explanations of mental illness, despite the enormous technical challenges that stand in the way of comprehending the brain. An avid teacher, they have TAed for various neuroscience courses at Stanford, and for the past few summers, they designed and taught a course entitled “Medicine and the Brain” at Oxbridge Academic Programs. They are particularly interested in interdisciplinary courses that place science in its humanistic and social context. Outside of research and teaching, they write about science and society as a freelance journalist.

MARIA NGUYEN (Graduate Teaching Consultant Coordinator)

Maria Nguyen smiling outside

Maria Nguyen is a PhD candidate in Cell, Molecular, and Organismal Biology. Their current research dives into understanding the function of proteins important for the evolution of complex organisms. Prior to graduate school, they found their love for teaching and education through a multitude of teaching experiences, which included creating tutoring programs and courses to serve historically under-represented communities, increasing diversity and inclusion in the sciences, and teaching fifth-grade students at an underserved elementary school in Chicago. Outside of research, Maria enjoys reading, writing, painting, eating delicious desserts, and spending time outdoors with their close friends and rescue doggo, Bear.