Taylor Appointed to ACA Virtual Teaching and Learning Center

BETHANY, W.Va. – The director of Bethany College’s McCann Learning Center is a founding member of the Appalachian College Association’s Virtual Teaching and Learning Center.

Heather Taylor, who is also an assistant professor of English at Bethany, will serve a three-year appointment on the board for a consortium-wide, virtual teaching and learning center for faculty and staff at ACA member institutions.

“I’m honored to have been selected and excited to be working with colleagues from around the ACA,” Taylor said. “Individual institutions have been doing some outstanding work in the field of student success and I think that having a space to share those ideas as well as learn new approaches will strengthen the ACA as well as the individual institutions.”

According to the ACA, the board members were selected by rigorous review process and represent faculty and staff who work in student development and support.

“We could not be more thrilled to have Professor Heather Taylor serving on the Board of this new Teaching and Learning Center,” said Dr. Joe Lane, Bethany provost and dean of faculty. “Heather has long been a leader on our campus in advancing improvements in course design, pedagogy, and teaching innovation.

“In this new position, she will be able to share her considerable talents with other institutions and to bring back all the best insights and opportunities from the ACA joint venture to enrich and improve teaching and learning on our campus. We are deeply grateful for her leadership and commitment to providing the best opportunities for Bethany’s students.”

The new board is expected to work closely with the ACA vice president for academic programs and the Teaching and Learning Advisory Committee to design, develop, build, and sustain a robust online forum for supporting best practices in student learning and development and for furnishing opportunities for colleagues to share the scholarship of teaching and mentoring of students.

The remaining members of the new board are: Dr. Kelly Bremner, associate professor of theater and director of the first-year seminar at Emory & Henry College; Lydia Kitts, instructor of communications and former director of digital marketing at Union College; and Dr. Rachel Messer, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pikeville.

The Appalachian College Association is a nonprofit consortium of 35 private four-year liberal arts institutions in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

“The Appalachian College Association provides an invaluable opportunity for the smaller colleges of our region to pool resources and build collaborative partnerships to improve student learning and student success at its members,” Lane said. “The new ACA Teaching and Learning Center will build on successful models like the Bowen Library of Appalachia to make teaching and learning resources, programming, and workshops available for our faculty. We look forward to working with other ACA institutions to advance teaching and learning, which are the Mission of Bethany College.”

ABOUT BETHANY COLLEGE

Bethany College, founded in 1840, is the oldest private college in West Virginia. The Bethany experience focuses on academic excellence in the area of liberal arts and prepares students for a lifetime of work and a life of significance.