Bunnell comes to Elon from Amherst College, where she has been the associate director and STEM specialist in the Center for Teaching and Learning since 2019.
Elon University has selected Sarah Bunnell as the new director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) following a national search. Bunnell will lead the team at the center, which promotes effective, evidence-based and inclusive pedagogies and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She begins the new role on July 1.
“Dr. Bunnell brings a long record of strong teaching, scholarship, and educational development leadership, all of which contribute to making her an excellent choice as Elon’s next CATL director,” said Deandra Little, associate provost for faculty affairs and a professor of English. “I look forward to seeing how Sarah and the team write the next chapter for the Center as CATL continues to foster a community where teaching and learning — and learners and teachers — thrive.”
Bunnell comes to Elon from Amherst College where she served as assistant and then associate director and STEM specialist in the college’s Center for Teaching and Learning since 2018. In that role, Bunnell worked closely with faculty members to provide feedback and guidance on educational development and helped guide academic departments as they assess approaches to curricula and teaching. She also supported faculty development and student learning by facilitating semester- and year-long faculty learning communities, co-developing an institution-wide pedagogical partnership program, and supporting the Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) initiative at Amherst College. She served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning following roles with the organization as treasurer and US-regional vice president.
Bunnell said she is thrilled to step into the role at CATL and build upon the center’s history of phenomenal leadership and stewardship. “I am deeply passionate about enhancing scholarly teaching and learning and about creating pathways for faculty to grow and thrive across their teaching careers,” Bunnell said. “Elon has long been a leader in innovative scholarly teaching, and I am eager to join this vibrant academic community. I look forward to learning with and from you all in the years to come.”
Prior to joining Amherst ‘s Center for Teaching and Learning, Bunnell served as a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Ohio Wesleyan University and as a Great Lakes Colleges Association Teagle Pedagogy Fellow from 2011 to 2018. As a graduate student at the University of Kansas (KU), she served as graduate assistant and then program assistant for the KU Center for Teaching Excellence. She received her bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in neuroscience, her master’s and doctoral degrees in developmental and cognitive psychology from the University of Kansas.
Founded at Elon in 2005, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning provides a focus for the university’s vibrant teacher-scholar community, bringing faculty and staff together to explore engaging and inclusive pedagogy and to pursue research on teaching and student learning. In addition to providing strategic leadership, the director actively contributes to CATL programming, which includes seminars and workshops, faculty mentoring series, individual consultations, mid-semester student focus groups, course and curriculum development projects, and grants. Center faculty regularly partner with campus collaborators to support institutional projects and initiatives related to the CATL mission.