By Juliana Vasquez | Staff Writer
Despite coming from a vast range of backgrounds and interests, the roads of 10 Baylor professors converged this year in the Baylor Fellows Program.
Launched in 2011, the program honors professors who excel as teachers and hope to continue to grow as educators. Provost Nancy Brickhouse selected 10 fellows for this year’s cohort, led by Senior Fellow Dr. Kevin Magill.
This year, the fellows will work under the theme “Ethical Technology Use and Improve Digital Literacy,” seeking to understand how emerging technology impacts their classrooms and could be utilized to serve them.
Magill is an associate professor of secondary education and the associate chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction within the School of Education.
As a part of the 2024-2025 cohort, Magill said the sense of community the cohort had built was a huge part of what made the experience amazing. Magill plans to draw on his experiences from last year to inform his approach to helping this year’s cohort.
“Last year, creating that community allowed us to do so much early on, so I’m hoping we can do that straight away, so that we can really narrow our focus and develop in that way,” Magill said.
Dr. Meredith Palm, psychology and neuroscience lecturer and psychology adviser, said she found her niche in teaching during her time as a graduate student in psychology at Baylor.
Regarding her invitation to be part of this program, Palm continuously emphasized how grateful she was to have been chosen for the honor, echoing the words of the other fellows.
“It’s a really big deal to be recognized in this way, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to grow as a result of this opportunity I’ve been given,” Palm said.
Dr. Halli Carr, a clinical associate professor of nursing and DNP-adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner track coordinator, was also selected for the cohort. As an educator, Carr is currently passionate about artificial intelligence and its ethics within the healthcare and education fields, especially as a teacher in an online program.
Director of the Legal Writing program and A. Royce Stout Chair of Law at Baylor Law School Dr. Matthew Cordon said that fundamentally, he is a writer, which led him from a career as a news reporter to a legal scholar.
In recent days, though, AI has forced Cordon’s legal writing department to rethink how it goes about teaching legal writing. His field has never had to put so much scrutiny on generated legal text and whether or not it’s true.
“We’re focusing right now heavily on ethics … the AI tools don’t know language the way humans do,” Cordon said. “Understanding those risks and minimizing or eliminating them is important, but also taking advantage of AI’s ability to handle large amounts of data faster than any human could, that’s going to save a lot of time, and that’s ultimately going to help clients.”
Dr. Mike Thompson is a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Thompson said he’s been following AI for a while, examining its strengths and weaknesses.
“When generative AI came out, I knew some of the basics of it, and was really amazed by some of the capabilities, and also frightened by some of the capabilities,” Thompson said. “So I just wanted to jump in and continually learn about it and get to the point where I felt like I could help people understand how to leverage AI for better purposes.”
As a former high school English teacher and a current associate professor of curriculum and education, Dr. Philip Nichols said that this year’s theme of technology in the classroom is incredibly relevant to his background and research. Nichols said his teaching at Baylor has ultimately prepared him to become a better teacher overall.
Dr. Ivy Hamerly, senior lecturer of political science and the director of the international studies major, said she was initially an English major before pivoting into comparative politics.
Hamerly has already begun implementing smart AI use in her classes, something she hopes to further practice through her time as a fellow.
“I created an assignment where [my students] write a policy memo using Microsoft Copilot,” Hamerly said. “I tell them to think of the AI tool sort of like an unreliable coworker who might save you time, but might introduce all kinds of new mistakes that you need to fix.”
Emily Clark, lecturer in museum studies professor, is nestled away in the Mayborn Museum, where the Museum Studies professors have their classes. She said she’s excited to see how AI can help museums lighten the workload when it comes to creating exhibits and programming.
“A lot of museums are trying to do a lot with a little, especially smaller museums,” Clark said. “There might only be three people on staff, so having some of these tools to help them streamline creating exhibits or building programming, creating curriculum for a summer camp, these tools can be really impactful collaborators.”
Clark also said that she believes museums will be an important hub for educating the general public about AI and safe AI practices.
Overall, this year’s fellows are excited to be a part of the new program, with each one echoing sentiments of excitement about meeting new people and exchanging new ideas.
“I probably speak for everybody, and they probably say the same thing,” Carr said. “I feel like it is a privilege to get to teach here, and I am grateful for it every day … and this fellowship is just an example of a way that it allows me to be creative and grow as a faculty member.”
