The Rutgers CASTL Team leadership comprises individuals who are experts in their particular fields and committed to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Especially important, given Rutgers’ size, is that all are leaders within their institutional constituencies, have significant independent track records of excellence in working to strengthen the quality of teaching, and are dedicated to forging collaborative partnerships to enhance the quality of instruction in post-secondary education.

Barbara Bender is Associate Dean of the Graduate School – New Brunswick and founding director of the Teaching Assistant Project. She has served as a leader in contributing to the scholarship of teaching through creating and teaching “Introduction to College Teaching,” and publishing on issues pertaining to TA development, the expectations of undergraduates, and benchmarking. She earned the doctorate in higher education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University and is a nationally recognized leader in higher education and student affairs and has been named a “Pillar of the Profession” by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and received the National Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature or Research.

Jolie A. Cizewski is a Professor of Physics and Vice Dean of the Graduate School – New Brunswick. She is a recognized leader in graduate and postdoctoral education in nuclear physics, serving on the Nuclear Science Advisory’s Committee subcommittee that generated the 2004 report on Education in Nuclear Science. She is a recipient of the Graduate School’s award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and is Co-PI of both the Phase I and Phase II National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching in K-12 projects that partner Rutgers graduate student fellows with middle school teachers in STEM disciplines.

Monica A. Devanas, Ph.D., is the Director of Faculty Development and Assessment Programs at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT). At CAT, she has served as Program Director on teaching and pedagogy grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., General Electric Fund, and the Mellon Foundation. She has published and presented programs in the Unites States and Africa on the “Biomedical Issues of HIV/AIDS” that has been selected as a national model by the NSF Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities grant.

Susan E. Lawrence is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. As Vice Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science, she launched a model monthly TA training seminar series, developed extensive orientation materials for part-time lecturers and new faculty, and regularly participates in the Graduate School's annual TA Orientation Conference. She is a recipient of the FAS Award for Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education and received the 2002 University Award for Programmatic Excellence in Undergraduate Education for the Department of Political Science. She serves as a leader in implementing Rutgers new undergraduate curriculum and represents the University on the Teagle Project on Technology Fluency and the Liberal Arts Curriculum.

Richard L.White is Director of the Office of Career Services at Rutgers University. With extensive experience in the private sector as well as in higher education, Dr. White has an A.B. from Dartmouth College, M.A. from the University of Kent in England, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, all in English. Dr. White develops and implements future faculty programs for graduate students, and will soon do so for postdocs. He works with graduate student groups and individual students to help identify paths to employment as faculty members in higher education.