Director
Adjunct Assistant Professor, History, Brown University
Adjunct Professor, History, Division of Liberal Arts: HPSS, Rhode Island School of Design

Dr. More holds an A.B. in History from the University of Virginia, andan M.A. andPh.D. in History from Brown University. Her research focuses on the social, economic and cultural history of Medieval and Early Modern England, includinggender studies. Dr. More’s involvement in professional development programs for faculty and concern for teaching to variations in learning dates from 1977. She has been associated with the Sheridan Center, Brown’s professional development center for faculty and graduate students, since 1987 and directed the Center’s operations since 1992. Under her direction the Sheridan Center has developed a comprehensive series of programs, services and publications to provide professional development support to the faculty and graduate students of Brown University. Over the years, these activities have expanded to include faculty and graduate students from the Rhode Island School of Design. These various activities represent a collegial exchange about pedagogy in higher education firmly rooted in the needs of the University’s teaching community. Her career has included work as Tour Director for the Providence Preservation Society, and owner/instructor of the Benefit Street Cookery School from 1972-1986. Her publications includeediting the Sheridan Center's Teaching Exchange (1992-),The Rewards of Virtue (1998), Out to Lunch co-authored with Reva A. Stern (1985), the introduction to the 1989 edition of Horace Walpole’s essay On Modern Gardening (1780), numerous conference papers, book reviews, and local history projects.Dr. More has served on the boards of Providence Preservation Society, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (Brown University), the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, the New England Faculty Development Consortium, the Concord Academy Alumni, and on Garden Club of America local and national committees (Scholarship and Civic Projects). She currentlyserves onas trustee of the Weeks Medical Center (Lancaster NH),on the President's Council of Plymouth State University (NH), and on the National Council of Strawbery Banke Museum (Portsmouth, NH).

Laura E. Hess, Ph.D.

Associate Director for the Humanities & Social Sciences
Adjunct Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies

Laura Hess received her B.A. Magna Cum Laude with Honors in East Asian Studies from Yale University in 1984, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Washington in 1989 and 1994 respectively. After earning her doctorate, she served for two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College. She came to Brown in 1996, when she joined the faculty of the Department of East Asian Studies. Her teaching interests include modern and classical Chinese, and she has published a number of journal articles, book chapters and book reviews on various sinological topics. In 2000, she became the Associate Director for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Sheridan Center. In addition to her work in faculty development and professional development for graduate students, she regularly serves as a first-year and sophomore advisor.

Kathy M. Takayama, Ph.D.

Associate Director for the Life & Physical Sciences
Adjunct Associate Professor, Bio - MCB

Kathy Takayama holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutgers Medical School. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1991–1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1994 Kathy moved to Sydney, Australia where she became tenured at the University of New South Wales. She returned to the US in 2007 to join the Sheridan Center. In addition to her molecular biology research in RNA processing, Kathy’s research interests include visualizations and learning in the sciences, collaborative learning communities, and online inquiry-based learning. She has published numerous conference papers and journal articles on her work, and has delivered keynote addresses at international conferences on teaching and learning. Her selected publications include: “Teaching visualizing the science of genomics”, in Visualization in Science Education (Gilbert, ed.); “Mapping student learning throughout the collaborative inquiry process: the progressive e-poster” (Uniserve Symposium Proceedings); “Computer-aided visualisation in teaching genomics and bioinformatics” (FASEB Journal). Kathy has engaged in arts-science collaborations and her work with Sydney-based sculptor John Nicholson (“The Symbiotic Bacterial Light Project: Luxcorp”) has been exhibited at the Canberra Contemporary Arts Space gallery in Australia’s capital city. She has been awarded the UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, the Australian College of Educators State of New South Wales Teaching Award, and the Australian Society for Microbiology David White Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2003 Kathy was selected as a Carnegie Scholar. She is a founding member of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), served as ISSOTL’s first Regional VP for Australasia, and chaired the 4th ISSOTL Conference in Sydney. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Kathy also serves on the National Steering Committee of the NSF Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Biology Scholars Program, and Co-Chairs the Biology Scholars Writing Residency Program. Kathy has also developed outreach projects for elementary schools and museums, and continues to mentor underprivileged children in the sciences.