Graduate Teaching Consultant Program

Program Overview

The Graduate Teaching Consultant Program supports the professional development in teaching of graduate students, and includes opportunities that support enhanced teaching experiences, as outlined in the Model of Graduate Student Professional Development in Teaching. GTCs are graduate students exhibiting pedagogical skills and knowledge within their disciplines. GTCs, under the supervision of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), serve as instructional coaches and peer mentors to TAs across campus. GTCs are available to conduct classroom observations upon request.

Learning Outcomes – Instructional Practice

Participants will…

Demonstrate a variety of evidence-based teaching strategies
Recognize the influence of situational factors (e.g., specific course context; learner and instructor characteristics) on course and lesson design decisions
Discuss personal teaching philosophies (e.g., beliefs, formative experiences, and assumptions) and how philosophies influence
Describe and recognize the value of learning communities, and how they impact student learning

Essential and Transferable Skills Development

Leadership; Teamwork; Critical and Creative thinking; Written and Oral Communication; Interpersonal and Intercultural Knowledge and Competence; Mentorship; and Management

Nomination Process

The 2025 Call for GTC Nominations is open. To nominate an outstanding current or former teaching assistant in your department/college for the Graduate Teaching Consultant (GTC) program, please email the following to cte@tamu.edu.

Student name (first and last)
Student email address
College, Department
Brief statement specifying why you believe the nominee is qualified to be a GTC (100 words or less)

Up to 3 students from a department can be nominated! Following our receipt of your nomination email, the Center will email the nominees and provide them with a formal application for the GTC Program. (Note: Nominations should be submitted by departments or faculty; students may not nominate themselves or their peers).

For more details, please click here: Overview and Eligibility.

Graduate Teaching Consultants

Allison Goetz

Department: Chemistry
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: DNA/Protein interactions in the the context of DNA repair and DNA epigenetic modifications
Favorite Educational Quote: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." – Benjamin Franklin

Andrew Eberlein

Department: Physics and Astronomy
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Higher-dimensional rotating black hole spacetimes
Favorite Educational Quote: "The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts." – CS Lewis

Dallas Williams

Department: Soil and Crop Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My emphasis is in soil physics and hydrology. My research focuses on improving the hydrologic function of urban environments. I am especially interested in watershed hydrology, stormwater management, community science, and educating the public on soil science. I am currently conducting research on 1) alternative rain garden design, 2) modelling rain garden function at the watershed scale, and 3) creating a social-economical-technological (SET) assessment of watershed health in Houston.
Favorite Educational Quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Diya Dharmendran

Department: Psychological and Brain Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Pain, discrimination, and social inequality, with a particular interest in how marginalized groups experience and respond to chronic pain
Favorite Educational Quote: "I am hungry to see young people reach their full potential, to see them take ownership of their
future, and to see them create the world they deserve." – Michelle Obama

Emily Burningham

Department: Chemistry
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Using native mass spectrometry for the study of protein behavior
Favorite Educational Quote: "Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new." – Albert Einstein

Fatima Mahaz

Department: Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Thermo-catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to value-added fuels and chemicals
Favorite Educational Quote: “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” – William Arthur Ward

Francisca Briandt

Department: Educational Psychology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Literacy-Infused Science and Technology-based instruction for Emergent Bilinguals
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W.B. Yeats

Hailey Schmidt

Department: Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Remote sensing and machine learning for carbon estimation in rangelands experiencing woody plant encroachment
Favorite Educational Quote: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie

Harinee Rajagopalan

Department: Biology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Wastewater-based surveillance of existing and novel RNA viruses
Favorite Educational Quote: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Ikenna Okehie

Department: Food Science and Technology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My research explores future food systems, with a focus on developing alternative and sustainable food sources to support global nutritional needs.
Favorite Educational Quote: “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai

Jean Ferguson

Department: Educational Psychology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Motivation and Volunteerism in Youth-Serving Organizations
Favorite Educational Quote: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." – Plutarch

Jeffrey Cragin

Department: Department of Chemistry
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Solvent dynamics on cationic rearrangements
Favorite Educational Quote: "Integrity is doing the right thing when you don’t have to—when no one else is looking or will ever know—when there will be no congratulations or recognition for having done so." – Charles Marshall

Kelly Shipman

Department: Hispanic Studies Program
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Hispanic and Latinx Film, Women in War/the Military and Visual Culture of the Spanish-speaking world.
Favorite Educational Quote: "One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world." – Malala Yousafzai

Lincon Mazumder

Department: Biology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Molecular dynamics of Type IV Pili in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Favorite Educational Quote: "Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." – John C. Maxwell

Longhao Guo

Department: Geography
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Healthcare Accessibility for Health Geography
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education should be accessible to all, regardless of social status, background, or natural ability." – Confucius

Madison Weinrich

Department: Kinesiology and Sport Management
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Bimanual coordination for special populations & neurophysiological mechanisms for motor control and learning
Favorite Educational Quote: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." – Benjamin Franklin

Nilson Chapagain

Department: Statistics
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My research interests include Bayesian statistics, large language models (LLMs), and dynamic treatment regimes (DTR).
Favorite Educational Quote: "It's not where you come from, it's where you're going that counts." – Ella Fitzgerald

Olukayde Apata

Department: Educational Psychology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Use of AI in Education, Psychometrics, and STEM Education
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Paige Williams

Department: Educational Psychology, Developmental Sciences emphasis
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Risky play behaviors and emotional regulation during early childhood
Favorite Educational Quote: "We can do this. We're educators. We're born to make a difference." – Rita Pierson

Purushottam Gyawali

Department: Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My research interest is developing decision support systems for sustainable weed and pest management in agronomic crops by integrating ecological understanding with digital tools to enhance data-driven decision-making.
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." – William Butler Yeats

Rebecca Lee

Department: Statistics
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My research involves developing and applying hierarchical Bayesian models and time series analysis to biomedical data. Favorite
Educational Quote: “Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Sean Kao

Department: Educational Psychology, Learning Design & Technology emphasis
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: AI in Education, Scientific Argumentation, Self-Regulated Learning
Favorite Educational Quote: “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction." – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sungjun Yoon

Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: High performance analog-to-digital converters for next generation wireless communication systems
Favorite Educational Quote: "The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." – Sydney J. Harris