We are dedicated to fostering faculty excellence through a variety of professional development opportunities. Our services include classroom observations, assessment guidance, peer evaluations, Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs), and engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We offer diverse workshops, institutes, and orientations to meet various professional development needs, ensuring faculty stay current with the latest educational strategies and trends. Our comprehensive approach empowers faculty to continuously enhance their teaching skills and contribute to our institution’s educational excellence.
Mission Statement
The CTL advances thoughtful and engaging pedagogy, assessment, educational technology, and instructional design to promote faculty development throughout all stages of their careers and to enhance student success.
Guiding Principles
Our principles emphasize that:
- Faculty excel when they are supported in their teaching, technology needs, scholarship, service, and careers.
- Faculty need a space to reflect on their own practice and engage in discussions about teaching and learning in community with their colleagues.
- Faculty development is vital to maintaining a thoughtful and engaging curriculum.
- Faculty engagement with inclusive and innovative pedagogy that educates the whole person allows students to become reflective and critical thinkers.
- Faculty support student success when utilizing engaging and effective educational technology.
- Faculty guided by the University’s Marianist, Hawaiian, and liberal arts educational traditions are well positioned to meet the needs of students from diverse cultures and communities of the Pacific region and beyond.
The CTL Vault
Explore the central hub of resources, templates, and tools to enhance teaching and learning. If you do not have access to the site, please email us at [email protected] and we will be sure to add you.
Distance Education
The CTL works closely with campus partners to support distance education. For more information about distance education at the university, including resources for both faculty and students, please visit the Distance Education page. There, you will find guidance for faculty such as the Distance Education Guidelines, along with tools and resources designed to support effective online teaching and help students succeed as online learners.
Meet our amazing team.
Our dedicated CTL staff are passionate educators and professionals committed to supporting faculty development and enhancing teaching excellence at Chaminade University.
James Heller Sutton, M.Ed.
Jim is the Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Co-Director of Chaminade’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Jim has worked in faculty professional development since 2008 and has a varied background in education with experience in curriculum design and development, instruction, educational technology, and assessment.
Jim earned his Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University and sees the CTL as a space for faculty to collaborate and share ideas that enhance teaching and promote student learning and growth. Outside of Chaminade, Jim’s occupied with two young sons that keep him on his toes!
Denise Dugan, Ph.D.
Denise is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences and serves as Co-Director of Chaminade’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Since 2007, she has worked across K-12 and higher education settings, teaching English/Language Arts, Special Education, and providing mentorship for preservice and in-service teachers. Denise earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning from the University at Buffalo.
As a neurodivergent individual herself, Denise is deeply committed to advocacy, removing barriers to learning, and empowering others through education. She views the CTL as a welcoming space for collaboration, shared dialogue, and mutual support among faculty. Outside of her academic work, she enjoys spending time with her three daughters and pursuing her passion for scuba diving and swimming with sharks.
Koreen Nakahodo, Ph.D.
Koreen is a CTL Faculty Fellow and an English department faculty member born and raised on Oʻahu. She earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her academic interests include place-based writing, Indigenous approaches to Composition and Rhetoric, Writing Across the Curriculum, and the Literatures of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
Koreen teaches writing, information literacy, and literature courses and is deeply committed to culturally responsive and inclusive pedagogy. As a CTL Fellow, she supports the Center for Teaching and Learning by helping plan and coordinate programs, collaborating with faculty, and developing teaching resources that strengthen learning across disciplines.