Graduate Fellows Program

Anna Berlekamp 

Lead Fellow

Anna is a PhD Candidate in the department of Middle Eastern Studies (MES), specializing in Anatolian Archaeology. Her research focuses on socio-political organization, increasing territoriality, and inter- and intra-regional interaction networks during the early second millennium BCE in central Turkey. At the University of Chicago, she has served as a Writing Intern, a Teaching Assistant for NELC courses, and as the Instructor of Record for a course on the Hittite empire. As a CCTL Fellow, Anna hopes to help instructors engage and improve inclusive teaching and active learning strategies, as well as engaging with object-based learning using campus resources.   

Swathi Chandrika 

Fellow

Swathi is a fifth year PhD student in the Quantum Science and Engineering program at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. As an experimental researcher, she uses lasers to study the properties of imperfections in semiconducting materials that have interesting quantum information science applications. Outside the lab, she is passionate about making physics and quantum mechanics accessible to wide audiences through hands-on experiments. Swathi enjoys singing, reading science fiction and fantasy books, cooking with friends, exploring the neighborhoods and cafes of Chicago, and changing her hairstyle every year.    

Noah Garrett 

Fellow 

Noah is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry working with Professor David Mazziotti. His research focuses on developing quantum computing algorithms to simulate strongly correlated systems. He has served as a teaching assistant for the Introductory General Chemistry and Honors Chemistry sequences. Noah has also co-taught as a math instructor for Math Circles of Chicago at Walter Payton High School. As a CCTL Fellow, he aims to make quantum science accessible to students from all backgrounds by designing and facilitating evidence-based instruction that integrates active learning strategies and visualization tools to lower barriers to learning.    

Siobhan Finnerty 

Fellow

Siobhan is a PhD candidate in Political Science researching the localized political effects of international development. At the University of Chicago, she has served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses in comparative politics and research methods. Before coming to Chicago, she worked as a GIS Analyst for a DC firm specializing in telecommunications. She holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago as well as a BA in International Relations and Geography from George Washington University. As a CCTL Fellow, Siobhan hopes to develop resources that will support effective and empowering teaching in social science fields.    

Omar Kazi 

Senior Fellow

Omar is a PhD candidate in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. He conducts research at Argonne National Laboratory focused on engineering photothermal materials to harness solar energy for water treatment and resource recovery. He has served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate thermodynamics courses and received the 2023 PME Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. He has also taught engineering to K-12 and undergraduate students through several programs in and out of UChicago. As a CCTL fellow, Omar strives to build strategies for tailoring engineering pedagogy to be more inclusive and effective at developing constructive problem-solving skills.    

Emily Kuret 

Fellow

Emily is an 8th year PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. A linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist, Emily is currently finishing a dissertation about understandings of well-being in the participatory arts programs that make up contemporary EU arts and culture policy, with particular focus on Greece's position in this policy ecology. She is a 2023 fellow of the NSF cultural anthropology methods program (CAMP) and is excited to develop graduate pedagogical training for the teaching of methodology in the social sciences.    

Maureen McCord

Fellow

Maureen is a PhD candidate in the Department of History. Her research asks why the commercial, developmental British imperial state apparatus which transformed early modern Bombay persisted even as the rest of the British empire in South Asia grew increasingly extractive, militarized, and authoritarian over the course of the 18th century. Maureen has served as a Teaching Assistant at UChicago for courses in the Core and the Department of History. She cares deeply about facilitating skills development opportunities for graduate and early career instructors, and loves sharing her passion for inclusive and empowering college teaching with her colleagues and students.    

Ava Polzin 

Senior Fellow

Ava is a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, working with Profs. Andrey Kravtsov and Hsiao-Wen Chen to better understand the processes that regulate star formation in the smallest galaxies. In addition to doing research, Ava has served as a tutor and instructor for a number of courses across the physical sciences. Most recently, she has been an Instructor for the University of Chicago Summer Session, a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Yale University Department of Astronomy, and a Lead Instructor for the Yale Young Global Scholars Program. As a CCTL Fellow, Ava is excited to help foster a culture of thoughtful pedagogy at UChicago.   

Maggie Sandholm 

Senior Fellow

Maggie is a PhD candidate in Philosophy. Her research examines what psychopathologies reveal about the nature of consciousness, perception, and subjectivity. She taught as both an instructor and as a teaching assistant for various courses in philosophy of mind and ethics, and she received the Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2022. She also serves as Teaching Consultant at the CCTL and enjoys collaborating with instructors on how to develop inclusive and student-centered learning practices. As a CCTL fellow, Maggie looks forward to continuing to support, empower, and learn from other educators and is eager to create programming that adds to the insightful pedagogical discussions ongoing in the UChicago community.   

Brianna Suslovic 

Fellow

Brianna is a PhD candidate in Social Work entering her fifth year of doctoral studies. She has experience teaching Master's students at UChicago and Smith College, and she has also taught at Cook County Jail and Logan Women's Correctional Facility. Her pedagogical interests are largely connected to the traditions of Paolo Freire and bell hooks, and as a Graduate Fellow, she is excited to continue building critical consciousness among colleagues who are teaching in social work contexts. Brianna is a native of Syracuse, NY who spends some of her free time teaching yoga classes in Ukranian Village.   

Mary Kemp Thornberry 

Fellow

Mary is a PhD candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature.  Her dissertation-in-progress is about the concept of “folly” in medieval literature.  The project explores how new types of moral and religious instruction addressed to new audiences in the later Middle Ages spurred playful, formally innovative, and often very funny experiments in vernacular writing—experiments that we now recognize as “literature.”  Mary Kemp is passionate about active, student-centered, and inclusive instruction and course design.  Her course “Self-Help, Medieval and Modern” was awarded the 2025 Stuart Tave Course Design Award in the Humanities Division.  She is especially interested in pedagogies of writing and enjoys working with student writers.   

Katie Vasquez

Fellow

Katie is a PhD Candidate in the Psychology department, in the Developmental area. Katie researches social cognitive and moral psychology. Her work mostly focuses on school-aged children who are undergoing rapid cognitive development and facing relevant social experiences, all of which feed into our adult psychology. At the University of Chicago, Katie has served as Instructor of Record for Social Psychology, has been a Teaching Assistant for various Psychology courses, and is a Peer Mentor to all graduate students in her department. As a CCTL Fellow, Katie looks forward to designing programming to build confidence and skills in graduate teachers.    

Alexandra Ware

Fellow

Alexandra is on the Committee on Molecular Metabolism at the Biological Sciences Division. She has served as lead instructor for the Collegiate Scholars Program, where she developed and taught Contemporary Issues in Life Sciences and Bioethics for the past two summers. She also led a quarter of the Collaborative Learning in Biology series for undergraduates. In addition to her university teaching, Alexandra tutors high school students in the Chicagoland area through the Neighborhood Schools Program across a range of subjects, from biology to history to essay writing.