Meet Our Staff

As the CTE’s Executive Director, Dr. Stacy Grooters champions teaching at Boston College, driving campus conversations about teaching excellence and advocating for a strong culture of reflective, inclusive, evidence-based teaching at the University. She provides strategic leadership for the Center for Teaching Excellence, ensuring that the CTE’s programs and services align with faculty needs and are responsive to campus priorities.

Stacy gained her first experience in the classroom teaching English to secondary school students as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bayanhongor, Mongolia, a small town on the northern edge of the Gobi Desert. She went on to pursue an MA in English from Miami University in Oxford, OH and a PhD in English (with a concentration in Women Studies) from the University of Washington, where she taught in the departments of English, Ethnic Studies, and Women’s Studies. At UW, she also worked as an Assistant Director in the Expository Writing Program and an instructional consultant in the Center for Instructional Development and Research.

In 2007, Stacy joined Stonehill College as the Founding Director of their Center for Teaching and Learning, where she also oversaw the establishment of the Office of Community-Based Learning. She taught as an Assistant Professor in the English department and was Co-Director of the Gender & Sexuality Studies program. She also chaired the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for three years. In 2015, Stacy was hired as the Director of Faculty Programs for BC’s newly established Center for Teaching Excellence and was then named Interim Director of the CTE in 2019. She was promoted to Executive Director in 2020.

Stacy is an active member of the POD Network, the national organization of teaching centers, and has twice served on POD's Board of Directors. Her research examines the roles of instructor and student identity in the classroom, as well as broader questions of diversity, equity, and social justice in higher education. Her most recent publication examines the POD Network's scholarly engagement with diversity in its publications and conferences.

Sarah collaborates with CTE colleagues and with faculty to develop programs inviting them to explore pedagogical questions and innovations, and foster community centered around reflective teaching. She coordinates the CTE’s support for instructional technologies, and serves as CTE liaison to campus partners such as the Academic Technology Advisory Board, and Faculty Technology Contacts. She has taught Core courses in BC’s Theology Department and co-taught a Cross-currents seminar, “Thinking about Mindfulness and Meditation.”  

Sarah holds a B.A. in History from the University of Durham, UK, an MA from Andover Newton Theological Seminary, and a PhD in Theology from Boston College. She began working in BC’s Instructional Design and eTeaching Services as a Graduate Assistant while completing her studies. She joined the staff full time as an Instructional Designer in 2004, and has been at the Center since its beginning in 2014.

Kim is honored to work at the CTE where she gets to support faculty and graduate student instructors as they reflect on their teaching practices and pedagogical philosophies. Through program management, consultations, and resource development, Kim is in regular conversation with campus instructors and the literature on college teaching, with a special emphasis on questions of equity, justice, and inclusion in college classrooms. 

Her investment in promoting the well-being of students and instructors is also informed by her other work on campus: Kim taught in the Theology core program, staffed the campus Sexual Assault Network, and co-taught a course for graduate students on responsibly, compassionately responding to sexual assault disclosures in their role as future faculty. She earned her B.A. in Religious Studies and English Literature from Denison University and her M.T.S. from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She is currently working on a dissertation in systematic theology on the intersections of shame, sin, and antiblack racism in the U.S. Catholic Church. 

Francesca oversees the CTE’s graduate student programs, services, and resources, in order to support graduate students in their current teaching roles at BC and prepare them for future teaching roles in higher education. As part of this work, she collaborates with individual faculty as well as with all of BC’s schools and colleges and other university offices. Francesca also supervises the center’s Learning Technology Assistants, helps support all of the CTE’s programs, and provides assistance with CTE-supported technologies, in particular Poll Everywhere. At BC, Francesca periodically teaches college writing courses in the Woods College of Advancing Studies, most recently in an asynchronous online format.

Francesca holds a B.A. in Hispanic Studies and Anthropology from Oberlin College, an M.A. in Mediterranean Studies from Middlebury College, and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures – Italian from the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan, Francesca worked at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching as an Instructional Technology Graduate Teaching Consultant and workshop facilitator.

Jenna is a Doctoral Candidate in the Biblical Studies track of the Theology department at Boston College’s Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.  Her research involves the intersection of early Christian martyrdom narratives, identity formation, and gender.

Jenna holds two masters degrees in Biblical Languages and Early Christianity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a B.A. in Bible and English from Cornerstone University.  She has served as a Teaching Assistant, Teaching Fellow, and an adjunct instructor at Boston College.  In the classroom and in her work at the CTE, Jenna is passionate about developing intercultural and inclusive pedagogical practices.

When Jenna is not working or studying, she enjoys traveling with her partner, reading recent (often bad) fiction, and tending her ever-growing hoard of plants.