April is the Faculty and Future Faculty Program Director for the Engineering Educational Research Center (EERC) and the Institutional Co-leader for Pitt-CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning) at the University of Pittsburgh.
April studied at Winthrop University, earning a BS degree in Chemistry and BA degree in Psychology. She then completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh, researching the role of oxidative stress, genetics, and mitochondrial dynamics in models of Parkinson’s disease.
She has been an adjunct instructor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh since 2009. April leads local professional development courses and facilitates workshops on instructional and mentoring best practices for both current and future STEM faculty. April is experienced in both synchronous and asynchronous online and in-person teaching environments. Throughout her graduate and professional career, she has mentored trainees at various stages, in discipline-specific content and, most currently, in career development, educational research, and course design. April currently collaborates with the national educational research initiative, the Aspire Alliance, and was a collaborator of the NSF INCLUDES Alliance, in order to support systemic changes toward excellence and inclusivity in higher education.
Courses taught at Pitt
- NROSCI 0080 - Brain and Behavior
- NROSCI 0081 - Drugs and Behavior
- ENGR 3000 - Preparation for a STEM Academic Career
- BIOSCI/CHEM/ENGR 3001 - Prep for the STEM Clssrm: An Intro to Evidence-Based STEM Tchng
- BIOSCI/CHEM/ENGR 3002 - Advanced Learning through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching
Education & Training
- PhD & Research - University of Pittsburgh
- BS, Chemistry - Winthrop University
- BA, Psychology - Winthrop University
Representative Publications
Inclusive Professional Framework for Faculty: Implementing Inclusive and Holistic Professional Development that Transcends Multiple Faculty Roles. Linder SM, Lee CM, Stefl SK, and High KA (Eds.). (2023)
Improving gender diversity in STEM through an inclusive professional framework. CohenMiller A, Hinton-Smith T, Mazanderani FH, and Samuel, N (Eds.). (2022)
Leading Change in Gender and Diversity in Higher Education from Margins to Mainstream (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003286943 Gillian-Daniel DL, Greenler RM, Bridgen ST, Dukes AA, and Hill LB. (2021)