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This year's Creating Welcoming Spaces-themed Showcase seeks to honor faculty who intentionally design their courses to welcome all students, setting the stage for deep engagement and investment in learning. These practices may also serve our students well by motivating participation, creating connections, and developing a sense of community and belonging. 

While interviewing with �������� Associate Vice President of Counseling, Health and Wellbeing Sislena Ledbetter about the Showcase theme, she described how essential it is for instructors to incorporate strategies that support student wellbeing.

“I am really excited and proud about the professors that we are featuring this year, because they are showing us what true leadership in the classroom is like," said Ledbetter. "They are responding very boldly to the idea that professors are gatekeepers of students’ wellbeing. They are instilling a sense of wellbeing in the work that they're doing and–while they may not even be thinking about it as that–they are literally doing that work.”

The new Showcase web publication is set to release in time for the Showcase Learning Event. Join us on Friday, June 6, any time between 3-4:30 p.m., in the TLC Studio (College Hall 310) to celebrate and learn more about this year’s featured instructors:

• Rebecca Borowski (Mathematics) strives to build positive relationships with students, knowing that when they feel welcome, safe, and seen, they are more likely to share their mathematical thinking and reasoning with her and to engage in challenging work.
• Jill Davishahl (Engineering & Design) focuses on practices that welcome all students–validating diverse experiences, encouraging authentic connection, and establishing psychological safety–while demonstrating that human impact and human connection are integral to engineering design and innovation.
• John McLaughlin (Environmental Sciences) emphasizes a culture of welcoming and belonging, encouraging students to bring their whole selves and to establish social and intellectual context for working and living together in environmental field expedition research.

The event and the website include many more teaching strategy ideas, including “profiles” of additional �������� instructors, videos, books, and more. For more information, visit or contact Justina Brown at (360) 650-7210 or via e-mail at Justina.Brown@wwu.edu.