Vitamin PhD Podcast

In this episode, we will be meeting our new hosts for Season 8 of Vitamin PhD, Alyssa Kreikemeier and Emma Bortz. They will be talking with Jenna and Shaunesse', the season 7 hosts, about their most rewarding teaching moments, along with who influences them within the teaching field. The hosts also discuss what the management season will bring for listeners.

In this episode, Jenna and Shaunesse’ are joined by guests LaNysha Adams, education consultant and owner of Edlinguist Solutions LLC, and Rhonda Caston, post-doctoral fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. This episode, we reach beyond academia to gain insight into how we can use our teaching skills elsewhere. We learn about the challenges and rewards of engaging with learners who may not have experienced traditional education pathways and helping them to navigate the mysteries behind job progress.

Today our hosts interview guests for the Special Education episode Vitamin PhD, featuring Stephanie Cox Suárez, a previous associate professor in the Special and Elementary Education Department at BU, and Johny Daniel, an Assistant Professor at Durham University in the UK. Our guests hone in on the importance of not only being passionate about your teaching, but being well-informed for the sake of your students. We learn that special education is as much about caring deeply for your students’ success as it is about finding and utilizing evidence-based practices. Engaging students at every turn of lessons and using all resources available are key practices encouraged in special education according to our hosts.

We learn the skills behind Online Education in today’s episode of Vitamin PhD from guests John Rindy, Assistant Vice President for Career and Academic Progress, and Brian Danielson, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, both at Slippery Rock University. We touch on the incredible challenge that comes along with educating students virtually, especially in the current era of COVID. Our guests educate us on the importance of developing a goal-oriented mindset to lead to success and how to become marketable to a broad array of career options. Finally, our guests explain the skills it takes to be able to teach in an online classroom and ensure the success of their students, globally.

This episode features a chorus of BU graduate school alumni who share how they leverage skills from graduate school to find success in their post-graduate careers. Guests represent sectors ranging from consulting to public history and from arts administration to science writing. They bring varied experience levels, ranging from newly-minted PhDs who recently entered the workforce to mid-career and recently retired professionals. In a culmination of our season’s focus on management and leadership, they touch on management skills, transitions, and the qualities of good leadership.

Guests include: Bridget Muckian, Marty Blatt, Chenguang Peng, Rebekah Beaulieu,

Kelsey Gustin, Deboki Chakravarti