Janel Seeley began her role as Director of the CFI in fall 2026.

She landed in higher education by happy accident, falling into teaching several years ago while initially looking for work in her original field, social work. It didn't take long for her to fall in love with teaching and learning, and she went on to earn a PhD in educational psychology. Ever since, she's woven together her backgrounds in teaching and social work across a variety of roles in higher education, training, and consulting, including as the former director of the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wyoming.

Janel believes good teaching, learning, and leadership all come down to good relationships. One of the ways she nurtures these is through her skills as a reflective dialogue facilitator and bonus- research show that deep conversations boost wellbeing. She also sees teaching as both an art and a science, which makes her a strong advocate for the scholarship of teaching and learning. And, she's a firm believer that active learning is the key to motivation, retention, and truly successful learners. Along the way, she's had the privilege of teaching and consulting on these topics across the country and around the world, from Uzbekistan to South Africa.

When she's not teaching, learning, or facilitating, Janel enjoys being outdoors, reading, traveling, and eating chocolate. When not at the CFI, you may run into her at the local farmers market, sipping wine with friends at a nearby winery, hiking a wooded trail with her dog, or enjoying a night at local theater.

University of Wyoming

• College Teaching Methods and Applications
• UW Semester Abroad, London, UK - Positive Psychology and Everyday Education
• Undergraduate Educational Research
• Intro to Social Work
• Dissertation Prospectus

University of Tennessee

• Reflective Practice (Dialogue)

University of Louisville

• Teaching and Learning in the Post-secondary Environment
• Online Clinical Theory into Practice

East Tennessee State University

• Ethics in Social Work
• SW Cultural Diversity

Wilkes Community College

• Life Skills for JOBS program
• Study Skills for College

Seeley, J. (2026). Why am I Doing all the Work? You are Supposed to be Teaching Me: Getting Student Buy‐in on Active Learning. The National Teaching & Learning Forum, 35(1), 1–3.

Fisher, R., & Seeley, J. (2025). The Brief Life of a Students-as-Partners Model for Improving General Education. In Where Honors Education and Faculty Development Meet, National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series, Zubizaretta, J., & Byron, V. (Eds.).

Huijser, H., Seeley, J., & Wittig McPhee, S. (2024). Exploring international collaborative writing groups' potential for community-based academic development around public SoTL. International Journal for Academic Development, 29(2), 225–237.

Motley, P., Archer-Kuhn, B., Dishke Hondzel, C., Dobbs-Oates, J., Eady, M., Seeley, J., & Tyrrell, R. (2024). Defining immersive learning. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 12.
*Winner of The Nancy Chick TLI Article of the Year

Aleman, R., Vaughan, K., Summerfield, K., & Seeley, J. (2023). Immersive, interactive virtual learning environments increase accessibility in soil science. Natural Sciences Education, 52, e20131.

Seeley, J. (2023). Ask me why I asked: Using concepts of collaborative communication to think together about teaching and learning. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 15(3).

Seeley, J. (2022). Reflecting on global efforts in knowledge democracy and SoTL collaborations. In Chick, N., & Friberg, J. (Eds.), Going Public Reconsidered: Engaging with the World Beyond Academe Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Stylus.

Tyrrell, R., Motley, P., Dobbs-Oates, J., Hondzel, C. D., Archer-Kuhn, B., Eady, M. J., & Seeley, J. (2022). Online, qualitative research: Conducting a multi-institutional, multinational study on immersive learning pedagogies. In SAGE Research Methods Cases.

Smith, A. H., Grupp, L. L., Doukopoulos, L., Foo, J. C., Rodriguez, B. J., Seeley, J., Boland, L. M., & Hester, L. L. (2022). Taking teaching and learning seriously: Approaching wicked consciousness through collaboration and partnership. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, 41(1).

Custer, G., Van Diepen, L., & Seeley, J. (2021). Student perceptions towards introductory lessons in R. Natural Sciences Education, 50(2).

Poproski, R., Seeley, J., & Robert, J. (2021). The positions of instruction: Faculty perspectives on forms of address. College Teaching.

Arend, B., Archer-Kuhn, B., Hiramatsu, K., Ostrowdun, C., Seeley, J., & Jones, A. (2021). Minding the gap: Comparing student and instructor experiences with critical reflection. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 9(1).

Seeley, J., Frahm, T., & Lynch, E. (2018). Just show up: Reflections from a cross-disciplinary writing group. In N. Simmons (Ed.), Collaborative Critical Communities. Brill.

Seeley, J., McAteer, M., Sanchez, C. O., & Kenfield, Y. (2018). Creating a space for global dialogue on knowledge democracy: Experiences from the inaugural Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy. Educational Action Research Journal.

Vaughan, K. L., Vaughan, R. E., & Seeley, J. M. (2017). Experiential learning in soil science: Use of an augmented reality sandbox. Natural Science Education.