Faculty Affairs Staff

Leslie Hasche is currently serving as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Denver. At the Graduate School of Social Work, she taught theory and gerontology courses at the master’s and doctoral levels.  She received her Master of Social Work in 2000 and her Doctor of Philosophy in 2009—both from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in Saint Louis. Throughout her practice and research career, she has focused on mental health care and community services to support older adults and their families.

Her current research focuses on health care workforce development and age-friendly care. She has published extensively in gerontology and social work journals.  Dr. Hasche engages in collaboration on interdisciplinary initiatives through the University of Denver’s Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, the University of Colorado’s Multidisciplinary Center on Aging, and as a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Teaching and Learning is the heart and soul of my work. As the director of the Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL), I strive to bring our office’s mission to life. We “foster innovation and strengthen practices in teaching, course design, and curriculum development to improve learning across the university.” After over a decade as a faculty member, I came to DU to engage in the work of faculty education full-time. The OTL serves as the central resource for faculty in reaching their teaching goals. We envision our work as that of curator, collaborator, incubator of ideas, and our office as a sanctuary for all who care deeply about teaching and learning.

Faculty Development is a critical piece of the OTL’s work. We offer educational programming related to inclusive teaching, course design, enhancing learning through technology in the classroom, integrative learning, classroom innovation, assessment of learning, and more. Through institutes, workshops, webinars, Faculty Learning Communities, and individualized consultations, we engage with faculty as thought partners and serve as curators of best educational practice.

Faculty Lifecycles for the OTL means that we engage with faculty learning and development at all points of their careers and across series. We provide onboarding support through our Teaching @DU short course and offer a rich portfolio of programming supporting growth at every point in a faculty’s career arc.

Faculty Relations is a smaller part of the OTL’s role in the Faculty Affairs office, however, the OTL works to create connections among faculty through our programming and learning communities. We highlight and amplify the faculty voice through our Faculty Fellows and peer-to-peer programming. Where appropriate, the OTL serves as an advocate for policy change, most visibly with our involvement in campus-wide initiatives such as the Teaching Excellence Task Force.

As Project Manager for the Office of the Provost, Terese Rainwater dedicates part of her time to  Provost priorities, faculty affairs ,and key initiatives and events. Terese joined DU in April 2022 after 20 years in public policy where she worked with legislators, university system heads and presidents, and faculty to increase access to and success in postsecondary education. 

Laura E. Sponsler, Ph.D, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of Denver and Director of Faculty Development in the Office for Faculty Affairs (FA). Dr. Sponsler previously served for four years as the Resident-Scholar for Teaching and Professional Faculty in the FA, leading work to support teaching and professional faculty and culminating in the Delphi Award 2021 for the university.  Before her time at DU, Dr. Sponsler served as the founding director for NASPA’s Lead Initiative, a civic learning and democratic engagement network, and as a practitioner in service-learning.  She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education and M.S.Ed. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. in biology from Saint Joseph’s University. 

As an educator and scholar, Laura is passionate about advancing equity and creating a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible system of higher education for faculty and students. Her early research agenda focused on civic learning and democratic engagement. Since then, her interests have broadened to include inclusive teaching, learning, and assessment; the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL); organizational change; and faculty development, in particular, the experiences of non-tenure track faculty in higher education. 

Elise Rosado Brewer joined the OTL and Faculty Affairs offices as the Web Content Designer in 2022. Prior to DU, Brewer worked as a theatrical lighting and costume designer for six years, where she used visual design as a tool for narrative. Brewer received her BFA in Theater Design, Technology and Management from CU Boulder and earned a certificate in User Experience and User Interface Design from DU. Her intersectional arts and tech background allows her to take an empathetic and human-based approach in everything she does. Brewer believes that complex problems require creative solutions, and creative solutions require creative people. In this role, Brewer will be generating and maintaining web-based content for faculty educational and development resources, and tackling special projects that require creative problem solving for digital user needs. When she’s not at work, you can find her in dark theaters playing with stage lighting or spending time with her eccentric Puerto Rican family.

Megan J. Kelly is Teaching Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Denver. Her pedagogy is deeply influenced by her time working in writing centers, both as a graduate student and as the former Assistant Director of the DU Writing Center. She teaches classes on storytelling for social change, writing for well-being, and training peer tutors in antiracist and anti-ableist practices. In her service and scholarship, she is further committed to supporting students and faculty as writers. Her current research centers the experiences of disabled and neurodivergent students in writing classes. The founding faculty advisor for the student organization Divest DU, she is also invested in the rhetorical work of student activists in the climate justice movement. As Program Coordinator for Faculty Writing Support, she organizes and facilitates faculty writing groups and retreats.

Uzo Nwaiwu serves as the Digital User Experience Librarian at the University of Denver Library, where she focuses on improving the usability and accessibility of the library’s digital platforms. Through this fellowship, she aims to support cross-campus accessibility efforts by creating practical resources and fostering more approachable conversations around digital accessibility. She looks forward to collaborating with colleagues across the university to help make accessibility a more integrated part of our institutional culture.

Dra. Hurtado is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Morgridge College of Education and has been at the University of Denver since 2018. Her primary research explores how federal and institutional policies, structures, and procedures contribute to the persistence of sexual violence and shape responsibility for its elimination. She brings extensive experience in faculty data collection from her previous role at the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, where she worked with NSSE and FSSE. Her work also includes research on data ecosystems and participation in the DU campus climate survey working group.