Tara Kishbaugh

Dr. Tara L.S. Kishbaugh was appointed academic dean at EMU in July 2019, after being chair of the biology, chemistry, and environmental science programs for six years. Tara is a proud first generation college student who obtained her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Wheaton College and her graduate degree in organic chemistry at Dartmouth College under the mentorship of Gordon W. Gribble.  Her graduate studies focused on the reactivity of electron deficient indoles.She was a Dreyfus postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth campus. Dr. Kishbaugh has over twenty years experience teaching organic, general, medicinal, and environmental chemistry as well as seminars on ethics, land use, and food chemistry. Tara has been involved in a number of campus-wide projects, such as launching EMU Common Reads and creation of a center for teaching and learning. Her administrative work includes curriculum development, program development, grant writing, principal investigator and co-principal investigator on three grants from the NSF related to STEM education, faculty development, and retention within STEM. Tara’s research interests currently include STEM education for greater understanding and retention.

Dr. Kishbaugh’s research interests include
- Chemical education projects, such as assessing non-content learning in laboratory research projects, or
- Assessing student familiarity with and understanding of green chemistry, or
- Improving student’s engagement with math coursework by adding contextual relevance to the assignments

• EMU STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Tian, E.; Showalter, D.; Barge, S. AAAS NSF 2022 S-STEM Symposium, September 30- October 1, 2022.
• STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems. Tian, E.; Showalter, D.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Barge, S. ASEE 2022 Conference: Excellence through diversity. Minneapolis, MN, June 26-29, 2022.
• Inclusive Teaching in the Classrooms:  Beyond the Little Red Teaching Toolbox to Socio-Cultural Apprenticeship. Leaman, L.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. JMU Annual Diversity Conference, March 19, 2021. 
• From Decoration to Meaningful Narratives: what can organic chemistry students do with mechanisms? Dronov, A; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. Annual Meeting Virginia Academy of Sciences.  James Madison University, May 29, 2020.
• Transforming Teaching: Moving Faculty from "Neutral" to Equity in Teaching.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Leaman, L. Diversity, Equity, & Student Success Conference: Engaged Inclusivity: Perceptions, Realities, & Aspirations, an AACU Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, March 28-30, 2019

• Attending to T&L: Sociocultural faculty development for diversity-responsive SoTL.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Leaman, L. SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA, January 24-25, 2019. 

• Faculty Identity Development for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Kishbaugh, T.; Leaman, L. 10th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference: The Decade Ahead, Baltimore, MD, March 2-4, 2018.
• Improving retention through teaching strategies and peer tutoring. Cessna, S.; Kishbaugh, T. 254th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, August 20-24, 2017.
• Mixed methods study of green chemistry understanding from the organic laboratory. King, Rachel; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. 250th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Boston, MA, August 16-20, 2015.
• Assessing learning gains in green chemistry labs. Kishbaugh, T.L.S. 23nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI. August 3-7, 2014.
• Early authentic research projects and teaching the nature of science. *Cessna,S.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. 23nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI. August 3-7, 2014.
• Organic blueberry sweetness: Percentage Brix and taste tests. Groff, N. Sachs, J.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Miller, R. Virginia Academy of Sciences at VCU, May 15, 2014.
• Service learning to enhance the environmental chemistry curriculum. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Graber Neufeld, D. 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, State College, Pa. July 29-August 2, 2012.
• Implementing a ‘Research Across the Curriculum’ program in the chemistry and biology departments. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Cessna, S. 22nd Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, State College, Pa. July 29-August 2, 2012.

Building and Maintaining a Collegial Department, 2018 Workshop for Department and Division Chairs, Minneapolis, MN, May 22-24, 2018.

• Organized a symposium on Increasing Retention of Under-represented Students in Chemistry for the ACS national meeting, August, 2017.
• Ad-hoc reviewer for Higher Education Pedagogies, Current Organic Chemistry, Letters in Drug Design and Discovery, Studies in Natural Product Chemistry and American Chemical Society- Petroleum Research Fund Undergraduate Research Proposals
• At-large member of the Shenandoah Resource Conservation & Development Council 2011-2013

• National Science Foundation, S-STEM: STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems $649,996 (award ID: 1741937). PI: T.Kishbaugh, Co-PI: S.Cessna, D. King, D. Showalter, E. Tian (1/2018-1/2023).
• 2016-2017 Senior Leadership Seminar of the VA Network for Women in Higher Eduction.
• Faculty-Led Institutional Transformation for Teaching Diverse Learners in STEM — A National Science Foundation IUSE grant , $299,967 (PI: Cessna, Co-PIs: Kishbaugh, Leaman, Showalter) 2016.
• VDACS: “Sustaining Organic Blueberry Production: Analysis of Practices and Assessing Outcomes.” Program director: Roman J Miller. Co-PI: S. Cessna, T.L.S. Kishbaugh. (11/2011-10/2013)
• National Science Foundation, Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement. Promoting learning through authentic and relevant research experiences in environmental monitoring and remediation across ten chemistry and biology laboratory courses Co-PI with S. Cessna, L. H. Leaman, M. Siderhurst, and D. Graber Neufeld. 2009-13.

• American Chemical Society
• Eastern Mennonite University’s Institutional Representative to Virginia Network, part of the ACE Women’s Network

Modern Leadership: Reflections & Tools for the Wise Leader, William & Mary Washington Center, Spring 2023

Trauma, Resilience in Higher Education Conference, April 2023, online

Teaching, Learning, & Technology Conference, May 2023, online

Mental Health First Aid Training, August 2022

Assessment 101, JMU Center for Assessment and Research Studies, online, June 13-17, 2022

ACE Va Network State Conference, Roanoke, Va, June 2022

EMU Strategies for Trauma Resilience and Awareness,- Level one, Fall 2020

Academic Council 2020-present

CoChair of Center for Teaching & Learning Committee, 2021- present

Provost Council 2019-present

President's Cabinet 2019-present

DNP Oversight Board 2019- present

Faculty Status Committee 2019-present

Pre-Professional Health Sciences, ongoing