Responses to COVID-19: Adapting Classroom Teaching Techniques and Hands-On Learning to an Online Environment

Prior to her current role, Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo served as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant in anthropology at the University of South Florida, where she also was the Program Assistant for the National Institute of Health’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research. Campbell-Montalvo is a rising scholar in the field of educational equity with an emphasis on K-12 equity for linguistic, racial, and ethnic groups as well as a focus on undergraduate STEM equity for women, underrepresented minority, and LGBTQIA+ groups. She has a book under contract with Lexington Books in which she describes how local central Florida elementary schools cast Indigenous Mexicans as Spanish-speaking Latinos, which reduces their access to school resources and culturally sustaining pedagogy. Her record includes numerous presentations and publications in the field as well.

Dr. Gopalan is an Associate Professor in the departments of Applied Health, Primary Care, and Health Systems. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She has been teaching in the areas of anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels for health professional programs. Dr. Gopalan has been practicing evidence-based teaching using team-based learning, case-based learning, and the flipped classroom methods. She has received many teaching awards including the Arthur C. Guyton Educator of the Year award from the American Physiological Society (APS), Outstanding Two-Year College Teaching award by the National Association of Biology Teachers, and Excellence in Undergraduate Education award by SIUE. She has also received several grants including an NSF-IUSE, an NSF-STEM Talent Expansion Program, and the APS Teaching Career Enhancement awards. Besides teaching and research, Dr. Gopalan enjoys mentoring not only her students but also her peers. She regularly conducts workshops and participates in panel discussions related to higher education. Dr. Gopalan is very active in the teaching section of the APS and has served on many committees. She has published numerous manuscripts and case studies and contributed several textbook chapters and question banks for textbooks and board exams.