Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, Ph.D.

Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, Ph.D., joined Ohio University in August 2022 to serve as executive director of the newly expanded Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment dedicated to advancing teaching excellence.

Rhodes-DiSalvo has extensive experience leading centers and offices of teaching and learning. Most recently, she established strategic partnerships and operations for The Ohio State University Institute for Teaching and Learning where she focused on building and connecting internal and external partners and faculty development collaborators; curriculum, course and instructional design and assessment; supporting a teaching and learning research grants program; and university-wide scaling faculty professional learning offerings.

Prior to the institute, she led an Office of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where she assisted faculty developing and refining didactic and clinical teaching practices, conducted teaching observations and helped support peer review of teaching; led an instructional design team; and supported course and curricular assessment. Her office undertook a college-wide learning management system transition and a two-year curriculum map project and contributed to accreditation processes.

She also directed the Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Cincinnati, with particular attention to enterprise-wide instructional technology solutions and partnerships with college instructional designers.

She is currently finalizing a chapter on endorsement of teaching competencies for the forthcoming book, "Faculty Development on a Shoestring". She collaborated on Transforming the teaching of thousands: Promoting evidence-based practices at scale in "Transforming Institutions: Accelerating Systemic Change in Higher Education" and has presented nationally on effective teaching in the 21st century and faculty development during and post-COVID-19.

As part of the Ohio College Teaching Consortium, Rhodes-DiSalvo hopes to contribute to the development of inclusive teaching strategies across Ohio community colleges and universities.

She has taught at community colleges, private liberal arts colleges and research universities in the disciplines of English, journalism, clinical instruction and higher education curriculum and instruction and received teaching awards from Ohio Wesleyan University and Cottey College. She holds a Ph.D. in higher education curriculum and instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in community colleges and higher education and an M.A. in English from Pittsburgh State University, Pittsburgh, Kan; and a B.A. in English from Missouri State University and A.A. from Cottey College, Nevada, Mo.