Certificates, Training, and Professional Development

“We have a world to conquer…one person at a time…starting with ourselves.” — Nikki Giovanni

Professional Development

Dr. Gaines is committed to learning and applying new knowledge and skills that will advance her teaching and research. In doing so, she makes it a duty to take advantage of professional development, training, and certificate opportunities. 

2024 Summer Faculty Development Institute,

Hispanic Serving Institution Track

This opportunity exposed educators to Dr. Gina Garcia’s Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding Servingness in Hispanic Serving Institutions. Attendees expanded their knowledge on Universal Design for Learning and teaching practices to best serve students who attend a Hispanic Serving Institution.

Hispanic Serving Institution Faculty Learning Community

This semester-long professional development helped to advance the concept of servingness on campus and in the classroom. It also created innovative classroom practices that benefit Hispanic Serving Institution students.

University of Central Florida’s Digital Learning Day

UCF’s Digital Learning Day was a day of professional development for UCF faculty and staff. Attendees were able to attend multiple sessions that taught different ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. This includes how to include multimedia content in online courses, how to make courses more accessible, and how to use memes and graphics to encourage student engagement. Participants were introduced to resources that can be used in the classroom, such as the DIY center (captioning videos), 360 video recording, and 3D printing.

University of Central Florida National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Competency Faculty Champions Program

The NACE Competency Faculty Champion program equips participants with career-ready skills and connects students with career services, support, and resources.

IDL 6543: Interactive Distributed Learning

Offered by the University of Central Florida, this faculty professional development course provided necessary tools for teaching online, and allowed learners to create and implement advanced development strategies for delivering online courses.

Resilient Course Design Institute

SJSU’s Resilient Design Program taught effective and inclusive pedagogy for online and in-person/face-to-face instruction.                                   

San Jose State University Teach Online Summer Certificate Program

This program taught educational technologies for teaching online. With it, instructors can implement active learning strategies for students, create low-stakes assessments, and incorporate universal design for learning online.

University of Central Florida AIM High Affordability Counts

This award is provided in recognition for commitment to incorporating low and no cost course materials for students.

Additional Certificates, Training, and Professional Development

Spring 2022 University of Central Florida, Women Faculty Mentoring Community, “Connecting for Success”

June 2020 Introduction to Teaching Online Using Quality Learning and Teaching, Certificate ID: 5YQ5SQ-CE000271

May 2019 Graduate Certificate in Urban Education, Michigan State University