Keynote Speakers:

Elizabeth Yost Hammer, Ph.D.
Topic: Using Psychology Content to Enhance Students' Metacognitive Skills

Elizabeth Yost Hammer is the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and a Kellogg Professor in Teaching at Xavier University of Louisiana. She received her Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from Tulane University in 1994. She is passionate about teaching and regularly teaches Introductory Psychology, Research Methods, and Human Sexuality. Her research interests focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and she has contributed chapters to several books intended to enhance teaching preparation including The Oxford Handbook of Psychology Education and Hot Topics: Best Practices in Teaching Controversial Issues in Psychology. In addition, Dr. Hammer has published in Teaching of Psychology and a special teaching-related issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. She co-edited the APS/Prentice-Hall reader, Current Directions in Social Psychology, and is a co-author of the textbook, Psychology Applied to Modern Life, now in its 11th Edition. Dr. Hammer is a past-president of Psi Chi (the International Honor Society in Psychology), a past-treasurer of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and serves as Chief Reader for the Advanced Placement Psychology. Her work in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching includes organizing pedagogical workshops and faculty development initiatives. She and her husband work and play in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Bryan Saville, Ph.D.
Topic: Evidence-based Teaching Methods

Bryan Saville is a professor in the Department of Psychology at James Madison University (JMU), in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He earned his PhD in experimental psychology from Auburn University, where he had the good fortune of working with Dr. Bill Buskist. Before coming to JMU, he was on faculty in the Department of Psychology at Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches, Texas. Bryan has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the McKeachie Early Career Award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) and JMU's Distinguished Teacher Award; he is also a fellow of Division 2 of the American Psychological Association. In 2008, he authored A Guide to Teaching Research Methods in Psychology, published by Wiley-Blackwell; he also coedited five of STP's teaching of psychology e-books. Bryan is the author or coauthor of over 50 book chapters and journal articles and over 160 conference presentations on such topics as effective teaching practices, passion for academic activities, the importance of research experience in undergraduate education, and single-subject research designs. He currently serves on several editorial boards and is an associate editor for the journal Teaching of Psychology. In his free time, Bryan likes to hang out with his wife, Tracy, and their sons, Rylan and Dainen.