Sammy Solis, Ph.D., is Assistant Director for Teaching Development for the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center, where they lead the Instructor Wellbeing Initiative and provide pedagogical support for faculty via workshops, one-on-one consultations, and resource development. As an educational developer, Sammy is passionate about teaching in and as community; fostering instructors’ sense of agency; and empowering students through inclusive teaching. They participate in the TLC’s AI Action Team and are interested in critical AI literacy as a framework for engaging the reality of AI in education without compromising instructional values and ethics.
Sammy earned their Ph.D. in English from UCLA in 2024. While pursuing doctoral research in queer Latinx studies, they also completed two graduate certificates: one in writing pedagogy, specializing in first-year composition and writing in the disciplines; and one in Urban Humanities, an interdisciplinary program blending architecture and design, urban studies, and the humanities. Sammy joined the TLC in 2023 as a Graduate Educational Development Fellow, leading foundational pedagogical training for graduate student instructors. Prior to that, they taught undergraduate English, creative writing, and composition courses as a teaching fellow at UCLA. Sammy earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish with a minor in creative writing from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD. They are a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation alum, and you can find their fiction writing in Issue 11 of Nat. Brut magazine.