Our Mission

The Center for Teaching and Learning facilitates Amherst College’s ambition to provide a rigorous liberal arts education in a vibrant, inclusive learning community. The Center collaborates with faculty, instructional staff and other campus partners, drawing on evidence-based practices, to embrace the challenges of teaching and learning in a complex, globalized and digitized world.

We support course and curriculum design and assessment through individual and departmental consultations, teaching observation and feedback, mid-term and end-of-course evaluation planning and interpretation, and many other pedagogical questions and concerns.


Riley Caldwell-O'Keefe

Riley Caldwell-O'Keefe

Director of Center for Teaching and Learning

Please contact Riley if you need pedagogical support for curricular initiatives at the individual, departmental, and institutional level including consultations on assignment, course, and curriculum design, and assessment of student learning at all curricular levels.  Please see the consultations page for more specifics about the ways that Riley can work with you to support teaching at Amherst College.  Riley is the point person for inquiries about the operations and functions of the Center.

Click here to learn more about Riley.
Sarah L. Bunnell

Sarah L. Bunnell

Associate Director; STEM Specialist

Sarah Bunnell is the Associate Director and STEM Specialist for the Center for Teaching and Learning. Please contact Sarah if you would like to discuss assignment, course, or departmental curricular design, assessment of student learning, or other areas of teaching and learning in the Sciences. She welcomes all scope of conversations, ranging from how to redesign a single class activity to rethinking the structure of departmental curriculum. She is also available to support faculty and staff in scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) research projects. Sarah’s SOTL research interests include inclusive teaching practices in STEM, the role of empathy in learning, and best practices in faculty development broadly defined.

Click here to learn more about Sarah.
Theresa Ronquillo

Theresa Ronquillo

Associate Director; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Specialist

Frost Library Room 217

Theresa Ronquillo is the Associate Director and Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Specialist for the CTL. Please contact Theresa if you would like to discuss assignment, course, curriculum design, assessment of student learning, or other areas of teaching and learning in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts. She would also enthusiastically welcome conversations about innovative, creative, and embodied/movement-based pedagogies, and strategies for integrating these approaches in your teaching and classroom practices. 

Click here to learn more about Theresa.
Lisa G. Aiken

Lisa G. Aiken

Administrative Assistant

Frost Library Room 215

Lisa provides support for the CTL including maintaining our digital and analog resource materials and budget and program logistical management. She can set meetings for Riley, Sarah and Theresa and provide guidance on available CTL resources and programming.

Exterior of Frost Library at Amherst College

Find Us

We are located on the 2nd floor of the Frost Library.  We share space with the Center for Humanistic Inquiry.