SLCC's 2024 in-person commencement ceremony will take place May 3 at the Maverik Center. For more information, click here.
Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, 2025
Every year the college community comes together to hear about the exciting work of one of its faculty. The Distinguished Faculty Lecturer is both a recognition of quality work by one of our full-time faculty and also a charge to develop that work over the course of an academic year into a public presentation that might take the form of a lecture, demonstration, or performance. The lecture typically takes place in April each year, and the recipient is recognized at Commencement.
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| Melissa Hardy, PhD |
Melissa Hardy, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Curiosity, Melissa Hardy asserts, is our birthright as human beings. “We arrive in this world eager to learn and experience the world around us, but subpar educational experiences can dampen or kill that natural state of inquisitiveness and replace it with boredom and apathy,” she says.
As Salt Lake Community College’s Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for 2025, Melissa’s lecture, Biocurious: The Power of Curiosity in an Age of Assessment, will be an antidote to the recent trend in higher education to standardize curriculum, which often prioritizes the needs of institutions over the needs of students. Her lecture will focus on reigniting the natural curiosity of students.
“We are here to help students earn their degree or certificate or credits, but we are also here to show them what makes our disciplines worthy of study and empower them to exercise their curiosity and agency,” says Melissa.
The topics covered in her lecture will span from discussions on parasitic worms to insights regarding the student experience at SLCC. Melissa will also discuss the need to integrate meaningful and transformative experiences, such as hands-on research projects, into curricula, so students can see their learning come to life outside the classroom.
With a Master of Arts in Biology from San Francisco State University and a Doctorate in Neurobiology and Anatomy from the University of Utah, Melissa joined SLCC’s faculty in 2011 and has created and taught courses in general biology, ecology, animal biology, and marine biology. Additionally, she is deeply committed to developing and disseminating open educational resources so that students can save money on textbooks and have an improved educational experience.
Teaching Excellence Award
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| Stacey VanDahm, PhD |
Stacey VanDahm, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of English, Linguistics & Writing Studies
Teaching Excellence Award
Stacey VanDahm’s teaching approach is rooted in her belief that literature is a powerful tool to develop compassion for others. “Teaching empathy is what literature does,” she says. “It makes the human experience more accessible and relatable.”
An associate professor of English at Salt Lake Community College since 2017, Stacey prioritizes in-class discussions where she reframes, draws out more reticent students, reiterates key points, and handles interruptions as they happen. She also uses peer feedback to provide students with opportunities to examine how their fellow classmates approach reading, thinking, and writing. This practice exposes students to differing personal and political views and requires them to reflect and respond constructively.
Many of Stacey’s students, even those indifferent to literature and writing, express that taking her class is a privilege. “I loved everything about this class,” one student said in their course evaluation, “The assignments, the in-class discussions... all of it was intellectually stimulating. I’ve never been in an English class that made me feel this way before.”
Just as she encourages reflection in her students, Stacey does the same in her teaching. She delves deeply into student feedback and considers their opinions essential tools for professional development. “I believe my classroom must be a place where they are challenged but feel safe to explore,” she says. “My students are most engaged when learning is both relevant to their experiences and when they are exposed to new ideas.”
Besides teaching at SLCC, Stacey has taught at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Philadelphia University. She also taught in Russia with the Peace Corps. She holds a bachelor’s in English Literature from Pepperdine University, and master’s and doctorate degrees in Comparative Literature from the University of California-Santa Barbara.
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| Ryan Holcomb, PhD |
Ryan Holcomb, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
Empowering students to become effective learners is the principal goal of Salt Lake Community College associate professor of chemistry Ryan Holcomb. “Learning chemistry requires self-discipline and determination,” he says. “Students who develop this will find success in all of their academic work.”
From his first day teaching at SLCC, Ryan has been mindful that many students are underprepared for college. “I feel a deep responsibility to keep all of my students in class and help them meet their goals,” he says. One way he does this is by teaching a special “Unit 0” in all his classes. “Before studying chemistry, we dive into the science of learning, which includes adopting a growth mindset, taking good notes, and mastering memorization and recall techniques,” he says. “Unit 0 helps most students but especially disadvantaged students who may have not learned these strategies in high school.”
With SLCC being Utah’s most diverse higher education institution, Ryan is constantly evaluating his teaching style. “I once had an ASL (American Sign Language) student who used an interpreter, but chemistry is hard to get across in that way, so I started writing everything down. I found this made teach more mindfully, which helped other students as well.” He also prioritizes using culturally responsive examples in his lectures that speak to his students’ experiences and concerns.
Ryan earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Texas-Austin and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to starting his teaching career in 2008, he worked as a research scientist in the pharmaceutical industry and uses this experience to connect classroom concepts with solutions for real-world problems. “Chemistry is at the core of many things, and I love it when my students use knowledge of the microscopic world to understand the macro, or larger, world around them.”
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| Matt Affolter |
Matt Affolter
Adjunct Instructor
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Geology
At an early age, Matt Affolter noticed he had a passion for teaching. Having always enjoyed helping his classmates learn the subjects they were struggling with, in 2011 he became an Earth Science teacher at Fort Herriman Middle School. Four years later, he became an adjunct professor at Salt Lake Community College, and today he shares his knowledge of geology with hundreds of high school and college students annually.
"Geology is extremely underrated in our society," says Matt, who is trying to change the narrative on the field with every class he teaches. "We all use this planet's resources, and geology can teach people to become better stewards." He also trains his students to stay current on environmental issues. “I want my students to be well informed so they can make decisions that can help better our planet; it’s that simple,” Matt says.
In his eight years at SLCC, Matt has taught Introduction to Geology, Field Studies, and Earth History and Fossils, a course he helped to create. The project he is most proud of is an Open Education Resource (OER) book he wrote for the college’s Introduction to Geology course. OER books offer students free, online alternatives to expensive textbooks, and Matt’s book is currently used in more than 100 higher education institutions across the United States.
Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of California Los Angeles and a master’s degree in Geology from the University of Montana. He also holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Utah. In addition to serving as an instructor at SLCC, he teaches Earth Science, Geology, Paleontology, and Natural Disasters courses at Cottonwood High School.
At an early age, Matt Affolter noticed he had a passion for teaching. Having always enjoyed helping his classmates learn the subjects they were struggling with, in 2011 he became an Earth Science teacher at Fort Herriman Middle School. Four years later, he became an adjunct professor at Salt Lake Community College, and today he shares his knowledge of geology with hundreds of high school and college students annually.
"Geology is extremely underrated in our society," says Matt, who is trying to change the narrative on the field with every class he teaches. "We all use this planet's resources, and geology can teach people to become better stewards." He also trains his students to stay current on environmental issues. “I want my students to be well informed so they can make decisions that can help better our planet; it’s that simple,” Matt says.
In his eight years at SLCC, Matt has taught Introduction to Geology, Field Studies, and Earth History and Fossils, a course he helped to create. The project he is most proud of is an Open Education Resource (OER) book he wrote for the college’s Introduction to Geology course. OER books offer students free, online alternatives to expensive textbooks, and Matt’s book is currently used in more than 100 higher education institutions across the United States.
Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of California Los Angeles and a master’s degree in Geology from the University of Montana. He also holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Utah. In addition to serving as an instructor at SLCC, he teaches Earth Science, Geology, Paleontology, and Natural Disasters courses at Cottonwood High School.
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