Kathleen Ringenbach

When volunteers were recruited for the pilot of BCDC training, Jalin stepped up to take on this intensive training during her summer break. Jalin was one of the inaugural class to complete the training, which in itself is a huge accomplishment (because not everyone completed it).

However, what really stands out to me is not that she completed it, but how she completed it. She embraced the learning while being a shining example of each one of Brandman’s values: respect, service-oriented, innovation, integrity, and teamwork.

Jalin has a calm but determined approach to everything, and even when frustrated, she keeps a positive perspective that encourages the rest of us. She is a role model to all faculty who are embarking on this training to become quality developers, and most importantly, an important part of the Brandman team.

She is a leader in the BCDC training and I have no doubt she will continue to be a leader for all faculty in the future. The faculty manual defines collegiality in multiple ways. While Jalin, meets every criteria, there is one that really stands out to me, volunteering to help other colleagues with common academic tasks.

However, what Jalin does is far from common. She lends her velvet voice to our projects with CII to enhance the quality of our products. Jalin was the voice in a few of my psychology projects created in collaboration with the CII.

The warmth of her voice creates a feeling of compassion and connection which makes my projects for psychology come alive. One innovative tactic Jalin uses in her teaching is to take pop culture and innovatively use it to help students apply business ethics and leadership theory.

One of her students commented that she may be a “bigger comic book and manga nerd than we are.” She uses DC comics to highlight ethical dilemmas. Jalin has written blogs for the Brandman newsletter that uses Harry Potter as examples of leadership.

What I think is really important here is how she shows how important a liberal arts education is and how literary works can be used to understand more about the professional world.

She takes an innovative multidisciplinary approach, which builds up not only her profession, but also shows how liberal arts is important in building knowledge and critical thinking skills of her students.

Kathleen Ringenbach Professor, School of Arts & Sciences

ringenba@brandman.edu