Dr. Matthew A. Fisher, associate professor of chemistry at Saint Vincent College, has been selected by The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) as a 2005 Carnegie Scholar. Dr. Fisher is one of 21 outstanding faculty members selected from a pool of more than 300 U.S. and international applicants who have committed to examining student learning and investigating undergraduate teaching.

Dr. Fisher, who joined the Saint Vincent College faculty in 1995, earned a bachelor of arts degree in biochemistry at Temple University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also has worked as an IRTA Fellow doing research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

During his year as a Carnegie Scholar, Dr. Fisher has proposed to look at the “intersection” of science and pressing social issues. He will focus on developing integrative teaching materials that help “students make connections between scientific concepts studied in courses for their major, larger social issues, and their own personal values and willingness to engage in moral and civic issues. If any course is an appropriate context to explore new approaches to integrative learning between the sciences, other disciplines, and broader social issues, it is undergraduate biochemistry.”

“This opportunity is another recognition of Dr. Fisher’s ability and creativity as a teacher,” according to Dr. Thomas Mans, vice president for academic affairs at Saint Vincent.  “In every course he offers, Dr. Fisher brings fresh perspective to his teaching and a passionate concern that students learn.  We are proud to have him associated with this gifted group of faculty from other outstanding schools.”

At Saint Vincent, Dr. Fisher has directed the Saint Vincent Teaching Enhancement and Mentoring Program, served as team leader for College involvement in the National Science Foundation-funded SENCER Project, participated in the Common Texts and Interdisciplinary Writing Programs, and has been named a member of the executive committee for the College’s new Center for Ethics in Community. He also is an active member of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education.

CASTL was created by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1998 to establish and refine standards for the critical review of teaching and learning by faculty members in college and university classrooms.

"The Carnegie Scholars Program supports the work of distinguished faculty who are contributing to an emerging scholarship of teaching and learning," said Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Such work is essential, Mr. Shulman explained, because teaching tends to be a private act, limited to the teacher and students. It is rarely evaluated by professional peers. "The result is that those who engage in innovative acts of teaching rarely build upon the work of others. We work to make teaching public, subject to critical evaluation, and usable by others," he said.

During the 2005-2006 academic year, this group of Carnegie Scholars will work on projects exploring integrative learning and fostering educational approaches that move students toward deeper understandings, and enhance their capacities to connect learning across courses and fields, between academic contexts and life experiences, and within the values and habits of civic life in a diverse society. Carnegie is working on this particular area of learning with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and with the Wabash Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, a co-sponsor of the Carnegie Scholars Program.

The 2005-2006 Carnegie Scholars will participate in three residencies at the foundation’s headquarters in Stanford, California, and present their work at professional conferences, attend workshops and institutes, and work with Carnegie Scholars from previous cohorts. 

In addition to the Carnegie Scholars Program, CASTL includes a Campus Program for an international group of colleges and universities and a Scholarly and Professional

Societies Program that works within academic fields and specialties.  Information is available at the foundation’s web site at http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/CASTL/highered/ .

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center with a primary mission “to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education.” The improvement of teaching and learning is central to all of the work of the foundation which was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress. Information may be found on the web site at www.carnegiefoundation.org.

Dr. Fisher is a native of Whitpain Township outside of Philadelphia. He and his wife, Dr. Bettie Davis, an adjunct faculty member at Saint Vincent, reside in Monroeville. In his spare time, Dr. Fisher enjoys practicing Aikido, in which he holds a third degree black belt, as well as cooking and gardening. He has been involved in the Boy Scout program for 35 years and currently serves as a district training chairman.