The SPU Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development was founded in 2002 to promote scholarship and to assist faculty in their work as teacher-scholars. The Center’s mission is to encourage the best Christian thinkers of our day to engage the culture and change the world. By supporting cutting-edge scholarship, teaching, and mentoring, the Center serves SPU faculty and students, the wider academy, and the Christian community.
History | Friday @ the Center | Center Staff
History
Beginning with the inaugural Day of Common Learning in October 2002 featuring Stephen Carter and the theme of “Integrity,” the CSFD has contributed to a campus climate in which research, writing, creating, teaching, and learning are understood and valued as Christian vocations, with programs such as the Day of Common Learning, major campus lectures featuring both SPU and visiting speakers, and support for undergraduate research.
The Center’s university-wide faculty development programs include opportunities, resources, and support in four areas: teaching, scholarship, mentoring, and grant writing. The Center also serves as the home for various academic programs funded by outside grants, recently including the Hewlett Capstone Project, the Lilly PTEV SERVE Program, and the Lilly Fellows Network Mentoring Program.
Friday @ the Center
Friday @ the Center is a weekly e-newsletter distributed to all SPU full-time and adjunct faculty members each Friday during the academic term. It contains teaching tips, notifications of grant opportunities, upcoming lectures and workshops, and other news related to the work of the Center. These archives highlight items of perennial rather than time-bound interest.
Center Staff
Dr. Margaret Diddams, Ph.D., Director of SERVE, Director of The Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development
Library, Suite 306 | 206.281.2174 | mdiddams@spu.edu
Margaret is the Director for Scholarship and Faculty Development at Seattle Pacific University where her focus is to strengthen faculty teaching and mentorship, to create opportunities for students to undertake research, and provide resources for faculty to enhance their own programs of scholarship. Dr. Diddams is an Industrial/ Organizational Psychologist and has taught at Seattle Pacific University for 15 years. Her areas of teaching and practice include management psychology, executive coaching, statistical analyses, corporate surveys, process reengineering, employee selection systems and creating sustainable workplaces that lead to business excellence while providing personal fulfillment for employees. In addition to her work in academia, she worked as a consultant and manager for the Microsoft Corporation (1994 – 2000) where she was the Group Program Manager for metrics and measurement in the Information Technology Group and a Senior Manager in the Product Support Services Group. In addition to Microsoft, Dr. Diddams has also worked with companies and executives throughout the region including Costco, REI, Foss Maritime, Seattle University, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Point B consulting, Seattle Public School District and Seattle City Light.
Dr. Diddams received her MA and Ph.D. in Industrial / Organizational Psychology from New York University and her B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College (IL). She and her husband, Stan, have been married since 1983 and have four children.
Anne Butler, Sponsored Programs and Research Assistant, CSFD
Marston 315 | 206.281.2610 | butlea@spu.edu
Anne joined the CSFD staff in the fall of 2011 as a Sponsored Research Assistant. Aside from three years as an administrative assistant for the City of Shoreline, the academic world has been "home." She grew up on the campus of a boarding school in Delaware (where Dead Poets' Society was filmed) and graduated from Wellesley College with a B. A. in English. Anne was an ESL instructor for the Finnish-American Society in Helsinki, before moving to Pasadena to work with Dr. Homer Goddard at Fuller Theological Seminary. She has also been a classroom teacher from pre-K to twelfth grade, and after a family move to Seattle in 1998, began a second career as a grant-writer at CRISTA Ministries. Anne is married with two grown daughters, and like to write, hike and serve in children's ministry.
Anna Miller, Administrative Assistant, CSFD
Library, Suite 306 | 206.281.2003 | amiller@spu.edu
Anna has been the Center's Administrative Assistant since August 2007. Prior to this she served as Administrative Assistant to the Dean in the School of Theology for two years. Before joining the SPU staff she was Administrative Assistant to two Vice Presidents in the Victoria's Secret Beauty New York Corporate Office and Office Manager of the vintage clothing showroom, What Comes Around Goes Around. She earned her B.A. in Music, Vocal Performance, and minor in Christian Scriptures from SPU, and finished her Master's of Divinity at Seattle Pacific Seminary in June 2012. Anna is married to local singer-songwriter, Eric Miller, and enjoys knitting, performing, and praying with and for others.