The University of New Mexico is creating a Center for Teaching & Learning through the alignment of the Center for Academic Program Support (CAPS) and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). This will bring the student-focused learning support program and the faculty-focused instructional support program together.

UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah announced that Aeron Haynie, currently the director of the CTE, will serve as the executive director beginning Monday, July 13.

“A combined center for teaching and learning is an emerging model at universities nationally,” Abdallah said. “It makes sense to bring together these important support programs because of their common mission of using evidence-based approaches to learning, and we also anticipate that this will increase scholarship opportunities in the area.”

Haynie has served as the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence for two years. Her previous leadership experience includes directing the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and the statewide Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program. She also has over 20 years of teaching experience at the college level.

“A combined teaching and learning center will allow us to integrate both sides of the learning process ­– the learner and the teacher – in a more efficient and dynamic way," Haynie said. "I’m very excited to begin working with the excellent staff at CAPS.”

The current director of CAPS, Daniel Sanford, accepted a position at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Sanford has served as director of CAPS since 2013.

About the proposed Center for Teaching & Learning, Sanford said, “The planned changes for the center will strengthen both learning and teaching at the University of New Mexico, and I’m confident in the leadership of Dr. Haynie in driving the new, combined program forward. It’s been an honor for me to work alongside the students and staff of the Center for Academic Program Support, and to serve the students of UNM as director.”

The CAPS name will be phased out over a period of time, but services to students and the program itself will continue.