November

30, 2018

Dear English Department Colleagues:

This document serves as my formal recommendation for early tenure for Kati Lewis. Before
she became a full-time faculty member in the English Department, Kati served from 2010-
2015 as SLCC’s ePortfolio Coordinator. In that capacity, Kati took on a substantial teaching
load, engaged in regular professional development and scholarship, and performed
substantial service to the college. Currently as a full-time faculty member, Kati continues to
exceed the expectations of her position.

During her 5 year tenure as ePortfolio Coordinator, Kati taught multiple courses every
semester. In addition to teaching, Kati shadowed English courses; she redesigned English
2010, which is now the basis for the online plus model; and she developed curricula for
several courses, including two learning communities. As coordinator Kati was awarded
SLCC’s 2013 Innovation of the Year Award and the prestigious Teaching Excellence award
for 2014-15—both honors speak to the impact of her teaching during that time. Her service
to the college while working as coordinator was unparalleled, as she served on, contributed
to, and led numerous college committees. Further, Kati published scholarship on teaching
and learning in various publications, and she presented at many conferences, receiving
national recognition and elevating the reputation of SLCC. In short, during her tenure as
ePortfolio Coordinator, Kati’s work reflected that of a highly active, full-time faculty member.

In my years reviewing Kati’s performance as a member of her sitting committee, I continue
to be impressed by her work ethic. Kati is one of the most active members of the English
Department, and her list of contributions is extensive. In addition to serving on a number of
departmental committees—OER, Inclusivity Working Group, Creative Writing and
Literature, Online-Plus, and FOLIO—Kati also serves the college more broadly via her work
on the Social Justice Cohort, Service-Learning Committee, General Education ePortfolio
Assessment, Title IX Committee, as an SLCC Equity-Minded Practitioner, and as chair of the
High Impact Practice Team. Recently, Kati created the ENGL 2900 Ghana Study Abroad
Program and will lead that endeavor in Summer 2019.

Kati is also active in terms of professional development, demonstrated by her recent
participation in SLCC’s Information Literacy Summit. As a presenter at a national conference,
Community College Humanities Association, Kati shared how SLCC practitioners of social
justice pedagogy developed a college-wide teaching cohort. Kati’s extensive collaboration
with colleague Anne Canavan in creating an OER department website, Open Reflection
Resources, evidences Kati’s ability to work successfully with colleagues on projects that
directly support effective teaching and learning in the department. Most notably, Kati
published her OER curricular work based on a threshold concepts framework in a
collaborative piece in The Journal of Writing Assessment .

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT | TAYLORSVILLE CAMPUS

P.O. Box 30808 | Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0808 | Phone 801-957-4375 | www.slcc.edu/english


The above attributes illustrate Kati’s outstanding service contributions and professional
development, and her teaching likewise distinguishes her as top notch. She is a versatile
pedagogue who successfully teaches a range of courses at SLCC in online, hybrid, and in-
person delivery formats. In the last academic year alone, Kati taught Introduction to Fiction
Writing, Introduction to Writing, Diversity in American Literature, Imaginative Writing,
Diversity in U.S. Popular Literature, and multiple iterations of Intermediate Writing. This fall
she added Introduction to Queer studies to her course repertoire. Kati is committed to
teaching all students. Her syllabi and course documents employ discourse that is clear and
engaging to students, and her assignments are fresh, unique, and innovative. Her civically
engaged and service learning foci, in content and delivery, ensure Kati and her students
maintain close connections to critical community issues and community members
themselves.

In my observations of her teaching, I am continually impressed by how Kati fosters a
learning environment that requires deep thinking about critical cultural issues. Kati’s classes
are a testament that writing can be taught successfully in a number of ways, utilizing a
number of concepts. For instance, in one of her many iterations of English 2010, her focus on
media concepts brings composition concerns to life for students. Kati is amazingly prepared
for class and provides an immense amount of material, both in and outside of class. Students
have so many options to choose from, and this, combined with her open and welcoming
pedagogical space, establishes opportunities for students to pick up a range of ideas,
concepts, and skills, depending on their specific learning needs and rhetorical aims. Kati
illustrates a good balance of caring about students’ successes while maintaining high
academic expectations for them. At a department level, she has been, and continues to be,
one of the instructors who says yes when asked to take overload courses in the final hour,
and she frequently adjusts her teaching schedule to accommodate others’ needs.

Allow me to conclude by emphasizing how much I value Kati as a colleague. She is a sharp,
extremely hard working teacher who adds quality and innovation to our department, far
exceeding the expectations of her position. I give her performance my highest evaluation and
recommend her for early tenure.

Sincerely,


Jennifer Courtney

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT | TAYLORSVILLE CAMPUS

P.O. Box 30808 | Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0808 | Phone 801-957-4375 | www.slcc.edu/english