Mark Walvoord, Ph.D.

I lead organization-wide green initiatives, develop sustainability programs, analyze resource use, inspire pro-nature behaviors, and collaborate with community partners to bring innovative sustainability programs to life.

The UCO Sustainability Center (UCOSC) centralizes and energizes our campus' sustainability efforts. These activities include the incorporation of sustainability into our teaching, research, operations, campus life, and community engagement. As co-coordinator, I run monthly leadership team meetings, organize committees to carry out out mission, hold office hours, advise a sustainability student group, manage a food recovery project, and communicate our activities through social media, our website, and blog posts.

Assisting with the implementation, advertising, assessment, distribution of funds, training of faculty/staff, and growth of a program (STLR) to help students track their transformative learning experiences across 5 Central tenets: Global and Cultural Competencies; Health and Wellness; Leadership; Research, Creative, and Scholarly Activities; and Service Learning and Civic Engagement. Our results are student-built comprehensive learner records ("STLR Snapshots"), increased retention and graduation rates, especially of at-risk students, and well-rounded graduates, due to engagement and critical self-reflection on their experiences.

Networking with faculty and administrators across campus to encourage collaboration between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs, to promote students "learning by doing," and to recruit students to engage in the Oklahoma City metropolitan community.

Contract work creating and quality-checking interactive questions for the Biology Now textbook, 3rd and 4th editions’ InQuizitive program.

Instructor, Department of Biology

Web manager for University College: graphics and updates through Day Communique CQ5 (CMS)

Direct Academic Assistance programs with a goal of increasing retention and graduation rates at the University of Oklahoma. This includes managing over 50 staff, assessing program effectiveness, recruiting faculty, maintaining financial contributions, event planning, scheduling, and other duties.

Assist with large, Introductory Zoology class (1700 students/semester); advising Zoology majors; manage Zoology tutoring program; research on scorpion neurobiology and classroom technology

Contract work creating interactive questions for the Biology Now textbook, 2nd edition, InQuizitive program.

Author learning prompts, activities, and graphics for college-level biology textbooks; give input on development of new digital products to enhance learning and e-learning in college-level biology

Recruit Chemistry PhD students to one of the top Chemistry graduate programs in the nation; event planning; assist with undergraduate advising; office management; grant reporting; faculty committee organization and oversight

I am applying transformative learning theory to the teaching of college introductory biology courses, especially to non-majors, in order to encourage their engagement, motivation, and expanded perspectives about the importance of science in their lives.

I received my Masters of Science in Zoology in 2002, authoring a thesis on the effects of temperature and hydration on jump performance (predator avoidance) in northern cricket frogs. I served on the Graduate Student Senate, received several department grants, TA'd introductory biology courses for several semesters, and did a side project in the northeastern rainforest of Madagascar, where we discovered a new species of frog. We named it after OU professor, Dr. Victor Hutchison.

Graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with honors, magna cum laude. My honors projects included community service by running an "environmental fair" at a local library and study abroad in Guyana, South America which included a biodiversity survey. I also worked for the Natural Sciences department 1995-1998 as an undergraduate teaching assistant to Natural Sciences Lab and a student assistant for the museum collection.