Bio

Educational Biography

Colorado College, BA
Northwestern Health Sciences University, DC

Degree

Other in Chiropractic

Northwestern Health Sciences University

BA in Political Science - Explored the concept of power and oppression as it relates to sexual assault

Colorado College

Published Works

• Tollefson, L. M., Matuszewicz, E., Dore, K. A., Heiss, J. C. (2018). Effectiveness of student-led stress reduction activities in the undergraduate classroom on perceived student stress. College Student Journal,
• Tollefson, M., Kite, B., Matuszewicz, E., Dore, A., Heiss, C. (2018). Effectiveness of Student-Led Stress Reduction Activities in the Undergraduate Classroom on Perceived Student Stress. College Student Journal, 52(4), 505-515. .
• Tollefson, L. M., Sayre, K. N., Helton, R. J., Matuszewicz, E., Jensen, C. (2016). Integrative Health Care: An Exploration of Students Who Choose this Undergraduate Major. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine., 22(2). .

Research Interests

Having participated in two Faculty Learning Communities and attending the Ken Bain, "What the Best College Teachers Do," conference, I am very interested in how we use best practices and evolving pedagogy to engage students in the classroom that reflects our rapidly changing world. Authentic learning practices are an excellent fit with our curriculum and very effective in our classrooms. I have been leading a research project in partnership with Jeff Helton, Carol Jensen, Michelle Tollefson and a student intern, to delineate the character traits of students entering our program to better understand how to support and challenge our students.

Teaching Interests

I've taught many classes in the ITP program: Dynamics of Health, Holistic Health, Medical Terminology, Complementary and Alternative Therapies, Homeopathy, Integrative Healthcare: India, Global Service Learning in Bhopal, Theories and Applications and Integrative Health Care, Professionalism in ITP, Internship in ITP, Capstone in Integrative Health, Anxiety: A Holistic Approach and Depression: A Holistic Approach. I've helped to redesign and create curriculum. Carol Jensen and I participated in the campus course redesign initiative and redesigned Holistic Health in the classroom and online. I developed the Theories course and taught it for the first time in the fall of 2014 and co-taught the course in the fall of 2016 in order to mentor another faculty member in taking over the course. I developed a new Capstone in ITP course that I started teaching in the fall of 2015. In the capstone course, students created student ePortfolios and a capstone presentation that became a part of the MSU Denver Impact and Innovation Showcase. These presentations occurred in the CAVEA space and the room was filled to capacity.

When I applied for this tenure-track position, I related my vision for creating a path and milestones for students as they move through our major that support retention, critical thinking and real-world connection and I have been working to put all of these pieces into place.