Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, Ph.D.

Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, Ph.D., joined Ohio University in August 2022 to serve as executive director of a newly reenvisioned and expanded Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment dedicated to advancing teaching excellence. Since then, the CTLA has developed into a robust hub for professional learning and development collaborating across key units and colleges.

She developed the center’s signature program portfolio that includes Teaching@Ohio faculty development certifications recognizing faculty who implement, assess and share innovative and effective models for practice, teaching academies, faculty learning communities and design/redesign institutes, among other, and oversees center communications strategies.

Rhodes-DiSalvo has extensive experience leading centers and offices of teaching and learning. She established strategic partnerships and operations for The Ohio State University Institute for Teaching and Learning where she focused on building and connecting internal and external partners and faculty development collaborators; curriculum, course and instructional design and assessment; supporting a teaching and learning research grants program; and university-wide scaling faculty professional learning offerings.

Prior to the institute, she led an Office of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where she assisted faculty developing and refining didactic and clinical teaching practices, conducted teaching observations and helped support peer review of teaching; led an instructional design team; and supported course and curricular assessment. Her office undertook a college-wide learning management system transition and a two-year curriculum map project and contributed to accreditation processes.

She also directed the Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Cincinnati, with particular attention to enterprise-wide instructional technology solutions and partnerships with college instructional designers.

Most recently, Rhodes-DiSalvo has been engaged in promoting ethical integration of generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. She is serving as a faculty mentor for the AAC&U’s 2025 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and Curriculum and has presented regionally and nationally on the CTLA’s GenAI in Teaching and Learning position statement and AI faculty development certification, as well as higher ed AI trends, AI literacy versus fluency and ethical use. She is currently exploring AI as a formative teaching observation coach.

Recent select publications and presentations include the following:

• Rhodes-DiSalvo, M. (Nov. 18, 2025). The pedagogical partner: Using AI to support student learning. Panelist. Student Success US 2025, Atlanta Ga.
• Rhodes-DiSalvo, M. (Sept. 11, 2025). Creating a university-wide position statement on GenAI in Teaching and Learning. Presentation as part of the 2025 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Kickoff. American Association of Colleges & Universities. Online.
• Rhodes-DiSalvo, M., and Shovlin, P. (May 29, 2025). Teaching and assessing AI-enhanced courses: An institutional initiative. Teaching & Learning with AI Conference, Orlando, FL.
• Hartman, K. & Rhodes-DiSalvo, M. (January 2025). Creating a value proposition for centers for teaching and learning. [Manuscript submitted for publication].
• Hartman, K.B., Rhodes-DiSalvo, M., Henkel, J., Pueschel, A., & Adams, W. (2024). “Supporting teaching excellence: A CTLA case study.” Journal on Centers for Teaching and Learning. 16(1), online.
• Halasek, K., & Rhodes-DiSalvo, M. (2023). The teaching endorsement: Identifying, recognizing and elevating the development of scholarly teachers. In D. Chapman & M.E. Bartlett (Eds.), Faculty development on a shoestring: Programs to support faculty using little or no resources (pp. 233-268). Information Age Publishing.
• Halasek, K., Heckler, A., & Rhodes-DiSalvo, M. (2021) Transforming the teaching of thousands: Promoting evidence-based practices at scale.  In White, K., Beach, A., Finkelstein, N., Henderson, C., Simkins, S., Slakey, L., Stains, M., Weaver, G., & Whitehead, L. (Eds.). Transforming institutions: Accelerating systemic change in higher education. Pressbooks.

She has taught at community colleges, private liberal arts colleges and research universities in the disciplines of English, journalism, clinical instruction and higher education curriculum and instruction and received teaching awards from Ohio Wesleyan University and Cottey College. She holds a Ph.D. in higher education curriculum and instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in community colleges and higher education and an M.A. in English from Pittsburgh State University, Pittsburgh, Kan; and a B.A. in English from Missouri State University and A.A. from Cottey College, Nevada, Mo.