2024-25 Faculty Promotions
September 17, 2025
Congratulations to our professional track faculty on their promotions!
Newly Promoted Senior Lecturers
Aysha Jawed is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an Assistant Director in the Center for Excellence in Public Health Leadership at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She was also a pediatric social worker at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for 13 years. She teaches Science Writing, Technical Writing, Advanced Composition and Writing for the Health Professions in the Professional Writing Program. Her research focuses on leveraging health information exchange via social media to enhance patient and family education, with a focus on addressing health-related social needs and improving care for children with medical complexity.
Michelle Moncrieffe earned degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Economics in the United Kingdom and an M.A. in Journalism (with a focus on Health Communication) from the University of Iowa in 2003. She has been teaching as a Lecturer in the Professional Writing Program since 2018. Her teaching expertise is writing for the health professions and she regularly teaches ARHU230: Introduction to the Humanities, Health and Medicine and ARHU158N: Explorations in Arts and Humanities: The Art of Public Health. In addition to a demonstrated record of exemplary teaching, Michelle has made significant contributions to the Writing Programs and the Department by serving as the Academic Advisor for ARHU’s Humanities, Health, and Medicine minor. Michelle has been an exemplary department citizen, serving as an Administrative Faculty Fellow for the Professional Writing Program and on multiple department committees, including CAARES. Michelle Moncrieffe's scholarly and professional achievements are impressive, and notably, she is a PI on an NIH grant she secured with colleagues at the National Network of Libraries of Medicine for database development. Her commitment to Medical Humanities bridges academia and community engagement, as demonstrated by her organization of Community Health Fairs in partnership with UMSOD that reached over 400 community members. She maintains an active membership in several professional organizations, including the Health Humanities Consortium.
Kara Pleasants earned a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature, M.A. in English Language and Literature, and M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland. She has taught for nearly two decades at both the collegiate and secondary-school level throughout the state of Maryland. She joined the English Department as Lecturer from 2014-2018, and returned take on teaching full time for English in 2023. Kara offers an impressive range of courses for the Department's Academic and Professional Writing Programs, and she also regularly offers courses for Honors and College Park Scholars. Kara is particularly invested in pedagogical and curricular innovations that center social and racial justice. In her Academic Writing classes, for instance, she attends to linguistic justice in order to enhance students' understanding of their own linguistic histories. In 2024, Kara won the Writing Programs Social Justice & Anti-Racist Teaching & Tutoring Award. Kara has published two novels (2020 and 2021) and several poems (2024).
Sajeela Yaqub earned her B.A. in English Language and Literature and M.Ed. in English and Education from the University of Maryland. She has taught as a Lecturer in the Department since 2014, splitting her time between English and her work in various instructional and administrative positions at Al-Huda, a college preparatory school in College Park Maryland nationally and internationally known as one of the top Islamic schools in the country. Ms. Yaqub offers an impressive range of courses for the English Department’s Academic and Professional Writing Programs, which include Advanced Composition, Technical Writing, Business Writing, and Science Writing. In addition to classroom instruction, Sajeela has been actively involved with curriculum development modifying and new course designs. In 2020, she was the recipient of a Provost’s Teaching Innovation Grant allowing her to develop materials for eportfolio assignments and work with PWP colleagues in transitioning to online course formats. Her commitment to the Writing Programs and the Department is evidenced by her role as a frequent presenter and regular attendee of the Writing Programs’ Professional Development Day. She has also mentored many Undergraduate Teaching Assistants and undergraduate students who went on to win the PWP Writing Contest.
Newly Promoted Principal Lecturers
Katherine Joshi received an MA in English from Southeast Missouri State University in 2011 and MFA in Fiction from the University of Maryland in 2014. Since earning promotion to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2018, Katherine has sustained an impressive track record of exemplary teaching as evidenced by her commitment to innovative approaches to course design with an emphasis on student-centered assignments that enhance critical reading and writing skills. She has served as the Academic Writing Program’s representative on UMD’s First Year Book Committee (2024) and on the English Department’s Undergraduate Studies Committee (2024-26). Previously, she served on the English Department’s Coordinating Committee (2022-24), Academic Writing Program’s Textbook Committee (2020), the PTK Executive Committee (2019-20), the Writing Committee (2019-20), and the Elevate Committee (2019-20). In addition to her committee work, Katherine served as Editor-in-Chief of Interpolations, UMD’s undergraduate journal of academic writing (2015-2017); she continues to serve on the journal’s Editorial Board. She has also served as a Faculty Fellow for the Academic Writing Program. Her fiction has been published in the Raleigh Review (2022), Miracle Monocle (2022), Qu Literary Magazine (2023), and elsewhere. Most recently, she attended fiction workshops at the Chesapeake Writers' Conference (2019) and twice at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference (2023 and 2025), the second time as a recipient of a Returning Participant scholarship. In addition to her fiction, Katherine has contributed five chapters to the Academic Writing Program’s Fearless Writing: Rhetoric, Inquiry, and Argument (Bedford/St. Martins), which remains the required textbook for all ENGL101 courses offered at UMD. Her creative and critical work contributes to the intellectual life of the Writing Programs and the department.
Kisa Lape earned her MA from Ohio University in 2005, and in 2016, she completed the coursework towards a doctoral degree in English at the University of Maryland. In 2017, she earned promotion to the rank of Senior Lecturer. During her time in the department, Kisa Lape has continued to build a sustained track record of exemplary teaching as evidenced by her consistently over-subscribed courses “Writing for the Health Professions” and “Technical Writing” courses. Her commitment to teaching excellence is evidenced by her creative course design, which thoughtfully embeds the principles of Universal Design into all of her courses. Her innovative approach has not only enriched the learning experience for students but also set a new standard for excellence in our department. Kisa has been a pillar of service within the department, regularly collaborating with Writing Program colleagues to design and revise curricula for in-person, hybrid, and online learning. For example, Ms. Lape designed and delivered four workshops for Writing Programs’ Professional Development Day, and she has mentored four instructors in the Department’s PTK Mentoring program. She has served on the Department’s PTK Executive Committee and CAARES. Her most significant contribution to date is having served as co-PI on a $50,000 grant awarded by TLTC. In Fall 2024, Ms. Lape and colleagues launched the English Department’s Disability Resource and Technology Hub for Instructors and Students, which assists faculty in understanding accessibility issues in the writing classroom and developing pedagogical strategies to best support students with a range of language-based disabilities.
Susan Pramschufer received her MA in Literature and Film from the Claremont Graduate School in 2002 and joined the Departments of English and American Studies in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Since being promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2017, Susan has taught a range of courses for both English and American Studies as well as courses in Academic Writing and Cinema and Media Studies. Her tenure has been defined by her development of numerous new courses in American Studies and a significant course redesign of "Film and American Culture," in which she adapted the class to an online environment with the assistance of a Provost Teaching Innovation Grant in the Summer of 2020. Susan is the recipient of Maryland Women’s Lacrosse MVP (Most Valued Professor) Recognition in 2022 and 2024, and she has twice received the Academic Writing Program’s Faculty Appreciation Award. She is also the recipient of a 2024 Teach Access Faculty Grant to create course content exploring issues of accessibility. Susan's disability advocacy work has been featured in Maryland Today and she has been interviewed by the Diamondback for her work on portrayals of sexual violence against women in film. Susan has participated in the PTK Mentoring Program and served as Faculty Advisor for the student club, The Writer's Room at UMD, as well as a Faculty Judge for the Maryland Filmmakers Club. She also served on the Editorial Board of Interpolations, the English Department's journal of student academic writing.