CIRTL Institutional Leader
Melissa Hinten, Ph.D is the Sustainability Program Director and Lecturer in the Department of Geography, and CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning) Institutional Leader at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Melissa teaches courses in human-environment interactions, weather and climate, ecology, and sustainability. Core to her courses is inclusive teaching and experiential learning to promote engaged and deep learning. She directs the Sustainability major and minor which includes curriculum development, academic advising, outreach, marketing and recruitment, managing internships and undergraduate research projects. Her research interests stem from a passion for plant biogeography and include land use and land cover change within grasslands, human-environment interactions, applying GIS methods in her research, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Melissa holds a certificate in secondary science education and earned a Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Sustainability from the University of Oklahoma.