My first formal experience as a teacher was as a new college graduate, just slightly older than the youth I had been hired to teach. My job: provide youth offenders and urban youth with both environmental education and experience working in a community garden. Many of these kids, I discovered, had no idea where their food came from, let alone had been involved in the growing of it. I quickly realized that what I taught was not nearly as important as how I taught and how I related to my students. Over time, I also learned that the learning environment and the hands-on experience of growing something affected the kids’ level of engagement, interest in the topic, perception of the world around them and even their view of themselves. Each was on their own learning journey and I came to believe that my role was to facilitate that journey, while also helping build group cohesion and a space in which each individual could gain a sense of self-worth and feel successful learning about and experimenting with the topic at hand.
This formative experience, along with insights developed through over twenty years of experience developing online and in-person educational products, teaching courses and workshops on leadership, entrepreneurship, human factors design, and social innovation, coaching MBA and MHA students and business professionals, and facilitating leadership and organizational development programs in numerous contexts, informs my philosophy that teaching is about facilitating connection with and between the individuals I am teaching, as well as to the content being taught. While I lean towards the experiential and conversational, my approach combines a balance of theory and ideas, stories and data, as well as lecture, discussion, and hands-on learning designed to foster different learning styles, elicit different perspectives, and both introduce concepts and help students understand the practical application of them. In addition, I provide students with clear expectations and support.
In my role as facilitator, it is my aspiration, if not responsibility, to create a safe and healthy learning environment and foster conditions in which students are best able to learn the course subject matter; to provide them with opportunities to not just study the subject at hand, but also explore their own experience and interpretation of it; to support their engagement with the world outside the classroom; to stimulate curiosity and an internal drive to know; and to engage the student collective in inclusive dialogue and diverse perspectives.
Within the university context where I currently teach, I am particularly interested in teaching courses on negotiation, leadership, and group dynamics.
ACADEMIC TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Undergraduate (CWRU)
ORBH 380 Managing Negotiations, Instructor, Rating 4.82/5.00 Designed course for online delivery; innovated podcast instructional tool | Fall 2020 |
ORBH 250 Leading People, Instructor, Rating 5.00/5.00 Transitioned from in-person to online due to COVID-19 pandemic | Spring 2020 |
ORBH 250 Leading People, Teaching Assistant | Fall 2019 |
ORBH 303 Leading Teams Through Interpersonal Relationships (1x face to face; 1x virtual), Group Dynamics Facilitator | 2019, 2021 |
ORBH 370 Women and Men as Colleagues in Organizations, Teaching Assistant | Spring 2018 |
ORBH 380 Introduction to Managing Negotiations, Teaching Assistant | Fall 2017 |
Graduate (CWRU)
MBAP 401 Leadership Assessment and Development, Coach | Summer 2019 |
ORBH 403 Developing Interpersonal Skills for Managers, Group Dynamics Facilitator | Winter 2019 |
ORBH 450 Executive Leadership, Teaching Assistant | Fall 2018 |
Sample Student Evaluation Comments
Professor Sweitzer designed this course to fit our curiosity, our remote circumstances, and our individual objectives. I enjoyed hearing her speak to her experiences in this field and appreciated the environment in her classroom.
I think everything the professor did to help us understand and master the course concepts were extremely valuable not only to be successful in the class but as we move forward into our every day and lives in the workforce.
I am so much more excited for this new [work] role/assignment and I appreciate your advice on handling it. I recognize that not all situations are perfect, but this was a really good opportunity to negotiate something that is happening in the real world and I am so happy that you were able to help me through it.”
–Email from STUDENT on REAL-WORLD APPLICATION OF NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES
Stormy was an excellent professor in my opinion. She communicated very openly and was very knowledgeable in her field. She went above and beyond sometimes in pointing out opportunities, which I greatly appreciate. She gave feedback in a timely manner and was always willing to help understand. Overall a five-star teacher!
Stormy was a great instructor in this course. She knew the material well and was always there for the students.
I just got off the phone with my soon-to-be-landlord after a successful negotiation of the terms of my lease. It would never have happened if I were not in this class. I had the confidence to know I even could negotiate, I knew how to think about setting an aspiration and a target, I knew to say ‘no’ without saying no, and I knew to expand the pie to further my interests. It feels powerful.”
–EMAIL FROM STUDENT ON REAL-WORLD APPLICATION OF NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONTRIBUTION
- 2021, Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society Doctoral Institute
- 2021, Social Innovation Teaching, Social Change Innovators Virtual Workshop
- 2020, Mastering Course Alignment Mapping, CWRU Online Teaching Program
- 2020, Developing Digital Instructional Strategies, CWRU Online Teaching Program
- 2020, Designing a Digital Learning Community, CWRU Online Teaching Program
Sweitzer, S. C. (June 2021, accepted). “Strategic Soundbytes: Creating & Using Interview-based Podcasts to Bring the Real World into the Classroom.” (Paper Presentation). Annual MOBTS Conference: Tradition Meets Technology-Finding Ways Forward, Virtual.
Sweitzer, S. C., & Silver, M. P. (2005). Learning from unexpected events: a root cause analysis training program. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 27(5), 11–19. DOI: 10.1111/j.1945-1474.2005.tb00572.x (Selected as a Continuing Education article and awarded with the JHQ “Golden Pen – New Author Award” in 2006.)
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION EXPERIENCE
Co-taught the Careers course for the University of Utah MBA program and provided career advising to MBA and MHA students.
Created and delivered program development, grant-writing, and social enterprise training offerings for NGOs in the US, Eastern Europe, and Africa.
Created and delivered an intrapreneurship training program to US-based organizations.
Designed, led development of, and delivered a Root Cause Analysis Training Program for medical professionals; wrote an award-winning article about the program that became a continuing education text for health care quality professionals.
Designed and facilitated professional development programs based on quality improvement, safety and human factors design for thousands of healthcare professionals; funded by Medicare and delivered nationally.
Worked with the University of Utah medical school to design and deliver the Reducing Medical Errors in a Residency Training Program.
Designed content for and facilitated numerous leadership development programs for such organizations as Unilever, the United Nations World Food Programme, and US-based health and energy companies.
Coordinated local workshops in cities around the US and created online delivery system for a national Planned Parenthood Federation training program on improving and expanding health center capacity.
Operated a business focused on food education, providing tours, online and local classes, and educational materials. Collaborator in first Google-supported start-up to deliver classes through the Google+ Hangout platform while it was in beta.