Dr. Marshare Penny has been a professor of public health at California Baptist University since 2014. In the same year, Dr. Penny completed her doctorate degree in Public Health with a focus in Health Promotion and Education in Loma Linda University.
In summer 2020, Dr. Penny was featured in the Roundtable magazine as the faculty spotlight for her research on mitigating the spread of COVID-19. According to Roundtable, Dr. Penny joined the research team in early February 2020, and her group’s work was published in the Journal of Medical Virology on March 2020. Now, she incorporates her group’s research findings into her teachings.
In this Q&A, Dr. Penny talks about her goals as a professor, how she integrates her research findings on COVID-19 to her students, and how she keeps herself and her students motivated in online learning.
What made you decide to teach at CBU?
As a woman of faith, I was excited to have an opportunity to teach up-and-coming public health professionals at a local Christian college.
What are your goals as a professor?
My main goal is to transition students into professional practice. Educating students and sending them out into the world to serve as a colleague is what I love to do.
What do you like about teaching
My favorite thing about teaching is bringing real world and lived experience into the classroom. I attempt to do this through more than just my teaching but through guest lectures, classroom discussion and sharing, as well as exercises and simulations.
You were featured on CBU Roundtable’s faculty spotlight due to your involvement with the research on COVID-19, specifically on the effectiveness of the government’s interventions. How do you incorporate your findings into your teachings?
I have been able to incorporate our research findings into my teaching by demonstrating trends in local data and having students discuss and compare what they are currently seeing with what we found in our research. We also talk through what may contribute to any differences they find.
How do you keep your students motivated with online learning?
Online engagement is a must, and I try to accomplish this through in-class polling, interactive games using resources like Kahoot, and online breakout rooms for deep discussions.
Lastly, how do you keep yourself motivated despite the changes in teaching?
I have been blessed to remain involved in professional practice and have had the opportunity to engage students in this work. Many of the students that have participated in practice opportunities are also in my courses, which adds to the classroom discussions and sharing.