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Tara Kishbaugh

POSITION: Dean - School of Sciences, Engineering, Art and Nursing; Professor of Chemistry

DEPARTMENT: School of Sciences, Engineering, Art and Nursing

LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | UC 275C

PHONE: (540) 432-4665

Dr. Tara L.S. Kishbaugh, Inaugural Dean of Faculty and Student Success, appointed July 2025. Dr. Kishbaugh was appointed Inaugural Dean of the School of Sciences, Engineering and Nursing at EMU in July 2019, after being chair of the biology, chemistry, and environmental science programs for six years. During her role as dean, Dr. Kishbaugh collaboratively founded the Center for Teaching & Learning, hired and onboarded more than fifteen faculty and several staff members, and collaborated to achieve initial ABET accreditation of the engineering program. Tara is a first-generation college student who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wheaton College, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Dartmouth College, and was a Dreyfus Teaching postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth. Dr. Kishbaugh has over twenty years of experience teaching organic, general, medicinal, and environmental chemistry, as well as seminars on ethics, land use, and food chemistry. As co-PI on an NSF CCLI grant, Tara incorporated the use of new equipment into project-based labs and developed a rubric to assess non-content, higher-order cognitive learning, and understanding of the nature of science in research or project-based labs.  As co-PI on an NSF IUSE grant, Tara recruited and worked with embedded peer tutors to enhance learning in chemistry courses, completed a year-long diversity-responsive teaching professional development opportunity, and mentored faculty in STEM Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects.  Dr. Kishbaugh was PI on an NSF SSTEM grant, which provided scholarships to two cohorts of seven students, wrap-around supports including three types of mentoring, and assessed their motivation for science after a place-based learning intervention.

 

Education

PHD, Dartmouth College (Organic Chemistry)
BS, Wheaton College (Chemistry)

  • Publications

    Increasing Retention of Under-Represented Students in STEM through Affective and Cognitive Interventions.  Editor: Kishbaugh, T.L.S., Co-Editor: Cessna, S. Published online October 2018.

    Seeking to improve retention through teaching strategies and peer tutoring.  Kishbaugh, Tara; Cessna, Stephen; Leaman, Lori; Showalter, Daniel.  Increasing Retention of Under-Represented Students in STEM through Affective and Cognitive Interventions.  Editor: Kishbaugh, T.L.S., Co-Editor: Cessna, S. Published online October 2018.

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Kishbaugh, T.L.S. and Lehman, K.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W. Vol 29, 2017, 383-440.

     

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Gribble, G.W. and Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W. Vol 28, 2016, 391-438.

    Pyridine and imidazopyridines with medicinal activity. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 2016, 18.

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W.  Vol 27. 2015, 351-392.

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W.  Vol 26. 2014, 349-394.

    Invited to blog at Teach the Mechanism: Teaching a Mechanistically Organized Organic Chemistry Course. 

                Solving the IR Puzzle, October 2014

                Chapter 7: Elementary Steps but Giant Conceptual Leaps, November, 2014

                Mechanisms and Higher Order Cognitive Skills, January, 2015

               Teaching Mechanistically Online, 2020 

     

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W.  Vol 25.  2013, 319-356.

    Six-membered ring systems: pyridine and benzo derivatives. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, ed. Gribble, G.W.  Vol 24.  2012, 343-391.

    Metalation of Pyrrole.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S. Metalation of Azoles and Related Five-Membered Ring Heterocycles.  ed. Gribble, G.W. Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2012, 29, 1-46.

     

    Measuring Beyond Content: An analytic rubric bank for assessing skills in authentic research assignments in the sciences.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Cessna, S. Flanagan, T.; Neufeld, D.G.; Horst, S.J.; Leaman, L.; Siderhurst, M. Chemical Education Research and Practice, 2012, 13(3), 268-76.

    Integrating the New Science of Love and a Spirituality of Peace.  Becoming Human Again.  Ed. Early, C. E; Early, A.L. Preface by Kishbaugh, T.L.S.  Cascade Books: Eugene, OR. 2013.

    Reactions of Indole with Nucleophiles. Kishbaugh, T.L.S. Heterocyclic Scaffolds II: Indoles, ed. Gribble, G.W. Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2011, 26, 117-140. 

    Phytoremediation as a Multi-Week Laboratory Project for Teaching General Chemistry Thermodynamics and Equilibrium. Cessna SG, Kishbaugh TK, Graber Neufeld D, Cessna GA, Journal of Chemical Education, 2009, 86, 726-729.

     

  • Scholarly Presentations and Abstracts
    • EMU STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems. Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Tian, E.; Showalter, D.; Barge, S. AAAS NSF 2022 S-STEM Symposium, September 30- October 1, 2022.
    • STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems. Tian, E.; Showalter, D.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Barge, S. ASEE 2022 Conference: Excellence through diversity. Minneapolis, MN, June 26-29, 2022.
    • Inclusive Teaching in the Classrooms:  Beyond the Little Red Teaching Toolbox to Socio-Cultural Apprenticeship. Leaman, L.; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. JMU Annual Diversity Conference, March 19, 2021. 
    • From Decoration to Meaningful Narratives: what can organic chemistry students do with mechanisms? Dronov, A; Kishbaugh, T.L.S. Annual Meeting Virginia Academy of Sciences.  James Madison University, May 29, 2020.
    • Transforming Teaching: Moving Faculty from "Neutral" to Equity in Teaching.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Leaman, L. Diversity, Equity, & Student Success Conference: Engaged Inclusivity: Perceptions, Realities, & Aspirations, an AACU Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, March 28-30, 2019

    • Attending to T&L: Sociocultural faculty development for diversity-responsive SoTL.  Kishbaugh, T.L.S.; Leaman, L. SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA, January 24-25, 2019. 

    • Faculty Identity Development for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Kishbaugh, T.; Leaman, L. 10th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference: The Decade Ahead, Baltimore, MD, March 2-4, 2018.
    • Improving retention through teaching strategies and peer tutoring. Cessna, S.; Kishbaugh, T. 254th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, August 20-24, 2017.
  • Other Presentations

    Building and Maintaining a Collegial Department, 2018 Workshop for Department and Division Chairs, Minneapolis, MN, May 22-24, 2018.

  • Church, Community and Professional Service
    • Organized a symposium on Increasing Retention of Under-represented Students in Chemistry for the ACS national meeting, August, 2017.
    • Ad-hoc reviewer for Higher Education Pedagogies, Current Organic Chemistry, Letters in Drug Design and Discovery, Studies in Natural Product Chemistry and American Chemical Society- Petroleum Research Fund Undergraduate Research Proposals
    • At-large member of the Shenandoah Resource Conservation & Development Council 2011-2013
  • Honors, Awards and Grants
  • Professional Memberships
    • American Chemical Society
    • Eastern Mennonite University’s Institutional Representative to Virginia Network, part of the ACE Women’s Network
  • Professional Conferences Attended

    Modern Leadership: Reflections & Tools for the Wise Leader, William & Mary Washington Center, Spring 2023

    Trauma, Resilience in Higher Education Conference, April 2023, online

    Teaching, Learning, & Technology Conference, May 2023, online

    Mental Health First Aid Training, August 2022

    Assessment 101, JMU Center for Assessment and Research Studies, online, June 13-17, 2022

    ACE Va Network State Conference, Roanoke, Va, June 2022

    EMU Strategies for Trauma Resilience and Awareness,- Level one, Fall 2020

  • EMU Service

    Academic Council 2020-present

    CoChair of Center for Teaching & Learning Committee, 2021- present

    Provost Council 2019-present

    President's Cabinet 2019-present

    DNP Oversight Board 2019- present

    Faculty Status Committee 2019-present

    Pre-Professional Health Sciences, ongoing 

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