Instructor Claire Underwood and Professor Rhea Owens were among 10 UMD faculty featured at the "Imagining Our Futures: Ten Takes" event on September 4.
Each faculty member gave 10-minute, TED-like talks. The Faculty Senate organized the event to honor and celebrate the inauguration of UMD’s tenth chancellor, Chancellor Charles Nies.
Underwood is a new instructor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences and an alumna of UMD's Master of Environmental Education. Her talk was titled, "Becoming Better Ancestors: A Relational Approach to Professional Learning." Her talk description:
In response to growing calls for culturally sustaining pedagogy (Keith et al., 2017; Alim et al., 2020) and the affirmation that Indigenous education benefits all children (Restoule, 2011), this talk shares key learnings from a multi-year Community of Practice developed collaboratively by UMD faculty and students with Indigenous mentors. Guided by Anishinaabe knowledge keepers, early educators reimagined how empathy, land-based learning, and relational ways of knowing could transform their teaching. Participants described shifts not only in their knowledge but in how they teach, relate, and see themselves: as educators, community members, and better ancestors (Ernst et al., under review, 2025). This talk explores how sustained, relationship-centered professional learning, grounded in responsibility and reciprocity, can help us envision a more equitable and ecologically connected future for early childhood education and beyond.
Owens teaches in the Department of Psychology. She gave a talk titled, "Imagining a Happier You: Three Strategies to Enhance Well-being." Her talk description:
Much of the work in psychology focuses on addressing problems. However, less attention and resources are given to help people flourish and experience greater well-being. This talk will briefly describe the goal of the field of positive psychology, followed by a description of three actionable steps to improve people’s lives informed by positive psychology scholarship and Dr. Owens' original research. Finally, Dr. Owens will highlight these principles in action by discussing a course she developed for first-year students at UMD that focuses on well-being, called Living Your Best Life: Applying Positive Psychology.