Andrea Bierema PhD is an Academic Specialist in the Center for Integrative Studies in General Science and the Department of Integrative Biology. Her position is primarily teaching biology courses for non-science majors but also chairs her department’s curriculum committee and is a member of their DEI committee. She teaches using a flipped approach, which means that students learn foundational knowledge and skills outside of class from an open textbook that she developed and most of the class time is spent doing team-based activities. She began teaching with a student-centered approach in 2009 when she started her Ph.D. in both science education and biological sciences at Western Michigan University. Before MSU, she taught online and face-to-face courses at several institutions. She regularly attends and presents at professional development meetings as she continuously works to improve her courses and pedagogical knowledge.