Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE)

Teaching with heart and purpose, Dr. Kirstin Cronn Mills creates learning spaces rooted in trust, curiosity, and intellectual challenge. She turns classrooms into communities of belonging and high expectations, transforms assessment into opportunities for growth, and connects service to meaningful community engagement. Through her expertise, she opens doors to opportunity, helping both students and colleagues thrive, while modeling how empathy and excellence together elevate learning for all.

Kirstin prioritizes student comfort and psychological safety as the foundation for learning. “Instead of focusing on the content, I focus on the students,” she explains. “Getting students comfortable in the classroom is the first thing you have to do... before anybody can learn.” By creating calm, respectful spaces, she removes barriers and invites curiosity and growth. 

 Her teaching is guided by six reflective principles that shape every course: 

• We are all practicing. “My students and I are all doing the same thing. I’ve just been practicing longer.” Framing learning as practice removes perfectionist pressure, especially in writing courses, and fosters low-stakes experimentation. 
• Stay curious rather than judgmental. Borrowed from Ted Lasso but grounded in critical thinking, this principle encourages openness to new ideas. Kirstin reminds students that judgment is often self-protection; awareness of that helps them question biases and respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness. 
• Consider the “both/and.” Students learn to embrace complexity, exploring how people and ideas can hold multiple truths. This mindset strengthens analysis, empathy, and nuanced reasoning. 
• Recognize the “spells” that influence us. Using humor, she helps students spot persuasion and bias in media and culture. “I still believe the Huskers can win a national football championship again, and that’s maybe not true,” she jokes. “But I’m going to believe it and enjoy it.” This lighthearted example makes abstract concepts like belief and bias relatable and memorable. 
• Ask for help. Kirstin normalizes help-seeking as a strength, reframing collaboration and communication as essential academic and life skills. 
• Care for your brain. She encourages students to view mental health as integral to learning, reminding them that caring for the brain matters as much as caring for the body. 

Her institutional contributions further advance teaching quality. Through her service on the curriculum committee, she applies her expertise at the programmatic level to improve coherence across outcomes and assessments. Collaboration with CTLE and mentorship of peers extend her influence beyond her own courses, as she shares practices that enhance learning and engagement across the college.

In sum, Kirstin’s disciplinary expertise, pedagogical alignment with evidence-based practice, and sustained professional development represent the highest standard of excellence. Her teaching is current, inclusive, and assessment-informed.