Tech Talk Tuesdays: Teachers of the Year 2024

Leslie Allshouse

Senior Instructor
Vice Chair
Honors College Faculty Board
Department of Medical & Molecular Sciences
College of Health Sciences

Leslie Allshouse has a strong background in clinical immunohematology or transfusion medicine, spanning 32 years in the clinical hospital setting overlapping her 20 years at UD in education. She teaches these topics in the Medical Laboratory Science and Medical Diagnostics undergraduate programs, as well as to students in the MS in Medical Laboratory Science graduate program and Honors immunohematology I and/or II. In addition, Leslie teaches a communication, education and ethics course, a course in ethical aspects of healthcare, phlebotomy instruction (previously), and an introductory course to medical and molecular sciences.

The most fulfilling aspects of teaching for Leslie are those “ah ha” moments when a student suddenly understands these challenging topics. Whether the MLS students are out in their clinical settings during their scheduled practicums, or during a global internship abroad or in the clinical setting while acquiring patient contact hours for those Medical Diagnostics students heading toward careers in primary care, it is so rewarding when students send feedback that they experienced the concepts of transfusion medicine in action while helping patients with various anemias or other blood-related complications, or newborns requiring a life-saving transfusion and they understood what was happening because of this instruction at UD in the MMSC department.

How does her instruction translate to these “ah ha” moments and successes out in the field? Leslie advocates building a strong foundation in didactic instruction with many opportunities for practice, discovery, and interdisciplinary teamwork. This includes:

Instruction with practice examples
Low-stakes homework assignments with immediate feedback
Group discussion and role play
Interdisciplinary group project work and peer feedback mechanisms

Leslie received an Excellence in Honors Teaching Award in Spring 2024 through recommendations by students in her Honors Immunohematology I and II courses.

Sheng Lu

Professor and Graduate Director
Fashion and Apparel Studies
College of Arts and Sciences

Since joining the University of Delaware in Fall 2015, Dr. Lu has been deeply committed to teaching excellence and student success. His passion for teaching drives him to create engaging, relevant, and innovative learning experiences in and outside the classroom. He is the recipient of the 2024 College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence award.

Dr. Lu has been recognized for adopting innovative teaching methods, including being featured by the UD library and acknowledged by the Provost’s Office for his contributions to the Open Educational Resources (OER) program. His FASH455 (Global apparel trade and sourcing) course blog has evolved into a trusted knowledge hub for the global apparel industry, benefiting students, educators, and professionals worldwide. Collaborating with colleagues, Dr. Lu secured valuable resources for his students, such as free access to the fashion big data tool EDITED, which has significantly enhanced their quantitative reasoning and data analytics skills. He also regularly invites industry leaders and senior trade policymakers to share their expertise with his students, further enriching students’ learning experiences.

Outside the classroom, Dr. Lu is actively involved in mentoring students through supervised research projects, providing them with unique learning opportunities that significantly contribute to their academic achievements and long-term career development. Several student research projects supervised by Dr. Lu were featured in Udaily, including the used clothing trade summer scholar study, Macy’s sustainable sourcing strategy research, and students’ invited presentation to senior U.S. textile trade policymakers in Washington DC on apparel “made in the USA.”

Dr. Lu also incorporates his research expertise into his courses, securing over $100K in grants to support innovative teaching initiatives. He contributes teaching case studies to Bloomsbury Publishing’s Fashion Business Case collection, which are widely used in global sourcing and supply chain courses across the country.

As a scholar, Dr. Lu’s research focuses on the economic and business aspects of the textile and apparel industry, including international trade, trade policy, and the governance of the global apparel value chain. With over 80 publications in academic and trade journals, Dr. Lu received the 2014 Rising Star Award and 2019 Mid-Career Excellence Award from the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) to recognize his research excellence. Dr. Lu’s published works are regularly featured by media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times (UK), BBC World News (UK), Nikkei Asian Review (Japan), Associated Press, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, and Forbes.

Stephanie Raible

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Director, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Lerner College of Business and Economics

Stephanie Raible is an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the Lerner College of Business and Economics and is affiliated faculty with the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. She is the co-author of the textbook, “Social entrepreneurship: A practice-based approach to social innovation” with Dr. J. H. Kucher, and she has received awards for her work as an educator by the University of Delaware, Delaware Business Times, Deshpande Symposium, and International Council for Small Business. She also serves as a board member of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, an organization that serves to advance entrepreneurship education.

Her teaching centers on social innovation and entrepreneurship topics, with a focus on making the content interdisciplinary and engaging for her students. She is known to create clear and organized courses that foster autonomy, agency, and critical thinking, and one element that has supported the coherence of her courses has been her ability to establish, monitor, and adapt the right tone to complement the topics at hand.

To date, Dr. Raible has taught and/or developed 26 different courses with eight institutions in the U.S. and Europe, with study abroad courses taught in Germany and Thailand. In Spring 2025, she will add two courses and one institution as a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Management Center Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria. She is also an award-winning case author, with five published teaching cases available through multiple outlets including The Case Centre and Harvard Business Publishing Case Collections.

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