Lillian Nave is a Senior Lecturer in First-Year Seminar and the Universal Design for Learning Coordinator and VITAL Faculty Coordinator for the Center for Academic Excellence at Appalachian State University. Her background is in Art History and she taught at the State University of New York at Oneonta and Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, before coming to North Carolina. She also taught at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute before joining the Art Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She moved into her position in First Year Seminar in 2014 and served as a Faculty Fellow before becoming the UDL Coordinator in the Center for Academic Excellence.
Lillian’s FYS courses focus on Nazi looted art, art and peace studies, art dialogues across cultures (intercultural competence) and the intersection between art and religion. She incorporates the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into her classes and serves as the Inclusive Excellence Liaison for University College. Her teaching has been recognized by Appalachian State with the Faculty Award for Excellence in General Education Teaching, Non-Tenure Track (2017) and the Rennie W. Brantz Award for outstanding teaching in the First-Year Seminar (2019). She was also awarded the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Appalachian State University School/College Excellence in Teaching Award (2019).
As the UDL Coordinator, Lillian conducts faculty workshops, Course Redesign Institutes, and works with the Intercultural Teaching and Learning Fellows and Inclusive Excellence team. Her position as the VITAL Faculty Coordinator allows her to mentor and work with Appalachian State’s faculty who hold in their positions the titles Visiting, Instructor, Temporary, Adjunct, and Lecturer (VITAL).
Lillian is a sought-after speaker at conferences and universities. She has presented about UDL practices at SXSW-EDU in Austin, TX, at Lilly Asia: Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning in Hong Kong, and CAST’s UDL Symposium: Empowering Learners at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, as well as in Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and Greece.
CollegeSTAR College STAR (Supporting Transition Access and Retention) is a grant-funded project that enables participants to partner in the development of initiatives focused on helping postsecondary campuses become more welcoming of students with learning and attention differences. Much of this work is made possible by generous funding from the Oak Foundation.
Appalachian State University, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The transformational Appalachian experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and embrace diversity and difference. As one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina system, Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors. appstate.edu