There is an entire team behind the Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence: 3 co-directors and 2 graduate students. Find out more about them below.
Co-Directors
Adriana Lopez-Ramirez
(pronouns: she/her/hers)
Co-director since 2024
Adriana Lopez-Ramirez is an associate professor of sociology in the School of Human Inquiry at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physical anthropology from the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology with a specialization in demography from Brown University. Since joining the faculty at UA Little Rock in 2009, she has brought her expertise from her previous roles as a research associate at the Mexican Census Bureau and the Mexican Population Council.
Her research interests include population aging, international migration, and families and living arrangements. She teaches courses on social statistics, research methods, family, minority groups, population studies, and introduction to sociology.
In her free time, she likes to read and try new recipes.
Dr. Lopez joined ATLE as a co-director in the fall of 2024, and will complete her term in the spring of 2026.
Contact Dr. Lopez: [email protected]
Hong Li Wang
(pronouns: she/her/hers)
Co-director since 2024
Dr. Hong Li Wang is an associate professor of biology at the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She has been a faculty member since 2000.
Dr. Wang holds a bachelor’s degree from Xinjiang University in Urumqi, China, and a Ph.D. in plant sciences from the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, Australia. Dr. Wang was the first Katherine Esau Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis. To improve crop yield and nutritional quality, she undertakes research in Plant Cell and Molecular Biology, Plant Physiology, Plant and Microbe Interactions, and Plant & Human Nutrition. She passionately teaches the Science of Biology, Plant and Human Nutrition, and the Function and History of Plants, which explores how plants evolved and colonized the land and how the impact on CO2 concentration changed from more than 5000 ppm five million years ago to less than 400 ppm today.
Dr. Wang also loves to garden, read, think, and write poems. She aspires to be a teacher as Kahlil Gibran described:
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple among his followers gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
Dr. Wang joined ATLE as a co-director in the fall of 2024, and will complete her three-year term in the spring of 2027.
Contact Dr. Wang: 501-916-6531 or [email protected]
Laura Barrio-Vilar
(pronouns: she/her/hers)
Co-director since 2025
Dr. Laura Barrio-Vilar (pronouns: she/her/hers) is an associate professor of English in the School of Literary and Performing Arts at UA Little Rock. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela. She also holds a master’s and a Ph.D. in English, along with a Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Kentucky.
Since joining UA Little Rock in 2011, Dr. Barrio has previously served as an ATLE co-director (2019-2022), won her college’s Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching in 2023, and her college’s Faculty Excellence Award in Public Service in 2017.
Her research and teaching interests include African American literature, Afro-Caribbean literature, postcolonial studies, and gender and women’s studies. Her most popular courses include seminars on Afrofuturism, Migration Literature, Toni Morrison, Neo-Slave Narratives, Postcolonial Literature, and Women in Literature. Dr. Barrio’s research explores how race, gender, and class affect migration patterns and the notion of citizenship in the African Diaspora. Her current research projects explore literature by contemporary Black migrant writers as a form of social justice activism.
In her spare time, Dr. Barrio enjoys reading, making cards, and watching movies, TV shows, and documentaries.
Dr. Barrio joined ATLE as a co-director in the fall of 2025, and will complete her three-year term in the spring of 2028.
Contact Dr. Barrio-Vilar: 501-916-3161 or [email protected]
Graduate Assistants
Jeffrey Ackah-Blay
(He/him)
Begum Marjahan
(she/her)