Ann Marie VanDerZanden is Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and professor of Horticulture at Iowa State University. In her role as director, she provides leadership for the center in meeting its mission to support, promote, and enhance teaching effectiveness and student learning at Iowa State. She provides individual faculty consultations and facilitates faculty and graduate student workshops on learning outcomes, effective teaching practice, preparing for the first week of class, and how to create a good syllabus.