Alejandro Echeverry, an Associate Professor of Practice in Food Microbiology & Food Engineering within Texas Tech’s Department of Animal & Food Sciences has been selected for induction into the university’s Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center’s (TLPDC) Ethics in Teaching & Learning (ETL) Program. The ETL’s mission is to provide dedicated time and space for faculty to study ethical challenges in their teaching contexts and develop strategies to address them to support the success of students and faculty at Texas Tech.
“I am very excited to have been selected as a member of the 2024-25 Ethics in Teaching & Learning cohort”, Echeverry said. “This was a very competitive application process that will allow me to gain a deeper understanding of the ethical challenges that students face and to learn effective strategies for addressing these issues in the classroom.”
“I have noticed that students often struggle with the ethical aspects of authorship and publication. For instance, they may engage in practices such as duplicate publication or failing to give proper credit to contributors, which can lead to accusations of plagiarism,” he said.
Echeverry objectives for his participation in the ETL program include earning effective strategies for addressing ethical issues in the classroom. In addition, he wants to make students acutely aware of the consequences of unethical behavior in research, particularly in areas such as data falsification, collusion, and manipulation. He hopes that by educating students on these topics, he can empower them to make ethical decisions that will positively impact their professional development.
Over the years, Echeverry has focused his research efforts on improving, validating and implementing antimicrobial interventions to improve the safety of beef products, especially in developing countries, with the goal to increase their ability to export to the U.S. Earlier in his career he worked as a food safety consultant and quality control supervisor in Colombia, post-doctoral research associate at Texas Tech, and Texas Tech Research Assistant Professor in Food Microbiology.
He received his bachelor’s degree in food engineering from the Corporación Universitaria Lasallista in Medellín, Colombia. His master’s degree in food sciences and doctorate in animal sciences are from Texas Tech. Echeverry is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, International Association for Food Protection, and the American Meat Science Association, and served as reviewer for the Journal of Food Science, the Journal of Food Protection, and Meat Science.
According to Texas Tech officials, Echeverry was also named to the university’s Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Fellows Program earlier this year. The HSI Fellows program is a one-year cohort-style commitment. Participants meet monthly for up to two hours per meeting with optional activities in between meetings. In addition, each fellow is matched with a graduate student to help mentor for the duration of their fellowship.
Texas Tech was designated as a HSI university in 2019. The federal designation enabled Texas Tech to apply for grant funding to better resource, access, retain, and graduate Hispanic students. While this designation is centered on minoritized, rural, low-income, and Pell-eligible students, the funding from these grants creates broader resources benefiting all students.
CONTACT: Clint Krehbiel, Dean, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or Clint.Krehbiel@ttu.edu
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