Elan works collaboratively with faculty to design courses and assessments that apply learner-centred, equity-focused, and evidence-informed pedagogies in alignment with their unique teaching contexts. Her educational development praxis is grounded in critical reflection, relationality, scholarly inquiry, and sustained engagement with teaching and learning research.

Educational development, for Elan, begins with the recognition that teaching is fundamentally relational work – not a set of techniques to master, but an ongoing practice of attending to students, contexts, and the dynamic tensions between structure and flexibility, guidance and autonomy, standards and care. She approaches faculty support as collaborative inquiry rather than expert consultation, creating space for educators to articulate their pedagogical values, interrogate their assumptions, and make informed choices about practice. This means resisting prescriptive solutions in favour of helping instructors develop their own pedagogical judgment, particularly as they navigate institutional pressures, technological change, and increasingly diverse student populations. Central to her work is a commitment to inclusive and accessible course design and delivery that honours the varied experiences and needs students bring to learning environments.

Prior to her current role, Elan was the Teaching Innovation Consultant at Conestoga College, where she supported educators across disciplines and career stages at the course, program, and institutional levels. Her work included helping instructors respond to challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI, redesigning courses for active learning and asynchronous delivery, and supporting emergency transitions to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. She balanced innovation with pragmatism – exploring emerging pedagogical possibilities while ensuring solutions remained feasible within real-world constraints of time, resources, and institutional context.

Elan facilitated communities of practice and professional learning initiatives aimed at connecting instructors from different departments to foster new pedagogical connections. She offered feedback through developmental teaching observations and one-on-one consultations to support critical reflection on practice. Elan earned her B.A. from the University of British Columbia, M.A. (English) from Carleton University, MEd (Educational Technology) from UBC, and PhD (English) from Western University.

As higher education navigates artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies, Elan sees her role as helping instructors engage critically and intentionally with these tools in their course and assessment design. This means exploring course and assessment design possibilities that center human creativity and agency and are mindful of equity challenges, academic integrity, and the pedagogical relationships that matter most in teaching.

Elan is a settler, born in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory (traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut’ina, Stoney Nakoda, and Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3) and currently living and working in London, Ontario, on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron peoples. She acknowledges the ongoing impacts of colonization and is committed to supporting Indigenous ways of knowing and decolonizing practices in higher education.

Elan’s research interests include assessment of learning, AI in education, asynchronous course design, faculty development at scale, and technology-enhanced learning.