Physical fitness. Mental readiness. Emotional health. Scholarly preparedness. Social engagement.

These are the five characteristics Mildred Pearson, director of faculty development, wants to improve in faculty members through various workshops and series as a part of the “Wholesome Professor” program.

“The goal of this series is to enhance teaching and learning,” she said.

This idea has drawn significant interest from the faculty.

Pearson said the number of faculty members who have attended the series so far has been much higher than ever before.

She said the series has consistently had an audience of between 15 and 20 people at each of the presentations this year.

Pearson said she believes the reason for this high number of attendance is due to the slate of topics the series offers up for discussion.

A topic Pearson said stood out for her in the Wholesome Professor series was the graduate mentoring program presented by assistant professor of history Jinhee Lee.

“It helped our faculty articulate the difference they are making in the lives of students as we prepare them for the world of work,” Pearson said.

Another part of the series she recognized as being interesting and important was the “Heart Disease: Assessment and Management of Personal Risk” presentation by Mark Kattenbraker.

The presentation was focused on showing the effects of the stress and strain faculty members face everyday.

“I don’t think we can separate our personal life from our professional life,” Pearson said.

Pearson said the heart disease presentation drew the highest attendance of the series so far with approximately 26 faculty members attending.

One member who attended shared his experience of having a heart attack, which, Pearson said, impacted the audience greatly.

This sharing is what Pearson credits as being one of the most important goals of the series.

“If this office can bring people to share and become better for it, I think we’ve met our goals,” Pearson said.

While the topics are important to the series, Pearson said the speakers are also one of the main draws for faculty members.

“This program’s success could not be because of a title or motto,” she said. “It is because of the faculty on this campus.”

All of the speakers so far have been faculty members speaking on different issues facing their individual departments or specialties.

One such faculty member is Kiranmayi Padmaraju, assistant professor of education technology, whose presentation “Using Video Clips to Increase Student Engagement” will wrap up the Wholesome Professor series at 11:30 a.m. in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Linda Ghents’ “Using Popular Culture in the Classroom” will precede Padmaraju’s presentation at 11 a.m.

These presentations are for faculty members only.

Padmaraju said she will focus on showing faculty members the importance of using short video clips while teaching students.

She uses these clips often in her teacher education classes to show how theory is practically applied and hopes to show other professors how to use these clips effectively in their courses.

Padmaraju said these video clips must be short in order to ensure the attention of students and then discuss those clips at length with the students to be certain they understand them.

She said she would share sources where they could find these clips at the meeting.

Padmaraju said the most important idea she wanted teachers to take away from the presentation was that they must begin integrating traditional lesson plans with new ways of learning.

“They need to use multimedia resources in their classrooms to keep students more engaged,” she said.

Pearson said she shared Padmaraju’s sentiment that teachers need to be more technologically savvy.

“We’re beyond email,” she said.

Krishna Thomas, interim assistant director of faculty development, said this need is due to incoming students’ dependence on technology in most aspects of their lives.

“A new study shows 70 percent of college freshman have never been without a gaming system,” she said.

Though this presentation will be the end of the Wholesome Professor series, Susan Robinson, an external speaker, will present “Staying Sane in Insane Places: Living While Doing Good” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 8 in the Charleston-Mattoon Room of the MLK Jr. University Union.