CEPI's name is a conscious statement of what the Center is for: empowerment and innovation.

Empowerment

Faculty arrive as experts in their disciplines. Teaching is a second discipline, and most academics were never trained in it. AI is now changing what that discipline asks of them. Empowerment means giving faculty the frameworks, the language and the confidence to take part in that change as the designers of their own courses.

Innovation

CEPI is where SFBU’s new ideas about teaching are developed and turned into everyday practice. The PERS framework, Think, Do, Create, the Pyramid After AI and the relationship-rich assignment were all developed here for SFBU classrooms. Every SFBU faculty member trains in these areas continuously, because the field keeps changing and the frameworks change with it. New scholarship and new skills come out of that work each year.

The Center brings together teaching expertise, instructional design, student learning specialists and subject-specific coaching. The team works alongside faculty at every stage of a course, and the frameworks come out of that daily work.

Anzar Khaliq

Anzar Khaliq

Chief Learning Officer

Anzar Khaliq, Ph.D., is SFBU’s first chief learning officer and leads CEPI. He was a founding member of Habib University in Karachi, where he served as associate dean of teaching and learning and co-founded the Center of Transdisciplinarity, Design, and Innovation. An experimental physicist trained at Sorbonne University and a design researcher, he also spent ten years as a radio jockey and trained in improv theatre, which shapes how he teaches.

Maria Zapianin

Maria Zapiain

Instructional Designer

Maria holds a Master’s in Education and Tutoring and a degree in Art Education, with a certificate in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Maryland. Her work spans K to 12 teaching, curriculum development, eLearning and faculty training, and her background in the arts brings empathy and adaptability to learning design.

maria.zapiain@sfbu.edu

Andrew Rothman

Andrew Rothman

Instructional Designer

Andrew works with students on confidence, technical fluency and real problem-solving skills through curriculum design and supportive instruction. He has developed curriculum, run teacher training, and supported STEM and AI-enhanced programs across K to 12 and higher education. He holds a B.A. from San Francisco State and an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia.

andrew.rothman@sfbu.edu

Leslie Ji

Leslie Ji

Student Support Specialist in Academic Writing and Language Proficiency

Leslie works with students on finding their voice through language, building the communication skills that carry them through university and into their careers. She holds degrees in theatre and dance from UC San Diego and a teaching credential from San Jose State.

leslie.ji@sfbu.edu

Evelyn Binoya

Evelyn Binoya

Student Support Specialist in Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning

Evelyn earned her B.S. in mathematics and B.A. in art history from Stanford, where she worked alongside the archaeology and material science departments. She has analyzed artifacts at the de Young Museum and the Smithsonian, and brings six years of mathematics tutoring to her work with students.

evelyn.binoya@sfbu.edu

SFBU faculty and CEPI colleagues on campus, 2026.