Dr. Scales has been teaching for over 20 years in the areas of social work, higher education, and leadership. In Fall 2016, Dr. Scales was awarded the designation Master Teacher by Baylor University. Dr. Scales serves as Professor of  Social Work in the Diana Garland School of Social Work, where she also provides coaching and faculty development in online teaching and learning.   In addition to her Fall and Spring courses, she is co-director of the Baylor in Oxford program for the Summer Term.

She is also involved in faculty development at Baylor, leading the Summer Faculty Institute from 2005-2008.  In 2008, she chaired the task force to create the Academy for Teaching and Learning and now serves on its Advisory Board. She prepared graduate students aiming for faculty careers through programs such as Preparing Our Future Faculty (PROFF), by teaching the course “Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,” and administering the Teaching Capstone in Higher Education (TeaCHE) program.

Dr. Scales began teaching online in 2017 and has spearheaded several faculty development efforts at Baylor such as the Online Faculty Institute and the Online Teaching Commons. Her approach to online teaching is relational and faith-inspired as described in the video Being Baylor Online which she hosted and co-produced.