Jaclyn K Rivard Author

Andrea L. Beach is a Professor of Higher Education Leadership and Co-Director of the Center for Research on Instructional Change in Postsecondary Education (CRICPE) at Western Michigan University. She founded and was Director of the Office of Faculty Development at WMU from 2008-2015. She received her Master’s degree in Adult and Continuing Education and her PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) from Michigan State University in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Her research centers on organizational change in higher education, support of innovation in teaching and learning, faculty learning communities, and faculty development as a change lever. She has been PI and co-PI on several NSF-funded grants focused on instructional change strategies that have produced articles and book chapters on instructional change strategies as well as instruments to self-report instruction and academic department climate for instructional improvement. She was co-author on Creating the Future of Faculty Development (with M.D. Sorcinelli, A.E. Austin, and P.L. Eddy, 2006). She is most recently director of a $3.2 million US DoE FIPSE First in the World project to undertake, document, and measure outcomes of institutional transformation aimed at improving the persistence and academic success of students from low-income backgrounds.

Dr. Mary Deane Sorcinelli is the Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development at UMass Amherst. She was awarded, along with two colleagues, an NSF Institutional Transformation Grant through the American Association of Universities (AAU) in Washington, D.C.Mary Deane has directed a number of externally grant-funded projects aimed at promoting educational innovation from the Andrew W. Mellon, Microsoft, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Pew Charitable Trusts. She has served on advisory boards and as an external evaluator of NSF ADVANCE CCLI, IUSE, and WIDER Grants.

Ann E. Austin is Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University, where she twice has held the Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair (from 2005-2008, and again in 2014 until taking a leave in 2015 to assume another role). She is now serving as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation (on leave from MSU). Her research concerns faculty careers and professional development, teaching and learning in higher education, the academic workplace, organizational change, doctoral education, and reform in science, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Past-President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and she was a Fulbright Fellow in South Africa (1998). She is a founding co-leader of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), and was the Principal Investigator of an NSF-funded grant to study organizational change strategies that support the success of women scholars in STEM fields. Her work is widely published, including Educating Integrated Professionals: Theory and Practice on Preparation for the Professoriate (co-edited with C. Colbeck and K. O’Meara, 2008), Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education's Strategic Imperative (co-authored with J. Gappa and A. Trice, 2007), Creating the Future of Faculty Development (co-authored with M. D. Sorcinelli, P. L. Eddy, and A. L. Beach, 2006), and Developing New and Junior Faculty (co-edited with M. D. Sorcinelli, 1992), as well as other books, articles, chapters, and monographs concerning faculty issues and other higher education topics in the United States and in international contexts. She served as a member of the study team for the Asian Development Bank’s project and monograph series on Higher Education in Dynamic Asia.

Jaclyn K. Rivard is a PhD student in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota. While a student at Western Michigan University, she worked in the Office of Faculty Development as a graduate assistant with new faculty seminar, faculty learning communities, faculty development workshops, and research in faculty development With a focus on higher education, her research interests include equity and access, policy, civic engagement, and faculty development. She holds a Master of Arts from Western Michigan University in Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology with a focus on Higher Education and Student Affairs. While a student at WMU, she worked in the Office of Faculty Development as a graduate assistant with new faculty seminar, faculty learning communities, faculty development workshops, and research in faculty development. During this time she also held internships in the Graduate College and the College of Arts and Sciences Advising Office. Her bachelor’s degree is in political science with a minor in women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. While a student there, she worked as a research assistant in assessment, provided research support for By the Ore Docks: A Working People’s History of Duluth, and held internships with Congressman James Oberstar and the Human Rights Campaign. She previously worked as a program director for the Girl Scouts, where she focused heavily on community engagement, and served on a national committee focused on engaging girls with STEM.