“Around the world” podcast
Episode 9: Jenny Frederick, Yale University, USA
Welcome to a new edition of the “Educationalist: Around the world” podcast! This week I am delighted to be joined by Jenny Frederick, the founding Executive Director of the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. As of July 1st, 2022 she is also Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives, responsible for the Poorvu Center and the University Registrar’s Office, and convening the Academic Pillar of IT.
Jenny received her B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale. Following faculty appointments at public and private Connecticut universities, she returned to Yale in 2007 as Associate Director, Science Education Specialist in the graduate school. She assumed positions of increasing responsibility, including Director of the Center for Scientific Teaching, where she advanced a national effort to transform undergraduate STEM teaching. Jenny brings to the Poorvu Center notable interdisciplinary teaching experience and a commitment to inclusive teaching practices in higher education. In this role, she provides leadership across campus for educational initiatives as well as the Belonging at Yale effort focused on equity and inclusion.
I have the pleasure and honour to work with her during my Fulbright stay at Yale this year and I am happy to be able to share with you some of her inspiring thoughts on educational leadership.
In this podcast Jenny shares her thoughts about how she intentionally tries to build a culture of collaboration, support and community at the Poorvu Center, based on respect for each other’s expertise and shared values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. She talks about her efforts to “future- proof” the Center, so that it is perceived as an essential part of the university. The Covid-19 pandemic helped these efforts by making the Poorvu Center more visible and bringing it to the centre of important conversations related to the strategic outlook on education at Yale. Jenny thinks that one great opportunity post-pandemic is to create an educational ecosystem where residential and online education are closely interconnected. Her advice to leaders of Centres for Teaching and Learning is to connect with peers through different networks and to try to align the work of the Center with the institutional priorities.
If you are curious to hear more, I kindly invite you to listen to our conversation.
You can catch up with our previous stories here:
- A group-based approach to online course design, by Kate Mitchell, University of Melbourne, Australia;
- From solo artists to jazz ensembles: Peer support as a tool for teacher development, by Sanna Eronen, University of Vaasa, Finland;
- Sharing stories and practices of assessment in emergency remote teaching, by Sukaina Walji, University of Cape Town, South Africa;
- Inter-institutional partnerships in faculty development: A crowdsourced list with examples form around the world;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 1: Jessamyn Neuhaus;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 2: Online Learning Toolkit (OLT);
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 3: Jo Stroud;
- For real change, we need educational leaders who are CHIC, by Colin Simpson, Monash University, Australia;
- Crossing boundaries: Reflections by a former academic developer, by Tracy Zou, Chinese University of Hong Kong;
- One for all, and all for one: A nationwide vision of inter-institutional faculty development, by Manuel João Costa (University of Minho) and Sandra Soares (University of Aveiro), Portugal;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 4: Multimedia support for teaching and learning, with Marco Toffanin;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 5: Faculty peer learning, with Adina Dudau;
- How faculty development can contribute to the well-being of academics: Reflections from practice, by Inken Gast, Maastricht University, The Netherlands;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 6: Digital competencies and internationalisation, with Chahira Nouira;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 7: Institutional support for the use of educational technology, with Jenae Cohn;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 8: A research-based approach to faculty development, with Simon Beausaert.
This post is part of the “Around the world” series on faculty development. Watch this space in the coming months for more inspiration on professional development approaches in Higher Education from around the globe.
