Leading Cultural Change to Improve Undergraduate STEM Teaching and Learning at Research Universities: The AAU STEM Education Initiative

Emily R. Miller, PhD
Associate Vice President for Policy at the Association of American Universities

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Description:

This session will present cross-site data on implementation and initial project outcomes from a major change initiative launched by the Association of American Universities (AAU) in 2011 aimed at improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education at research universities. Participants will learn about strategies at the institutional and multi-institutional levels to make continuous improvement of undergraduate STEM education a priority; to identify indicators and measures of improvements in STEM teaching and learning at multiple levels within an institution; and to address the institutional and cultural barriers that keep faculty members at research universities from adopting the best teaching practices in their classrooms.  Institutional and federal policy levers that are being promoted by the AAU to facilitate change will also be discussed.

Speaker:

Emily Miller is Associate Vice President for Policy at the Association of American Universities, an organization of 62 leading U.S. and Canadian research universities (including Caltech).  Emily is responsible for collaborating with member campuses on institutional policy efforts related to undergraduate and graduate education. She directs the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative and other grant-funded projects. She also staffs the Association of Graduate Schools constituent group and serves as liaison to the AAU Arts & Science Deans.

Previously, Emily was a research and curriculum specialist for the Association for Community College Trustees, an assistant director of career services at Tufts University, worked in alumni relations at Harvard Business School, and collaborated with the Association of Governing Boards. Emily has published on the topics of post-secondary institutional leadership, specifically as it relates to governance and administration; organizational change in universities and colleges; and higher education policy.

Emily earned her PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University; MA in Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education; and BA in Political Science from Gettysburg College.

Thanks to the Twenty-Seven Foundation for supporting this event, as well as sponsorship of other opportunities for Caltech faculty and students to engage in new perspectives on teaching and learning throughout the year.