At Olin, everyone is expected to be an active member of the community. In addition to serving on committees that keep the college running, I have had the opportunity to contribute to several efforts aimed at expanding our impact.
inauguration of president gilda barabino
Olin inaugurated Gilda Barabino as the college’s second President on May 5, 2022 (the founding President was the first employee of the college!). I worked closely with a core team of five over the course of a year to plan the Inauguration Ceremony, one that would embrace certain traditions of academic presidential inaugurations, but also innovate on the formal conventions. The ceremony featured personal storytelling from a wide range of speakers, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, Board members, and Dr. Barabino’s family, friends, and mentors. My colleague Gillian Epstein and I worked closely with the storytellers to develop their remarks and practice their performances. The ceremony also transformed a passive audience into active participants, inviting them to share in the poetry invocation recitation and offering discussion prompts after the stories. Our hope was that this ceremony would embody the next chapter in Olin’s history.
Remaking Education
In seeking to transform undergraduate education, Olin makes a regular practice of inviting others to innovate with us. I led a team of faculty, staff, and students from Olin and from Emerson College to produce a full-day event in 2018 called Remaking Education. 350 educators, business leaders, philanthropists, and students joined us for a full-day of programming organized around the themes: Deepen, Design, and Dissent. The hands-on activities were interspersed with personal storytelling that amplified the power of transformative education.
Sketch Model
I have been a core member of the team overseeing Olin’s Sketch Model initiative. Funded by the Mellon Foundation, we run a series of programs aimed at integrating the arts and humanities into STEM education. Our Creative-In-Reference program has brought world-renowned artists (from fields as diverse as visual art, immersive theater, and weaving) to Olin for a year-long residency to lead our community in novel practices. Our Summer Studio program pairs Olin faculty and staff with Boston-area artists to plant the seeds of unexpected collaborations. Our Summer Fellowship program pays Olin students competitive salaries to work at arts-related organizations, allowing them to explore alternative pathways to the seductive mainstream internships that their engineering curriculum offers them. Across all three programs, the Sketch Model approach stands in sharp contrast to popular “STEAM” models, as we pursue true integration, not simple addition. Our programs do not regard the arts and humanities as means for creating well-rounded scientists and engineers, but as essential tools in undertaking technical work as well as vital pursuits in their own right.
Faculty Development Done Differently
I have served on Olin’s Reappointment and Promotion Committee for several years. Olin’s approach to faculty development is quite different from what many colleges deploy in their Promotion and Tenure processes. For example, rather than the traditional categories of Research, Teaching, and Service, Olin regards faculty work in an overlapping Venn diagram of activities representing External Impact, Developing Students, and Building and Sustaining the College, as well as elevating the importance of constructive, collegial engagement with the community. Far from a simple re-branding of the traditional categories, this approach fundamentally redefines how faculty pursue and describe their work, pushing it towards integration and holistic development. In addition, Olin’s process involves both summative and formative feedback, not only seeking to assess faculty members’ work, but also striving to foster their lifelong professional development. You can read more about our processes here.
Olin Story Slams
My colleague Gillian Epstein and I founded and oversee the annual Olin Story Slams. These personal storytelling events, featuring student, faculty, and staff performances, have become a signature event during Olin’s admissions process as well as a core part of Olin’s end-of-year community gathering. You can read more about the Olin Story Slams here.