My Interest in ASCN: Kacy Redd

Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

Director, Science and Mathematics Education Policy

Prior Organizational Change Work

I am at APLU which regularly convenes presidents, provosts, and research vice presidents. We have run several cross-institutional change efforts. As an example, I led a workshop in June 2015 for senior faculty in chemistry and physics that was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Workshop report is available at http://serc.carleton.edu/StemEdCenters/workshop2015/index.html.

I co-managed a 25 institution collaborative as part of a Math and Science Partnership NSF Award (#0831950) that examined the role of a higher education association in strengthening math and science secondary teacher preparation. Outcomes attributed, in part, to participation in this 25-institution collaborative included strengthened cross college collaborations (20 of 23 reporting institutions); engaged university leadership (16 of 23); increased teacher preparation (12 of 23) with a rate of increase twice that of the broader APLU project; two new UTeach sites; and three new STEM Education Centers.

I developed with APLU staff and consultants the strategic plan for the Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative (SMTI), which includes 135 APLU institutions and 13 systems; support the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP), 38 teams across 30 states as part of an NSF award (#1147987); and the lead on convening multi-society discussions on the Science Framework, outreach for SMTI, and conference organizing for SMTI.

How ASCN Can Contribute to my Work

Along with Noah Finkelstein, I run the Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC). Addressing calls from the White House (PCAST 2012) and National Academies (NAS, 2012), APLU received a NSF grant to create a national Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC) in 2015. We are finding that university STEM education centers often serve as hubs of campus-based efforts to transform undergraduate STEM education. These centers are expanding across the country due to their successes in broadening participation in STEM, fostering university-community relations, improving undergraduate retention and success, and increasing the success of research grants. NSEC currently links 149 STEM Education Centers (SEC) at 126 institutions (from 246 SECs at 182 institutions identified to date).

I'm interested in how the ASCN and NSEC communities overlap and can be synergistic. Knitting together these efforts (i.e. having liaisons that span the networks) at the national level will help with information flow in each network.

How I Can Contribute to ASCN

I have a good understanding of (and membership in some) national level networks, including higher education associations and disciplinary societies. I have worked on NSF funded projects that explore the roles of higher education associations in change. I currently run a project through NSEC that is examining the impact of centers on improving undergraduate STEM education.