My Interest in ASCN: Susan Elrod

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Academic Affairs
Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor (starting April 15, 2016)

Prior Organizational Change Work

My most significant effort was as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics in organizing a major redesign of all of the introductory science and math courses for incoming science major through the building of faculty learning communities and with support from a $1.5 million NSF WIDER grant. This involved cultivating faculty leaders as well as building a culture of evidence-based teaching and learning.

How ASCN Can Contribute to my Work

I have led several national projects with multiple campus participants and am looking forward to learning from others regarding the challenges, strategies and benefits they have learned about from their work. I also am a campus administrator and am always looking for more effective ways to engage in the practical applications of leading campus change initiatives.

How I Can Contribute to ASCN

This is best summarized in a new publication coming out through AAC&U that I have co-authored with Adrianna Kezar entitled: Increasing Student Success in STEM: A Guide to Institutional Systemic Change. In this Guide, we describe a model for campus leaders to use to plan, implement and evaluate institutional change efforts geared toward improving undergraduate STEM education. The model was built based on the experiences of eleven participating campuses who were all working toward some kind of systemic change effort.