Eliza Jane Reilly

National Center for Science and Civic Engagement

Eliza Jane Reilly has over two decades of experience in the design and implementation of programs to advance curriculum, academic leadership and faculty development. Her past positions include Executive Director of the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) and Director of Programs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), where she was the first Program Director for the SENCER initiative.  From 2003-2013 Eliza focused on campus-based faculty development and interdisciplinary curricula through the directorship of the Center for Liberal Arts and Society at Franklin & Marshall College, where she also had a faculty appointment in American Studies. In 2008 Eliza was appointed Director of the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall. With a .5M grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, she developed exhibition and faculty development programs that engaged faculty and students from the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences and made the campus museum a laboratory for innovative curriculum. Eliza holds a MA in the History of Art and a Ph.D. in American History from Rutgers University.  She has been a founder and Senior Scholar in SENCER and the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement’s other funded initiatives since 2001, becoming Executive Director in 2015. Eliza currently serves as the General Editor of the SENCER Models, a co-Editor of the journal Science Education and Civic Engagement an advisory board member of SENCER-ISE and has served as PI or co-PI on grants from NSF, NEH, and the Wm. M. Keck Foundation. Since 2015 she has held an appointment as a Research Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. In 2018 Eliza was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Division Q) for her contributions to science education and civic engagement. www.ncsce.net

Workshop Participant, Website Contributor

Website Content Contributions

Essay (1)

From Civic Engagement to Civic Courage—Science Education's Next Chapter part of Accelerating Systemic Change Network:DEI in STEMM Blog Series
It is hard to escape the fact that the relationship of evidence-based or scientific thinking to civic life in a democracy--which had been acknowledged by the science advocacy community for over a century--has ...

Other Contributions (3)

Science Education as Civic Education: The Future of STEM Learning part of Accelerating Systemic Change Network:Events:Meetings and Conferences:Transforming Institutions Conference 2021:Program:Presentations:Session IX
Spurred by twin crises of COVID-19 and climate change, and an uncertain employment horizon, the goals for STEM education have shifted from developing a STEM capable workforce to broader and more durable ...

Course Design Template for Module Two of our Certificate in STEM in the Public Interest part of STEM Futures:Product Elements
This product element will focus on Module 2, the Creation of a course or Module that exemplifies the SENCER "systems" approach of teaching foundational (STEM disciplinary) knowledge "through" unsolved and pressing civic problems that require exploration of all the "domains" (humanistic, meta). The full 4 module certificate curriculum is on the "final product" page for Team 13, but Module 2, which focuses on creating a SENCER course, module, or learning experience, is the lynchpin of the certificate.

Educators Certificate: STEM in the Public Interest part of STEM Futures:Products
Our team aims to create a certification for STEM educators that applies the ideals and strategies of SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) and adds practical professional development in pedagogy, science communication, and community collaboration. SENCER courses and programs use civic problems and big interdisciplinary public challenges (e.g. infectious disease, climate change, etc) with student-centered pedagogy to teach rigorous foundational knowledge while building civic awareness. Because SENCER courses take a problem-based, systems approach to learning, they inevitably engage the humanistic and social science knowledge, as well as meta-knowledge and skills, that learners need to be scientifically informed civic agents in their communities. The certificate program will help instructors teach STEM content "through" pressing social and civic problems of direct relevance to local communities by providing: course/program design guides, student-centered pedagogical training, grounding in principles of effective science communication and informal science learning, and the development of collaborative opportunities with community-based STEM educators.