Jessica C. Hill began as director of the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center in July 2024. An accomplished cognitive psychology researcher and educator, she is a professor in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, a recipient of a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant, and proof that childhood dreams can come true: Hill decided when she was 10 that she wanted to be a psychologist. She spent the last 12 years at Utah Valley University, where she served as an associate professor of psychology in the Behavioral Sciences Department, including a term as department chair, and received multiple awards and recognitions for her teaching, dedication to mentoring faculty, and commitment to diversity and equity. Hill originally hails from Miami, Fla., and is happy to be back on the East Coast. She recently sat down with us to tell the WPI community a bit more about who she is and the work she plans to do with our amazing faculty members.
What drew you to this position at WPI?
When my prior institution decided that project-based learning (PBL) was something we wanted to invest in, Kris Wobbe was the person who trained me. While interacting with that stellar human, I learned about the awesome things that PBL can do, such as helping students build relationships with classmates and instructors while concurrently developing skills that help them build an identity as a college student and be successful.
The program my prior institution developed used PBL as an intervention for first-generation and low-income students from marginalized backgrounds, to give them a boost on their way to graduation. But at WPI, the whole institution does PBL! WPI feels like this little haven of rationality where people are dedicated to student excellence. This job at the Morgan Center opened up at a moment in my career when I was ready to take the next step and do faculty development full time.
Now that you’re leading the Morgan Center, what are your three top priorities?
I, of course, am on board with President Wang’s AI initiative. Each term the Morgan Center is hosting at least one Food for Thought on AI, bringing people together for snacks and meaningful discussion. We also have a professional learning community that’s dedicated to AI, not only for faculty professional development but also to identify what teaching and learning look like with AI. I think WPI is positioned to be a leader in figuring out what that means.
The second thing I’m working on is starting a student partners group we’re calling SCOPE, which stands for Student Consultants on Optimizing Pedagogical Excellence. I’m training these students to do classroom observations and provide other meaningful feedback from a student perspective. SCOPE provides confidential reports documenting excellent teaching and sharing actionable resources that support professors’ teaching goals. Professors can do what they want with the reports, including choosing to put them in an annual review or tenure dossier.
My third priority is helping level up new faculty orientation and mentoring in partnership with Aaron Deskins. He is a great partner in digging deep into new faculty data to determine evolving needs centered on their success. As a teaser, next year’s new faculty orientation is going to look very different.
