PKAL Regional Network

2024 Ohio PKAL Regional Network Meeting

Navigating Current Challenges & Opportunities in STEM Higher Education

April 6, 2024

Otterbein University
Westerville, OH

Description

Project Kaleidoscope is AAC&U's STEM Center of Higher Education reform initiatives dedicated to empowering all STEM faculty and administrators to graduate more students who are competitively trained in STEM disciplines and liberally educated for an increasingly technologically-based world. The PKAL Regional Networks provide low-cost, effective professional development opportunities for STEM faculty and administrators to foster a caring community, explore and advance modern undergraduate STEM pedagogies, disseminate findings from undergraduate STEM research and practice, and promote STEM faculty career advancement.

Event Overview

Otterbein University will serve as the host institution for the 2024 Ohio PKAL Regional Network Meeting: “Navigating Current Challenges & Opportunities in STEM Higher Education.

Conference themes:

  • Theme I: STEM Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
  • Theme II: STEM Education in the Current Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Landscape
  • Theme III: Innovative STEM Teaching Strategies within the Classroom and Beyond
  • Theme IV: Institutional Initiatives to Promote Transformative STEM Education in a Changing Environment

Schedule Overview

Breakfast......................................................... 8:00 - 9:00 AM

Welcome: Dr. John Comerford......................... 8:45 - 9:00 AM

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Lynne E. Parker............. 9:00 - 10:00 AM

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Kelly Mack.................... 10:15 - 11:15 AM

Lunch and Posters........................................... 11:30 - 1:00 PM

Posters............................................................. 12:15 - 1:00 PM

First Session Breakouts..................................... 1:00 - 2:20 PM

See “Breakout Options” and “Session Breakouts” in conference program for more details.

Break.............................................................. 2:20 - 2:30 PM

Second Session Breakouts............................... 2:30 - 3:30 PM

See “Breakout Options” and “Session Breakouts” in conference program for more details.

OH-PKAL Awards.......................................... 3:40 - 3:50 PM

Registration

TYPEBENEFITSPRICE
Faculty and Administration with institutional support
$120
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Faculty and Administration without institutional support
$80
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Postdoctoral Fellows and Students
$0

You will need to send verification of your status to [email protected]
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Important Dates to Remember

  • Registration Opens.

  • Registration Closes

  • Ohio PKAL Regional Network Meeting 8:00 am- 4 pm


Meeting Highlights

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Lynne Parker

Associate Vice Chancellor, University of Tennesse at Knoxville
Director of the AI Tennesse Initiative

Dr. Lynne Parker is Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and Director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, which aims to position Tennessee as a national and global leader in the data-intensive knowledge economy. Previously, she served as Founding Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States. She previously served for two years at the National Science Foundation as Division Director for Information and Intelligent Systems. In these roles across three Administrations, she led the development of numerous landmark national AI policies bolstering research, governance, education and workforce training, international engagement, and the Federal use of AI.

Dr. Parker joined the UT faculty in 2002 and is an expert on distributed and intelligent robot systems, human-robot interaction, and AI. She has held numerous other leadership positions besides those noted above, including at UT (Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Distinguished R&D Staff Member and Group Leader). She is a Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, and IEEE, and a Distinguished Member of ACM. She received her PhD in computer science from MIT.

Dr. Kelly Mack

Vice President of the Office of Undergraduate STEM Education at the American Association of Colleges and Universities
Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope

Dr. Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). In this capacity, Dr. Mack provides leadership for the organization’s mission-level commitments to equity and quality through the delivery of world-class STEM faculty professional development. Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Mack was the Senior Program Director for the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program while on loan from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where, as a Professor of Biology, she taught courses in Physiology and Endocrinology for 17 years. Recognized as a national thought leader in higher education, Dr. Mack’s work has been highlighted in Diverse Magazine and U.S. News and World Report. Currently, she serves on the external advisory boards for several institutional transformation initiatives at NSF-funded ADVANCE and HBCU Undergraduate Program institutions, as Co-Editor of the ADVANCE Journal, and as a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education and the Howard University School of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. Dr. Mack is also co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc., the nation’s leading organization that supports women of color in the academic STEM disciplines.

Ohio PKAL Regional Meeting Hosts

Your host for this meeting is Dr. Paul Wendel (Professor & Chair of the Department of Education, Otterbein College). For more information about the meeting, please contact him directly.

Dr. Paul Wendel

Otterbein University
[email protected]