Dr. Stephanie Whalen is a professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at Harper College. She has served as the faculty leader of Harper’s Academy for Teaching Excellence since 2017 and currently serves as director.
As part of a collaborative team that supports faculty onboarding and professional learning, she has co-developed robust professional learning opportunities, including Communities of Practice, Level-II Adjunct Faculty Engagement, Small Group Instructional Feedback, and an array of course review tools, workshop series, and courses based on evidence-based practices. Dr. Whalen has extensive experience with the process of designing, implementing, and assessing faculty-led programs, such as Building Capacity for Hyflex, Transformative Teaching course redesign programs, and AI Immersion for Educators, as well as student partnership programs, such as embedded peer coaching.
Other topics of focus for Dr. Whalen are increasing transparency, cultivating self-directed learning, teaching in compressed formats, compassionate communication, and navigating controversial topics. She also co-led a team to develop a First Year Seminar course and has been involved in continual redesign of developmental English.
Dr. Whalen thoroughly enjoys working with teams at colleges of all sizes to develop programs and resources that respond to each unique campus context and lead to improved experiences and successful outcomes.
Education:
Ed.D. (Curriculum Leadership) | Northern Illinois University
M.Ed. (Curriculum & Instruction) | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
B.A. (English Education) | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Past Experience:
Chair, Academy for Teaching Excellence | William Rainey Harper College
Co-Coordinator, Start Smart/First Year Seminar Program | William Rainey Harper College
Chair, Department of Academic Success | William Rainey Harper College
Associate Professor, Reading and Study Skills | William Rainey Harper College