Office Hours with John Gardner
We are searching for big ideas that inspire hope and action in higher education around institutional transformation and innovation to advance student success and more equitable student outcomes. Joining John Gardner are higher education leaders and other relevant persons of interest who will discuss innovation and strategies that improve higher education.The Gardner Institute, a 24-year-old non-profit, has been at the forefront of innovation in higher education; our mission very clearly connects us to the broader societal efforts to increase social justice.The Gardner Institute connects with thousands of professionals in the higher education ecosystem; through a wide array of activities such as Transformative Conversations, the Teaching and Learning Academy, and the Socially Just Design Series, and through our work as an Intermediary for Scale supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As a leader in the student success movement in higher education, we strive to provide support for institutions interested in social justice and institutional transformation.
Office Hours with John Gardner
Stephanie M. Foote- Humanizing Teaching
Stephanie M. Foote is the Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evidence-Based Practices. Prior to joining the Institute staff in August 2017, Stephanie was the founding director of the Master of Science in First-Year Studies, professor of education in the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies, and faculty fellow for High-Impact Practices at Kennesaw State University.
Stephanie M. Foote served as the founding Director of the Academic Success Center and First-Year Experience at the University of South Carolina Aiken, and was the Associate Director for Student Orientation and Family Programs at Stony Brook University.
Her scholarship and consultative work span a variety of aspects of student development and transition, including: the role of first-year seminars and experiential pedagogy on student engagement in the early college experience, the community college transfer student transition, self-authorship development, engagement and learning in online environments, faculty development, metacognitive teaching and learning approaches, and high-impact educational practices. Stephanie is a recipient of the McGraw-Hill Excellence in Teaching First-Year Seminars award, and a past recipient of the NODA Outstanding Research Award for her research on the effects of first-year seminar participation on the experience of students in the early college experience. Stephanie routinely serves as a faculty member for the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition’s Institute on Developing and Sustaining First-Year Seminars and developed and has taught the online course, Fostering First-Year Student Success for the Center since 2010.
Stephanie earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in Educational Administration-Higher Education and has served as a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Lead Evaluator for several institutions during their reaffirmation process through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS-COC), and Stephanie has participated in the Foundations of Excellence Process for both first-year and transfer students.
