New Advisory Board Expands Center for Project-Based Learning’s Network
1This spring the Center for Project-Based Learning (CPBL) is launching an advisory board made up of thought leaders from around the country, bringing a range of valuable perspectives that will advance the center’s position as a national hub for research and professional development related to project-based learning (PBL) in higher education.
“We’re really excited to start working with this group of people,” says Kris Wobbe, director of the Center for Project-Based Learning. “I’m hoping that their collective experience will provide ideas that can help us leverage the expertise that we have and disseminate it more broadly.”
Since the CPBL began in 2016 it has tapped WPI faculty and staff to draw on their PBL expertise to present workshops, trainings, and other resources to colleges and universities throughout the United States and around the globe.
The schools that have engaged with the center to establish or expand the use of project-based learning in their curricula represent the broad range of institutions delivering post-secondary education. Of the more than 200 schools that the center has worked with to date, 17% are community colleges and 20% are liberal arts colleges. Only 10% are other polytechnic institutions.
While Wobbe is often asked why the center shares the recipe for WPI’s “secret sauce”—our distinctive project-based approach—she doesn’t see the CPBL’s clients as competitors. Instead, she sees the center’s work as a contribution to a better future.
“I really believe that project-based learning is one of the best ways to educate students to handle a complex, quickly changing world full of problems. And I think we’ll all be better off for having more people equipped to deal thoughtfully with today’s world,” she says.
In fact, the rapid pace at which today’s world is evolving was a major factor in establishing this advisory board, says Kimberly LeChasseur, the center’s research and evaluation associate. “Developing this network of PBL champions with national influence will help us stay abreast of changes facing higher education.”
The nine-member advisory board will meet virtually twice a year, starting in April 2025. The inaugural members are:
• Randy Bass, Georgetown University
• Karen Brunner, Roane State Community College
• J. Elizabeth Clark, LaGuardia Community College
• Debra Humphreys, Lumina Foundation
• Doug Melton, Kern Family Foundation
• Hironao Okahana, American Council on Education
• Irene Shaver, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
• Adriana Signorini, University of California Merced
• Dawn Whitehead, American Association of Colleges and Universities
“Because the center works with a lot of institutions that are very different than WPI, we thought it would be really useful to have expertise from a variety of institutions engaged with higher ed in different ways,” Wobbe says. “By tapping into the knowledge and networks of each advisory board member, the center will be able to expand our reach. And the board members will also be able to help others learn about us. That interconnectedness is really important.”