Centering Equity in Program Assessment Workshop

October 25, 2023

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 Victoria Garwood

Director, Strategic Planning & Communications

Victoria Garwood has served the Penn State Greater Allegheny campus since 2004, holding various positions in enrollment management and academic affairs. In 2019, she was appointed to serve as Chief of Staff to the campus chancellor and assumed leadership for a newly created unit to facilitate strategic planning, support assessment efforts, and manage internal and external communications.  Victoria has an active record of campus and University service, including the Equity Pedagogy Network, where she has served as a Professional Learning Community co-lead for Greater Allegheny and a member of the EPN Core Planning Group. Prior to her arrival at Penn State, Victoria served as the Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management at Community College of Philadelphia, and a Counselor at Community College of Allegheny County.  Victoria holds two degrees from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh; a B.A. in Political Science and an M.S in Counselor Education.

Mary Beth Williams, Ph.D.

Senior Associate Dean for Science Education, Professor of Chemistry

Mary Beth Williams, professor of chemistry, is the senior associate dean for science education in the Eberly College of Science. In this role, she oversees the college’s mission to provide an outstanding education for all undergraduates and future generations of scientists.   Williams is responsible for initiatives to foster and support excellent teaching and learning, including curricular development and innovation in collaboration with the Center for Science Excellence in Education, the Office of Digital Learning, the college’s departments, and the University. She also provides leadership in the planning, design, curricular development, implementation, and evaluation of undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning initiatives. Williams is currently also serving the college as the interim associate dean for undergraduate students and the interim associate dean for diversity and inclusion. 

Williams has a sustained track record of emphasis on inclusive excellence as associate dean in the college.  She launched both the college’s Science Dean’s Scholars Program (with support of an NSF S-STEM grant) and the Millennium Scholars Program, a partnership supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute  with the University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These parallel programs have supported more than 600 undergraduate students over the last ten years. They continue to provide holistic, student-focused efforts toward success, and are a vehicle that also centers staff and faculty on their role in inclusive excellence in science education.

Williams joined the Penn State faculty in the Department of Chemistry in 2001. In addition to her research program, Williams taught thousands of students in the introductory chemistry course sequence. She led Penn State’s General Education Task Force from 2013 to 2015 to update the general education requirements for all Penn State students at all campuses. Subsequently as an elected faculty senator, Williams chaired the senate committee on Admissions, Registration, Scholarships and Student Aid, and then the committee on Curricular Affairs, to lead and collaborate with faculty senators on review and revision of educational and curricular policies impacting students.

 Folayemi Wilson, MFA (Panelist & Facilitator)

Associate Dean for Access and Equity, Professor of Art, College of Arts & Architecture, Penn State

Folayemi Wilson (she/they) is an object and image maker whose work celebrates the Black imagination as a technology of resistance and self-determination. She is a co-founder and principal of blkHaUS studios, a socially focused design studio that uses design as an agent of change to uplift and transform marginalized communities. Wilson is the inaugural Associate Dean for Access & Equity in the College of Arts & Architecture, where she is developing policies and programs to support an equitable and inclusive culture of belonging.

 Jacqueline “Jackie” Bortiatynski, Ph.D.

Associate Teaching Professor; Director of the Center for Excellence in Science Education

Jackie leads efforts to work collaboratively with faculty, graduate and undergraduate students engaged in professional development of evidence-based teaching methods. Jackie has led workshops for faculty and taught graduate student teaching development courses as well as learning assistant pedagogy courses. Jackie also teaches an introductory organic chemistry course, first year seminar, and is also an academic adviser.

 Johnathan Jevon White, Ph.D.

Associate Teaching Professor of History at Penn State Greater Allegheny

Dr. Johnathan JeVon White was born in Norfolk, VA. He graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a B.A. in Political Science. He earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in modern U.S. and African American history.

He is an Associate Teaching Professor at Penn State Greater Allegheny. He has taught courses in history, African American studies, black arts, and leadership development. He co-founded the Study of Hip-Hop Conference and the Stewart and Jones Scholar Leadership Program. He is a founding member of the Crossing Bridges committee which serves the surrounding community. In addition, he chairs the Anti-Racism task force at PSUGA. He is also creator of the Black Woman Reaffirmed video project. His upcoming album, Love Algorithms, is an eclectic mix of poetry, hip-hop, and spoken word. Finally, he is co-authoring a book, ‘A Love We Need…’, which examines what a divided America can learn from 50 years of Hip Hop culture.

He was awarded the Dr. James Robinson Equal Opportunity Award (honoring those who fight for equity at Penn State) in 2021. He received the Atherton Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021 as well. Finally, in 2022 he was a Pittsburgh Courier Men of Excellence honoree, recognized for his contribution in the field of education.