Chair

Jessie Richards, University of Toronto

Jessie Richards is a Curriculum Development Specialist for the University of Toronto’s three campuses, based in the Office of the Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education. Jessie has been working in educational development since 2012, starting in the private college sector where she supported curriculum design, program review, and learning outcome assessment processes for a variety of professional programs. Jessie’s love for course design and curriculum development started in graduate school, where, concurrent to her master’s program in Composition Pedagogy, she took the University of Windsor’s University Teaching Certificate program.

In her current role, Jessie supports departmental leaders in the coordination and management of curriculum review processes, which includes developing and implementing program evaluation strategies; guiding departments through curriculum mapping; and coordinating strategies for continuous improvement of curriculum. Jessie feels especially privileged to hold a central role in such a diverse institution because she has the joy of working with wonderful leaders in a wide variety of disciplines.

Outside of her work at U of T, Jessie is involved with several initiatives with the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC). Jessie is a member of the Curriculum Mapping EDC Action Group, and serves as the leader of the Early-Career Educational Developers EDC Action Group.

Chair Elect

Monica Vesely, University of Waterloo

Monica Vesely comes from a teaching background in biochemistry (laboratory and lecture courses) at the University of Waterloo and designing on-line learning experiences with Waterloo’s Professional Development Program. Her entry into the educational developer world started with her facilitation work as part of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) program and educational development became her primary role in 2012 when she joined the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo. In her current role as an Educational Developer, Faculty Programs and Consulting, she works with faculty across the career spectrum designing and facilitating instructional development programs and providing confidential consultations in all aspects of course design, instructional skills and evaluation. Monica’s research interests include the impact of programs such as the Teaching Squares and the Facilitator Development Workshop on teaching development.

In 2013, Monica became an Instructional Skills Workshop Trainer and took on the role of ISW program lead at the University of Waterloo. She continues to grow her investment in the broader ISW community both provincially and nationally through her involvement in the handbook revision project, co-hosting Ontario ISW Community of Practice gatherings and taking part in ISW Spring Institutes as a planning committee member, presenter, and facilitator. In 2018, Monica was the recipient of a Staff International Experience grant from the University of Waterloo and had the opportunity to visit various teaching centers in the UK and the Netherlands where she engaged in conversations about teaching and learning with her international colleagues. This experience continues to inform and provide perspective in her current work.

Monica attended her first COED meeting in her first year as education developer (fall of 2012) and she values the forum this group provides for educational developers provincially to connect with one another. She looks forward to supporting and growing COED’s ongoing efforts to provide opportunities for new and established members of the educational developer community to engage in meaningful discussion and collaborative activities that help to enhance the strength of the COED community. With the needs and interests of the COED membership as a guide, Monica hopes to work with the current executive to grow newly seeded programs and support the nurturing of existing relationships as well as facilitate new opportunities for connections both within and external to the membership.

Past Chair

Sally Heath, Wilfrid Laurier University

Sally has been working in the field of educational development since 2007, starting her career as a Teaching Assistant Developer at the University of Waterloo before transitioning to a role in instructional development at Wilfrid Laurier in 2010. Since 2011, she has managed the university’s quality assurance processes, including new program development, curriculum modification, and cyclical program review. Her interest in all of these processes is to provide individualized, responsive, and flexible support to faculty that helps them to achieve their goals. Sally has taught for 15 years in both the college and university sectors and currently teaches in the North American Studies program at Laurier.

Sally has been a member of COED since 2011 and has always had a particular interest in the Curriculum Developers Group and learning about the ways in which other institutions and educational developers across the province are both leading and supporting curriculum review and outcomes assessment processes. She has found that her role in quality assurance has provided her with the opportunity to engage academic units in these processes in a meaningful way, gradually shifting the institutional culture around learning outcomes and assessment, and making required processes such as cyclical review more useful to them. She is currently a part of a COED Research Project that examines how students are being engaged in quality assurance processes across the province.