Mary Wright, the executive director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, will leave Brown in January, the University announced last week.
Wright, who is also the associate provost for teaching and learning and a research professor of sociology, will join the University of Sydney as a professor of education scholarship after her departure from Brown.
Wright arrived at Brown in June 2016 to lead the Sheridan Center, which seeks to improve teaching practices across the University. At the time of her arrival, the Center employed only four full-time staff members.
Today, the Center employs 50 professional staff members, according to Wright.
During her tenure, one of Wright’s main priorities was to grow the Center’s offerings for professional learning, she said. In recent years, the Center has integrated a variety of academic support programs, including the Writing Center, resources for English language support and the Digital Learning and Design team.
While leading the Sheridan Center, Wright prioritized promoting undergraduate peer teaching and teaching assistantships, which she described as “central to Brown’s Open Curriculum.”
Wright helped develop the Brown Learning Collaborative, which hopes to amplify peer-to-peer learning by building upon existing initiatives like the University’s Writing Fellows program. As part of the collaborative, the Sheridan Center established the Data Science Fellows program, which allows students to help participating faculty incorporate data science tools into their undergraduate courses.
Wright also highlighted the Center’s efforts to diversify its offerings in response to the University’s Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion action plan, released in early 2016.
When asked about the challenges of leading the Center, Wright pointed to the rise of generative artificial intelligence.
“There’s a lot of potential for exciting opportunities, but I think in the (meantime), it is challenging to establish the norms on how we might think about generative AI in ways that are most helpful in promoting student learning,” she said.
After her departure, Wright hopes that the Center can play a “key role” in conversations on usage of generative AI in the classroom.
The University is searching internally for a new associate provost of AI, who will lead a committee on AI in teaching and learning in collaboration with the Sheridan Center, The Herald previously reported.
After taking on the role of associate provost for teaching and learning in 2020, Wright began engaging with University governing bodies like the College Curriculum Council to enhance teaching, learning and writing.
Wright also taught “SOC 2530: Teaching in the Social Sciences” to graduate students in her role as a research professor. “I learned so much from my students, and I hope they learned from me,” she added.
Following her departure, the Center will be led by an interim director soon to be announced, according to Wright.
While Wright’s time at the Sheridan Center has come to an end, she hopes its new leadership can continue to focus on “the three Es: advancing equitable, evidence-based and effective teaching in all modalities and for all instructors.”
Julianna Chang is a University News Editor who oversees the academics and advising and student government beats. A sophomore from the Bay Area, Julianna is studying Biology and Political Science on the pre-medical track. When she's not in class or in the office, she can be found eating some type of noodle soup and devouring bad books.
