Meka named inaugural director of new Woodward Center for Excellence in Health Sciences Education
Jennifer Meka, PhD, MSEd, is the inaugural director of the new Woodward Center for Excellence in Health Sciences Education.
The Woodward Center is a realization of the ultimate goal for the Woodward Endowment since its inception in 2004. The Center will enhance the practice, quality and scholarship of learning, teaching and mentoring at Penn State College of Medicine through educational service, consultation and research. It will provide support for faculty members and other teaching health professionals seeking teaching opportunities, skills development and mentorship in their role as educators. It will help to develop the next generation of educational leaders and scholars.
The Center will ensure that the College of Medicine uses evidence-based educational methods and strives to be a leader in conducting the necessary research to do so. As part of her duties, Meka will manage the programs that support educator development; educational scholarship and research; outreach and collaborative, interprofessional communication; and the recognition of outstanding educators. Her key responsibilities include strategic planning, vision setting and oversight of day-to-day operations. She is responsible for the overall organization, functioning and continuous quality improvement of the Center.
Meka joined Penn State in 2013 as director of the Cognitive Skills Program in the College of Medicine, a position which she continues to hold in addition to serving as the director of the Office for Support in Learning and Teaching Excellence (SLATE) and is an assistant professor of psychiatry and humanities. Before joining Penn State, she served as vice president for educational systems development for five years at Performance Learning Systems/3rd Learning, an international company for educational technology where she was responsible for the conceptualization, development and implementation of online learning systems for educators.
Meka earned her PhD in elementary education from the University at Buffalo with a concentration in cognitive theory, and she has a master’s in teacher education, specializing in curriculum and instruction.
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