I am an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Global and Integrative Studies at WPI. I prepare students to become effective social science researchers, and advise them during their IQPs. Previously, I was Director of the Binienda Center for Civic Engagement at Worcester State University, and I served as the Associate Director for Research and Evaluation at the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement at Cornell University.

As the kid of academics, I grew up in an environment where reading was the best way to get time alone and data could get me out of trouble. From that, my entire career has been about data-driven storytelling. Today, I am a learning design and evaluation expert who creates innovative curricula, designs program assessments, analyzes data and communicates findings to affect social change.

As a 20-year veteran of higher education and nonprofits, I have come to believe that wise and inclusive scholarship and teaching demands that we utilize non-colonial methodologies and facilitative leadership styles. I am especially excited about the possibilities of Ripple Effect Mapping and Liberating Structures for helping us answer questions like: How does an organization make meaning out of data? How might we leverage evaluation and strategic thinking to tell new and previously invisible stories? How do we remain asset-based and future-focused? These questions excite me and the students I work with. 

My scholarly work examines the (im)possibilities of radical change agendas in organizations. Learnings about how change happens deepens my own facilitation and partnership work, and this perspective colors my teaching. I share my expertise in community-based research and education evaluation as an external evaluator for NSF and NEH grants, and in my consultancy work with Grant Street Consultants. In these roles, I learn together with colleagues, students and community members about the interactions of systems and individuals, action and inertia. 

Visit Digital WPI to view student projects advised by Professor Wittman.