Renée Cole
Office: W331 CB
Divisions:
Physical & Computational Chemistry
Biosketch:
- B.A., Hendrix College (1992)
- M.S., University of Oklahoma (1995)
- Ph.D, University of Oklahoma (1998)
- Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemistry Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, (1998-1999)
- Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education, 2009
- Iowa Women of Innovation Award for Academic Innovation & Leadership (Post-Secondary), 2014
- American Chemical Society Fellow, 2015
- Collegiate Fellow, UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2018-2020
Dr. Renée Cole began her faculty career at the University of Central Missouri, where she was active in both undergraduate education and teacher preparation, before moving to Iowa in 2011. She is also an associate editor for the Journal of Chemical Education and a member of the American Chemical Society’s Women Chemists Committee.
Renée’s research focuses on issues related to how students learn chemistry and how that can guide the design of instructional materials and teaching strategies as well on efforts related to faculty development and the connection between chemistry education research and the practice of teaching. She is involved as a PI in multiple interdisciplinary research projects, including the ELIPSS Project (www.elipss.com), which is developing resources for STEM instructors to assess transferable skills in the classroom, as well as for a campus initiative to increase evidence-based instructional practices across campus. She was one of the PIs for the Increase the Impact Project (www.increasetheimpact.com), which developed resources for PIs to improve the propagation of their innovations.
Renée has been active in professional development from the beginning her career, beginning with the New Traditions project, facilitating workshops for both the New Traditions project itself, as well as for the Multi-Initiative Dissemination Project, and has continued to promote faculty professional development through the POGIL project, ELIPSS project, the Increase the Impact project, and a project focusing on analytical chemistry faculty. She has facilitated workshops across the United States as well as in Australia and New Zealand to support educators in engaging students in meaningful learning.
