SUBJECT:

Faculty Director, Teaching + Learning Commons

Following 32 years of outstanding service to UC San Diego, Dr. Gabriele
Wienhausen, Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Cell and
Developmental Biology Section of the Division of Biological Sciences and
inaugural Faculty Director of the Teaching + Learning Commons, has
announced her retirement effective July 1, 2019.

Professor Wienhausen received her Ph.D. from Westfälische Wilhelms
Universität in 1979 and joined the UC San Diego faculty in 1987. Her
research is focused on how to promote "meaningful learning" in college
science teaching, and how to facilitate the development of effective
problem solving skills.

A consummate educator and administrator, Dr. Wienhausen has provided
extraordinary vision, coordinated diverse constituencies, and worked
tirelessly in several leadership roles that profoundly impact students.
In 2015, she was appointed inaugural Faculty Director of the Teaching +
Learning Commons (The Commons), established with the aim to
significantly enhance teaching and learning at UC San Diego, and to
further our campus' strategic goal to become a more student-centered
university. She has since established an exceptional leadership team and
organized the Commons into six hubs that provide programs and services
for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and
faculty: Engaged Teaching, Academic Achievement, Digital Learning,
Writing + Critical Expression, Education Research and Assessment, and
Experiential Learning. They work together as a single entity that
promotes integration, connection, and ongoing assessment of initiatives
leading to an engaged educational environment.

As Associate Dean for Education in the Division of Biological Sciences
from 2007 to 2015, Professor Wienhausen provided leadership for the
strategic and operational aspects of the Division's educational mission.
Her broad portfolio as Associate Dean included increasing the
effectiveness of the faculty's teaching, promoting the needs of a
diverse faculty and student body, improving the quality of the
educational experience for the Division's undergraduate and graduate
students, and facilitating the implementation of educational activities
with other schools and other departments on campus, as well as with
community and K-12 schools. In this role she established the Center for
Discovering Opportunities in Biological Sciences (do/bio), which
supports student curricular and co-curricular engagement, intellectual
explorations and professional development. She also established the
BioPath Program, to help prepare Ph.D. students for a broad range of
career paths ranging from faculty positions at research universities and
teaching colleges through positions in private industry to leadership
roles in science communication and policy.

Dr. Wienhausen served as founding Provost of Sixth College from 2000 to
2007. She led the Sixth College Steering Committee, which developed the
College’s innovative academic plan and a broad vision for delivering a
novel approach to undergraduate education, at the core of which is Sixth
College's three-quarter sequence for freshmen, Culture, Art and
Technology (CAT). The plan was unanimously approved by the Academic
Senate Representative Assembly. Also embedded in Sixth College's
educational vision is the Practicum requirement for seniors, which aims
to educate effective global citizens who are innovative, interconnected
and aware. The Practicum engages students in service learning through
communal work in both local and global communities while fostering an
ethical obligation to service, promoting civic engagement and global
consciousness, challenging students to connect their academic education
to surrounding communities locally, nationally and globally.

Professor Wienhausen also served as founding faculty member and
co-director of the UC San Diego/ SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Math and
Science Education, Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded PRIME
international summer research program, Principal Investigator for the
Howard Hughes Science Enrichment Program, founding co-director of the
COSMOS summer math and science initiative, co-founder of the Global TIES
multidisciplinary internship program, and co-founder of the Center for
Advancing Multidisciplinary Scholarship for Excellence in Education
(CAMSEE), a diverse group of UC San Diego community members committed to
advancing teaching and learning. She is a recipient of numerous teaching
awards including the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award,
Chancellor’s Associates Faculty Excellence Award in Undergraduate
Teaching, and College teaching awards from Revelle, Muir and Warren. She
has been recognized with the Athena Pinnacle Award and the YWCA TWIN
award.

Please join us in expressing our sincere gratitude to Dr. Wienhausen for
her many lasting contributions to our University, and in wishing her
every happiness in her retirement. Her wise counsel, boundless
creativity, and tireless dedication to educational excellence will be
sorely missed. Dr. Wienhausen has graciously agreed to return on recall
to provide continuity of leadership for the Commons until a new Faculty
Director is identified. A search for her successor will commence early
in the fall quarter.

Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons Executive Vice Chancellor