Stephanie Richter
Director of Teaching Excellence and Support Stephanie Richter’s responsibilities include providing leadership on professional development and instructional support for faculty, instructors, teaching staff and teaching assistants. Under her leadership, the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) offered more that 130 trainings and 2,000 consultations to faculty, staff and teaching assistants during the last academic year.
In March of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the university made the decision to extend spring break and pivot to remote delivery of online courses, Stephanie took on the responsibility of securing a plan to provide training and development for all faculty at a scale never before experienced.
This support during March 2020 alone included offering over 40 workshops attended by more than 450 faculty from across 70 departments. These efforts continued over spring and summer as CITL team members developed a three-week online bootcamp for faculty to convert their summer and fall courses for remote delivery under Stephanie’s leadership.
While that’s impressive on its own, Stephanie’s commitment and dedication to the university extends well beyond the leadership and professional development she provides through her role in CITL. She is also extensively involved in several initiatives that have advanced and continue to advance the university’s mission, vision and values.
“On countless occasions I’ve witnessed Stephanie step up and willingly take on responsibilities that far exceeded her job duties and expectations, working long hours over nights and weeks to ensure a successful outcome for the university,” said Stephanie’s supervisor Jason Rhode, associate vice provost for Teaching, Learning and Digital Education.
In 2015-16 Stephanie volunteered to serve on the NIU Program Prioritization Administrative Task Force, a time-intensive commitment that involved reviewing data on 250 administrative programs and drafting recommendations for prioritization of resources across the university. In 2018 she participated in the university’s accreditation self-study for the Higher Learning Commission which required collecting, analyzing and evaluating data and evidence to demonstrate that quality education was provided across all NIU course offerings.
In 2020 Stephanie was tapped to serve on a committee to review the university’s learning management system, Blackboard. She worked many hours reviewing feedback from faculty, staff and students on not only their current satisfaction with Blackboard but also what features are desired in a modern LMS to support innovative teaching and learning.
Most recently, Stephanie has stepped up to serve on the newly formed Learning Spaces Shared Leadership Team and is also serving as an accreditation criterion chair for the critical comprehensive review by the Higher Learning Commission of NIU in 2023-24.
While Stephanie has accomplished many things and impacted many people at NIU, her influence is felt far and wide. Seeing the need for her staff as well as instructional support staff at other institutions around the Chicagoland to network and keep current with their skills, Stephanie founded and currently leads the Chicago-Area Blackboard User Group (CHiA-BUG). She has organized and led three face-to-face events and two virtual events, bringing together nearly 60 instructional support staff from over 50 colleges and universities to expand their skills in supporting the next generation Blackboard platform. She has also been invited by Blackboard to join their prestigious Blackboard Community Leadership Circle in 2022, further amplifying her voice and influence on behalf of NIU with the community of Blackboard users around the world.
