Jodi Eastberg Named Executive Director of Center for Academic Excellence

Jodi Eastberg, Ph.D., professor of history, has been named executive director of Alverno College’s Center for Academic Excellence. The appointment was effective August 1.

In this new role, Eastberg will provide leadership for Alverno’s Center for Academic Excellence (CAE), and partner with Alverno faculty and staff to provide opportunities for high achieving students to get the most from their college education. Launched in the fall of 2015, the CAE offers student-faculty research fellowships, intensive courses, conference and study abroad experiences and fellowships, seminars, and the Doherty Scholars program. Data shows that students who engage in academically rigorous programs and co-curricular opportunities have significantly higher success reaching their educational goals. Alverno’s CAE provides multiple opportunities for this type of individualized and high-impact academic engagement.

Because of the Center’s strong focus on meaningful research opportunities, Eastberg will also oversee the Alverno College Research Center for Women and Girls. With a focus on providing research that supports the understanding and improvement of the lives of women and girls, the Research Center for Women and Girls will provide another platform for the substantial in-depth academic opportunities that will allow high-ability students and faculty researchers to engage directly with the community.

Eastberg began teaching at Alverno in 2005 and most recently served as chair of the history department. In 2014, she and a colleague developed and led an interdisciplinary course on coastal cities which studied Milwaukee - investigating the ways culture, economic development, political dynamics and the environment are affected by its location on the water. The semester culminated in a trip to coastal cities along the Baltic Sea: Gdansk, Poland; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Kalmar and Malmö, Sweden. Eastberg was promoted to professor in May 2017.

About Alverno College

Alverno College promotes the academic, personal and professional development of its students in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Undergraduate programs for women are offered in more than 60 areas of study, and graduate programs in education, nursing, community psychology and business are open to women and men.

A leader in higher education innovation, Alverno has earned international accolades for its highly effective ability-based, assessment-as-learning approach to education, which emphasizes hands-on experience and develops in-demand skills. The College has consulted with three U.S. presidential administrations on accountability and outcomes in higher education and for the past eight years has been ranked one of the top five schools in the Midwest doing “the best job of educating undergrads” by U.S. News & World Report.

Based in Milwaukee, Wis., Alverno College is a four-year independent, Catholic, liberal arts college.