June 29, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to share with you that I have appointed Michael Bridges as the Executive Director of the University Center for Teaching and Learning (UCTL), effective July 1, 2023. He has served as Interim Executive Director over the last year to great success. With this appointment, he will report directly to the Provost.
Many of you, I know, have worked with Mike and members of the UCTL team over time. In my own experience, I have found that Mike and I share a common sense of the critical importance of the University Center for Teaching and Learning to the University of Pittsburgh. With this sense of purpose, along with his vision, knowledge, and experience, he is the right person to help lead our efforts to provide innovation and excellence in support of on-campus teaching, learning, assessment, diversity in the curriculum, and other teaching activities across the institution.
Mike brings over 30 years of higher education experience to this role—with expertise in faculty development, program architecture and design, course design, educational technology, and online learning. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, Mike was the Executive Director of Online Learning & Strategy at Duquesne University. He was previously the Vice President for Educational Strategy and Excellence at iCarnegie Global Learning and has held leadership roles in faculty development at Carnegie Mellon and UPMC St. Margaret Hospital. He frequently speaks at other institutions, and his book, How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (co-authored with past colleagues), synthesizes the research on how people learn into a set of fundamental principles that can guide instructors in the design, development, and delivery of their courses.
Mike earned his PhD in social psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, where he still teaches a course in survey research design.
Please join me in congratulating Mike as he embraces this new assignment.
Best,
Ann
Ann E. Cudd
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor
Professor of Philosophy
University of Pittsburgh