As the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning continues to build its competency-based curriculum and prepare for its pilot class of Design Fellows, it has hired its first faculty member.

“It was just too exciting an opportunity to pass up,” says Julianna Stockton, who will be a Faculty Mentor in Mathematics at the WW Academy. The WW Academy has “the potential to change the world. I really think Arthur [Levine’s] and the team’s vision of the future of education is spot on.”

Dr. Stockton will bring a wide range of experience to her work at the WW Academy. Most recently, she was Associate Professor of Mathematics and Director of the 3+2 Engineering Program at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. While at Sacred Heart, Julianna also served as Co-PI on a $1.2 million NSF grant to prepare math and biology majors for careers as teachers in high needs school districts.

“Every experience I’ve ever had in the classroom reinforces the conclusion that one size does not fit all,” says Dr. Stockton. “K–12 education is headed for a major change, higher education is headed for a major change—teacher preparation is the linchpin to make that happen. I saw that the Academy was looking to do that, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

An Olin Partner and member of the first graduating class of Olin College of Engineering, Julianna has first-hand experience starting a new school—just as the WW Academy’s pilot class will do. After her B.S.M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Olin, Julianna earned her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

“I’ve been answering the same question for 15 years now,” says Dr. Stockton. “‘Why did you go to Olin? Why, as a high school student, would you go to a place that didn’t even exist yet?’ She recalls saying to a skeptical guidance counselor, “How many people are going to be able to put on their resume, ‘helped to design a school?’ The opportunity then, as a student, to have a say in what was going to happen to me over the next four years was too great to pass up.”

Now, as Dr. Stockton joins the WW Academy to help build a 21st-century teacher preparation program, she is excited to embark on the educational design process once again, saying simply: “It feels like my life’s purpose.”

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The WW Academy is now looking to make its second faculty hire, this time in science. For more information click here.

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