Principal:
Ryan Derby-Talbot PhD
Current Vice President: Dean and Chief Financial Officer of the College at Deep Springs College in California, a two-year college featuring a rigorous liberal arts program alongside a program of student self-governance and labor on an active cattle ranch.
Served as the Chief Academic Officer at Quest University Canada and Fulbright University Vietnam, start-up liberal arts universities with innovative models emphasizing interdisciplinarity, active and experiential learning, and novel approaches to higher education.
Leader of Fulbright’s “Co-Design Year” of faculty-student work based in design thinking to develop the initial undergraduate program for launch.
Celebrated mathematics professor and winner of the American University in Cairo’s School of Science and Engineering’s Outstanding Teaching Award.
Public speaker on new and student-centered approaches to higher education (see TEDx talk here).
More than 15 years of experience teaching and working internationally (Japan, Egypt, Canada, Vietnam, USA) in a range of teaching and learning university environments, including those featuring: block plan, quarter, and semester schedules; active on-campus classes and off-campus experiential learning programs; individualized approaches to education; new approaches to faculty recruitment, development, and governance; novel faculty development initiatives and activities.
Experience leading institutional design initiatives, faculty development activities, active- and discovery-based teaching development workshops, and research on innovational approaches to higher education.