Dr. Joanne Stewart, who is the Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry at Hope College, is being honored as part of the leadership team that developed and guides a national network for faculty who teach inorganic chemistry.
She and colleagues from two other institutions are co-receiving the from the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) for their foundational and ongoing involvement in IONiC (the 鈥淚nteractive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists鈥�).
Stewart is sharing the award with Dr. Adam Johnson, who is professor of chemistry and associate department chair at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California; and Dr. Barbara Reisner, who is a professor of inorganic and materials chemistry at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Johnson devised the concept for IONiC, which was established in 2007, and served on its leadership council through 2019. Reisner and Stewart were both among IONiC鈥檚 initial developers and have each continued to serve on the leadership council since the beginning. They will be honored during this year鈥檚 NESACS awards banquet and ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 14, in Boston, Massachusetts.
鈥淭his year鈥檚 award celebrates these three champions of chemistry education representing the IONiC team who have developed a community that supports faculty change and enables the advancement of student-centered active learning approaches for teaching in the chemical sciences,鈥� the . 鈥淭his concept has allowed participating faculty to expand their networks beyond the walls of individual institutions across the country and worldwide.鈥�
that a current or former member of the Hope chemistry faculty has received the recognition. Dr. William Polik, who is the Edward & Elizabeth Hofma Professor of Chemistry at Hope 鈥� and is also Stewart鈥檚 husband 鈥� received the award in 2009. Dr. Michel Doyle, who taught at Hope from 1968 to 1984 and is currently a professor and the Rita and John Feik Distinguished Chair in Medicinal Chemistry at The University of Texas at San Antonio, was honored in 1995. Dr. Jerry Mohrig, who taught at Hope from 1964 to 1967 and taught at Carleton College from 1967 until retiring in 2003 as the Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor in the Natural Sciences, was honored in 1989.
(for 鈥淰irtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource鈥�) provide a way for inorganic chemistry faculty to engage with colleagues around the country to share strategies for enhancing their teaching, and to share exercises for others to use in their classrooms and laboratories. The online resources include more than 1,300 lessons in a variety of subfields within organic chemistry, and more than 80 professional-development webinars, named SLiThErs (for 鈥淪upporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: A Hosted, Engaging Roundtable鈥�) or NanoCHAts. All of the material shared on VIPEr is free and available to anyone who wants it. (Although IONiC, VIPEr and SLiThErS are acronyms, the capitalization reflects that they also integrate elemental symbols on the Periodic Table.) Other resources include a Discord site for online conversations as well as in-person workshops.
鈥淚ONiC originally developed because we wanted to solve the problem of professional isolation,鈥� Stewart said. 鈥淢any inorganic-chemistry faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions might be the only one there with that specialization.鈥�
IONiC has more than 3,100 registered users. The community was up and running well before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, but Stewart noted that it proved especially helpful during the period that followed.
鈥淗aving the group active and available during the pandemic was a Godsend, because we all had to teach remotely,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e all supported one another through that transition.鈥�
Based on IONiC鈥檚 success, Stewart is working with Reisner and Dr. Jeffrey Raker of the chemistry faculty at the University of South Florida to extend the model to 10-15 other subdisciplines in chemistry, such as organic chemistry and green chemistry, and to connect those groups together in a 鈥渃ommunity of communities.鈥� She鈥檚 working on organizing a conference at Hope for the project in the summer of 2025.
鈥淭he goal is just to support one another, to learn from one another, and to build bridges across communities, because social science research has shown that if you have informal communities of practice with multiple bridges between them, you can promote social change,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd the social change we鈥檙e looking for is improved teaching and learning in chemistry using more student-centered, evidence-based approaches.鈥�
Stewart, whose service to Hope also includes directing the college鈥檚 new Center for Teaching and Learning Initiative, has been active at the national level for nearly three decades in efforts to enhance science education. She was a 2005-06 Carnegie Scholar in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), which engaged 21 college and university faculty in projects that explored the integration of learning across courses, over time, and between campus and community life. In 2012 she was named a Teagle Pedagogy Fellow in the 鈥淟attice for Pedagogical Research and Practice鈥� program developed by the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) to enhance student learning and achievement. She co-founded the West Michigan chapter of the Association for Women in Science and served as its secretary from 2016 to 2019. As a member of external review teams, she has helped evaluate the chemistry departments at more than a dozen nationally-ranked liberal arts colleges.
She has been involved with the writing and administration of multiple grants worth more than $3.9 million from agencies and organizations including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), for projects focused on science education nationally as well as on the Hope campus. Through the years, she has made presentations on interdisciplinary learning and communities of practice at off-campus workshops sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, the NSF and the HHMI, among others. She co-edited the 2013 book 鈥淐onnected Science,鈥� focused on making college science education more effective and engaging.
In 2016, the Midstates Consortium for Math and Science presented her with a Janet Andersen Lecture Award, presented to faculty who have vigorous research programs involving undergraduates, who are exceptional mentors for undergraduate research students, who are engaged and skilled teachers, or who create interdisciplinary research opportunities for undergraduate students. She has mentored more than 70 undergraduates in collaborative research, in both her current education-focused initiatives and in her work in synthetic inorganic chemistry.
In 1996, she was one of the first two recipients of the college鈥檚 Provost鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Teaching (now the Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award). In 2009, she was chosen to speak through the 鈥淟ast Lecture Series鈥� organized by the college鈥檚 chapter of the national Mortar Board honorary society. She was named the college鈥檚 first Schaap Fellow in Chemistry Education in 2016. She is a past faculty representative to the college鈥檚 Board of Trustees.
Stewart is a graduate of Kalamazoo College and completed her doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley.
Founded in 1876 and chartered by the United States Congress, is one of the world鈥檚 largest scientific organizations with more than 200,000 individuals within its global community across 140 countries, and serves as a champion for chemistry, its practitioners and its members.
The annual James Flack Norris award was first national award to recognize outstanding achievement in the teaching of chemistry, and honors dedicated teachers of chemistry at any level whose efforts have had a wide-ranging effect on chemical education. of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) established the award in 1950 to honor the memory of James Flack Norris (1871-1940), an esteemed teacher who was professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, chair of the NESACS in 1904 and ACS president during 1925-26.