Dr. Joanne Stewart
Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of ChemistryDr. Joanne Stewart is a national leader in inorganic chemistry teaching and learning, communities of practice in chemistry, and professional development for faculty. During her more than 30 years at Hope College she has taught courses in general, inorganic and organometallic chemistry and developed general education courses on abrupt climate change and on the history of our concept of time. She has led faculty development programs for Hopeɫəs Natural and Applied Sciences Division.
The focus of her Hope research group is on teaching and learning in inorganic chemistry. She and her students interview college chemistry instructors across the country to understand how faculty learn to become effective teachers. This research enables the design of effective faculty professional development programs. Her group also studies how students learn chemistry. This involves both the examination of student conceptual understanding (are they ɫɜgetting itɫɝ?) and consideration of affective influences (motivation, self-efficacy) on learning. Over her more than three decades of research to date she has mentored more than 70 student researchers and received more than $3.8 million in grant funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Mellon Foundation.
Since 2007 she has served on the leadership council of the , an NSF-supported collaborative effort to improve chemistry education by bringing current research into the classroom, facilitating collaboration by faculty at widely scattered institutions, assessing the effectiveness of various approaches to student learning, and employing those findings to create new, better learning materials. Because of the tremendous success of the IONiC community, Joanne now consults with new, emerging communities in science as they shape their missions and grow their membership.
Joanne chaired the Department of Chemistry from 1999 to 2001 and served from 2010 to 2014 as a faculty member on the Hope College Board of Trustees. From 2008 to 2012, she directed Hopeɫəs Howard Hughes Medical Institute program, which supported research and teaching in science, mathematics, psychology and education at Hope. The program led to the development of several interdisciplinary research programs at Hope and the peer-advising FACES program in the sciences. 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 over a dozen nationally-ranked liberal arts colleges.
As a graduate student at the University of California Berkeley, Joanne conducted her thesis research with Professor Richard A. Andersen on the synthesis and characterization of uranium amide and alkoxide compounds. As an undergraduate at Kalamazoo College, she conducted undergraduate research on transition metal metallocyclic compounds with Professor Thomas J. Smith and on metal-metal multiply bonded compounds with Professor Malcolm H. Chisholm. She fulfilled some of her B.A. requirements at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany. During year-long leaves from her work at Hope she has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, the University of San Diego and the University of Queensland, Australia.
She joined the Hope College Department of Chemistry in 1988.
Learn more about Dr. Stewart's current research
AREAS OF INTEREST
- Chemistry research
- Science teaching
EDUCATION
- Ph.D., inorganic chemistry, University of California Berkeley, 1988
- B.A., chemistry, Kalamazoo College, 1982
HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS
- Janet Andersen Lecture Award, Midstates Consortium for Math and Science, 2018
- Appointed to endowed chair as Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry, Hope College, 2017ɫɓpresent
- ɫɜImproving Inorganic Chemistry Education Through a Community-Developed Student-Centered Curriculum,ɫɝ National Science Foundation-IUSE grant, $1,110,260, 2017ɫɓ2022
- Schaap Fellow in Chemistry Education, Hope College, 2016ɫɓpresent
- Ruth and John Reed Faculty Achievement Award, Hope College, 2010
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant: ɫɜReaching beyond the Borders of Hope: Advancing Biomedical
- Research and Science Education at Hope College,ɫɝ Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant, $1.4 million, 2008ɫɓ2012
- Learning Fellow, Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2005ɫɓ2006
- Janet L. Anderson Excellence in Teaching Award, Hope College, 1996
Selected Publications
- ɫɜThe Postsecondary Inorganic Chemistry Instructional Laboratory Curriculum: Results from a National Surveyɫɝ (with J. R. Raker et al.), Journal of Chemical Education, 2022
- ɫɜThe Literature Discussion: A Signature Pedagogy for Inorganic Chemistryɫɝ (with B. A. Reisner), chapter in ACS Symposium Series Vol 1370: Advances in Teaching Inorganic Chemistry, Volume 1: Classroom Innovations and Faculty Development (ed. by R. M. Jones), 2020
- ɫɜTeaching from the Primary Inorganic Literature: Lessons from Richard Andersenɫɝ (with A. K. Bentley, et al.), Dalton Transactions, 2018
- ɫɜGreat Expectations: Using an Analysis of Current Practices to Propose a Framework for the Undergraduate Inorganic Curriculumɫɝ (with B. A. Reisner et al.), Inorganic Chemistry, 2015
- Connected Science: Strategies for Integrative Learning in College (with co-editors T. A. Ferrett, D. R. Geelan and W. M. Schlegel), Indiana University Press, 2013
- ɫɜIONiC: A Cyber-Enabled Community of Practice for Improving Inorganic Chemical Educationɫɝ (with E. Benatan et al.), Journal of Chemical Education, 2009
Selected Recent Workshop Presentations
- ɫɜ,ɫɝ webinar for the IONiC community, 2020
- ɫɜGlobal Liberal Arts Allies in STEM (GLAAS): Faculty Development Workshop for Science Faculty in the Global Liberal Arts Allianceɫɝ (with H. Eppley, L. Watson and A. Misseyani), College of Deree (Athens, Greece), 2017
- ɫɜOrganometallica at the Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistryɫɝ NSF workshop (with A. Johnson et al.), University of Michigan, 2016
- ɫɜHetero-genius Catalysis at the Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistryɫɝ NSF workshop (with A. Johnson et al.), University of Washington, 2015
- ɫɜSolid State Materials for Alternative Energy Needsɫɝ NSF workshop (with B. A. Reisner et al.), Pennsylvania State University, 2013
View all of Dr. Stewartɫəs publications and presentations
Outside the College
Joanne started her adventures in chemical education as part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored ChemLinks consortium in the mid ɫə90s. She continues to thrive at making ɫɜlinksɫɝ among scientists in the scientific universe. In fact, her nickname in the IONiC community (and her Twitter handle) is ɫɜoracleofjoɫɝ because sheɫəs known for being a good listener, giving wise advice and knowing everyone in the chemistry world. Joanne doesnɫət believe in work-life balance, instead hoping to someday achieve something more like work-life transcendence. She does believe in spending time with her family, working for safety and rights in her community, and fitness training at the gym.
616.395.7634
stewart@hope.eduA. Paul Schaap Science Center 2057 35 East 12th Street Holland, MI 49423-3605