Pamela L. Jennings
- Former National Science Foundation Program Director
- Technology Entrepreneur of Mixed-Reality and Internet-of-Things Systems
Pamela L. Jennings Speaker Biography
Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D., MBA is nationally recognized as a thought leader for integrative research and learning across the Arts and Technology. Pamela has led, taught, advocated for and supported integrative learning and research across a range of educational institutions from R1 to Arts Colleges. She has worked as a design researcher at IBM Almaden Research Center and SRI International. She has served as a National Science Foundation Program Director and led the CreativeIT program and co-led several other programs in computer science and STEM education. Pamela has been involved in several National Academies of Sciences initiatives including curating the landmark 2007 exhibition Speculative Data and the Creative Imaginary: shared visions between art and technology, and member of the National Academies of Sciences committee that published the 2018 consensus report, Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree.
As the CEO and CTO of CONSTRUKTS, Inc. Pamela is developing a mixed-reality platform for learning that connects physical block constructions to computer models that can be explored through an augmented reality headset. CONSTRUKTS strengthens learner’s spatial thinking skills while creatively exploring STEM-based concepts. The work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and has received support from Wolfram Research, Microsoft HoloLens® for Academic Research, and Highway1 Hardware Incubator.
Her engagement in technology research and product innovation is grounded by her work in digital media arts. She is a MacDowell Fellow and has been in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her projects have been presented and exhibited internationally. They are discussed in “Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists”, Oxford University Press and “Struggles for Representation: African American Film/Video/New Media Makers”, Indiana University Press.
Pamela received her doctorate from the Center for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts at the University of Plymouth School of Computing, Electronics, and Mathematics (U.K); her MBA at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; her MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts, New York City; her MA in Studio Art at the International Center of Photography & New York University Program; and her BA at Oberlin College & Conservatory.
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Speech Topics
INCLUSIVE CULTURE: increasing diversity in innovation industries
Insights from efforts to overcome the roadblocks for creating an inclusive innovation culture are discussed to understand the processes and resources required to sustain inclusive innovation cultures.
When diverse perspectives, ideas, experiences, and disciplines come together to challenge accepted norms about who is at the table innovation cultures are disrupted, finding solutions to wicked problems is enhanced, and impact and profit are increased. The NORC University of Chicago study “Being Black in Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration” sponsored by eight fortune 500 companies found that “most Black professionals are “nearly four times as likely to encounter prejudice as White professionals (58% vs. 15%)”. Black employees are 30% more likely to intend to leave a job than White employees. However, the McKinsey & Company study “Delivering through Diversity” shows a direct link between diversity and company long-term value creation.
INTEGRATIVE LEARNING: cultivating future innovators
Frameworks for integrative learning and research will be presented from the speaker’s leadership in higher education and U.S. federal research funding and policy agencies.
Institutions of higher education aspire for excellence in learning, research, and community engagement. In pursuit of excellence many institutions, from community colleges to research universities, are developing integrative learning and research initiatives that intentionally cross academic silos. The goals of these initiatives include expanding the learners’ “ways of knowing”, broadening the learning opportunities for a more diverse pool of voices, ideas, cultures, and perspectives, and to inspire innovative thinking that can lead to novel solutions for local to global challenges.
IGNITING the DRIVE – asking “what if” and “why not” from the margins
Pamela’s stories from her journeys of curiosity and patience will ignite the spark to realize your potential to become a change agent for a more just world.
The DRIVE to be authentic in a world that marginalizes difference requires the grit to realize your personal vision no matter the roadblocks that detour, deflect, and try to stop you. Drive is fueled by an ambition, to not be satisfied with the status quo because you are curious, you allow yourself to experience life, and you are not afraid of risk. Drive is the challenge to anyone who tries to erase you from your excellence. Drive is creating a space to ask, “what if” and “why not” from the margins. Drive is the fuel to connect and share experiences with people you might not know; you do not know well; or you would never know because of perceived differences. Stories from Pamela’s global travels and encounters with world citizens speak of angst and they speak of joy. They speak of shared values and they speak of the possibilities of change.
