Cassandra Volpe Horii

B.A., Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder
Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

Having focused her professional career in higher education on faculty development, teaching and learning, curricular development, and assessment, Cassandra is delighted to be part of the growing and vibrant academic community at Curry College. Her primary responsibilities as Dean of Faculty include faculty support (internal/external funding and professional development opportunities for teaching and scholarship), assessment and reaccreditation, and academic planning related to the faculty.

Prior to joining the Office of Academic Affairs, Cassandra served as Associate Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University, where she led and coordinated initiatives (e.g., programs for teaching consultants, writing fellows, and pedagogical inquiry and assessment) and consulted widely with faculty across the disciplines on teaching, course design, and general education. She has taught courses in first-year expository writing, environmental science for non-science majors, and environmental chemistry for majors and graduate students. Her published articles and presentations have addressed topics such as student writing in the sciences, adult learning theories, peer teaching mentors, and learner-centered teaching. Other research interests include organizational change, adoption of classroom inquiry/assessment practices, and transformative teaching and learning in higher education.

Cassandra received her undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she worked on spectroscopic techniques for measuring trace gases in the atmosphere, and also investigated learning in college science curricula through the lens of cognitive development theories. Her doctoral studies in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University focused on novel instrumentation and measurements in Atmospheric Chemistry.