Jennifer Keys
Jennifer Keys serves as Senior Director of Northwestern University's Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and holds a courtesy appointment as Professor of Practice in Northwestern's Department of Sociology.
Over the past five years, Jennifer has guided the Searle Center's growth as a hub for institutional learning and educational change, advancing Northwestern's commitment to teaching excellence and student success. Under her leadership, the Center has expanded its role as a trusted thought partner to instructors, programs, schools, and academic leaders as they respond to changing student needs and emerging opportunities in higher education, including generative AI. Guided by the Center's commitment to critical reflection, multi-vocal evidence, and collaboration, she works at the intersection of people, systems, and ideas, helping create the conditions in which students and educators can thrive. Jennifer serves in several university leadership roles, including co-chairing Northwestern's Assessment and Accreditation Council, where she helped lead the university's successful Higher Learning Commission reaccreditation efforts and continues to advance institutional strategies that promote meaningful assessment, student learning, and continuous improvement.
Before joining Northwestern, Jennifer served as Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning and founding Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence at North Central College. As a tenured professor of sociology, she taught courses on social change, families and intimate relationships, qualitative research methods, and power-based personal violence. Her teaching emphasized active and collaborative learning, critical reflection, and the belief that high challenge paired with meaningful support creates the conditions for transformative learning.
Using a sociological lens, Jennifer's scholarship explores how institutions can build capacity for learning, belonging, and change by creating the relationships, communities, and infrastructure that support meaningful educational experiences. Recent publications include a chapter with Laura Ferdinand (2026) that explores Sparkshops as an innovative model for empowering faculty to cultivate student belonging. With sociologists Jamie Mullaney and Kristin Geraty (2023), she examined the work of midlevel academic leaders and strategies for department chairs to manage emotional labor. Her chapter with Abiodum Gòkè-Pariolá in the International Handbook of Case Studies of Faculty Development Centers (2023) considers the role centers for teaching and learning can play in expanding community, infrastructure, and faculty capacity. She is also co-editor, with Mara Berkland, of the forthcoming volume The Well-Equipped Traveler: Disciplinary Maps to Guide Your Journey (Iowa State University Digital Press). Drawing on learning science, inclusive teaching, and disciplinary expertise, the book offers an alternative to traditional college success guides by helping students explore common challenges through structured inquiry rather than anecdote, building confidence while introducing them to the intellectual practices of academic life.
University Committees:
- Alpha of Illinois Chapter at Northwestern University
- Assessment and Accreditation Council (co-chair)
- STEM Education Advisory Board (Convener)