Dr. Jack Prostko, Associate Dean for Learning and Faculty Affairs, retired from CPS on March 31 after 12 years of service.
Dr. Prostko joined the College in 2008 as the Director of Faculty Personnel. He served in his most recent position as Associate Dean since his 2012 promotion.
“From start to finish Jack provided stellar service, wise counsel, and a calming influence on all things CPS. He will be greatly missed and we all wish him the very best in his retirement,” said Christopher J. Deering, CPS Interim Dean.
During his twelve years of service to the College, he has been instrumental in creating a faculty community and providing educational best practices, in-person teaching evaluations and feedback to our extended faculty community.
He worked closely with CPS Program Directors and faculty to develop innovative and engaging curricula across the College's wide range of academic programs. He assisted faculty in creating effective learning opportunities both in the classroom and online---working with them on their syllabi, course materials, assignments and teaching methods and strategies.
Prostko also championed the College's strategic plan initiative to improve online education with the creation of CPS' Online Learning Support team. This group has brought Quality Matters metrics to the design of all of our online classes.
He has led the efforts to expand our in-house capabilities and staffing to support our online and hybrid programs, while successfully planning and executing the in-house transition of most of our externally run online partnership programs.
In addition, he served on GW's Teaching and Learning Collaborative Advisory Board and worked with colleagues in other GW Colleges and programs to help coordinate collaborative teaching improvement efforts.
Most recently, Prostko and his team worked tirelessly to support faculty used to teaching in the face-to-face programs, as they needed to shift to online learning mid-semester in response to COVID-19.
“Jack has been a strong, dependable colleague and friend; over his tenure at CPS, he set a high standard for excellence in teaching and learning in every one of our programs. We will miss his insights, his humor and his supportive attitude,” said Adele Ashkar, Associate Dean for Academic Excellence.
Before starting the faculty development program at CPS in 2008, he was the Director of Faculty Development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he founded the Faculty Development Center and supported teaching initiatives for all undergraduate and graduate programs. Prior to his work at UMBC, he was the Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Stanford University.
He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Stanford and taught in the English Department at Vanderbilt University.
As we hear he will be living in Hawaii during retirement, we say mahalo, or thank you, once again for all your contributions to the College. You have left the College in a much better place and have earned our sincere gratitude for your service.