Woden Teachout, Training Director

Woden is an expert in adult education, online learning, and intercultural learning. With an undergraduate degree in social science and a master’s in history, she earned her PhD in American Studies from Harvard University in 2003. Her first job was at a college designed for working adults, many of them first generation students. This experience deeply shaped her in its exposure to adult learning principles, transparent teaching, and transformative education. She has taught at a variety of progressive institutions (Antioch, Union Institute & University, Goddard College) as well as more traditional ones (Harvard, Middlebury). She has advised graduate students in online and low residency settings for over 15 years. She has won multiple teaching awards, including the Alan Heimert Teaching Prize at Harvard, and has been recognized as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Woden has deep international experience. As a Fulbright Scholar to Kyrgyzstan, she co-led a research project on bride kidnapping and taught in a regional university. This experience brought her into faculty development, as she was frequently called on to consult on both teaching and research. Since then, she has taught graduate students training to be English teachers in Romania, focusing on the integration of active learning. She developed and taught the first-year writing curriculum at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, focusing on developing latent academic writing skills. She has done multiple projects with American Councils for International Education. She guided Uzbek professors in a masterclass on curriculum development, in which they used the principles of Backwards Design to develop the university’s first American Studies course. She led an international team of Russian-American faculty developing a competency framework for online course design, and is currently collaborating with the Central Asian Researchers Network out of Lehigh University. She has also worked with faculty from Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, China, and Japan. 

In designing the Incubator, Woden has drawn on multiple streams of experience: working with first-generation doctoral students in the United States, and collaborating with universities across Europe, Africa, Russia, and Central Asia to enhance faculty development and academic writing support. From these, she brings the importance of transparent teaching of implicit norms; the importance of dedicated time to apply principles to one’s own work; differentiated entry points; a cohort-based experience to enhance community; and longitudinal support. 

She is committed to the public-facing dissemination of research. She is the author of two books published in trade presses: Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism (Basic Books) and Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision-making Back Home (Chelsea Green). Her work has appeared in major outlets such as The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and C-SPAN Book TV. These experiences have taught her the importance of translating academic research into clear, accessible, engaging public messaging. Her students have published scholarly books, public-facing books, and blogs, developed traveling exhibits, and given a TED talk. 

As the current Manager of Faculty Development at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education, she designs and facilitates trainings, onboards new instructors, and mentors faculty. This role, and her work with a POD Connects group in the Scholarship of Educational Development, keep her in the heart of innovations in educational development.