UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In 1984, Jackie Bortiatynski began graduate school at Penn State in a cohort of 40 with only nine women, including herself, and graduated with a doctoral degree in chemistry in 1990. Since then, she completed a postdoctoral degree and became a research associate in fuel science through the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, taught in the Penn State Eberly College of Science’s Department of Chemistry, and led the Cada R. and Susan Wynn Grove Center for Excellence in Science Education. Now, after 34 years of serving Penn State and the Eberly College of Science, Bortiatynski will begin the next phase in her journey — retirement.
As a graduate student, she started mentoring undergraduates, and when she became a research associate, she continued that mentor role for graduate and postdoctoral students. During the summers in between 2000 and 2006, Bortiatynski led Science-U camps, where she covered everything from food science to the TV show “MythBusters.” She said it was because of mentorship from a colleague with formal teacher training that she started to think differently about the way she taught.
Her career then pivoted from teaching chemistry to teaching professional development and mentorship when she accepted the position of director of the Grove Center in 2010.
“I was offered the position for the Grove Center, and I was terrified but excited to see if I could build something,” Bortiatynski said. “I continued quite a bit of my teaching in chemistry, but I eventually had to cut back my teaching there and focus on teaching professional development and mentorship of students.”
In 2018 and during Bortiatynski’s time as director of the Grove Center, the Evidence-Based Teaching Academy as it’s known in the college, was born. Wendy Hanna-Rose, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, led its creation, and the first version was presented by center faculty in 2015 at Fudan University in China. After other offerings of this program in China and Croatia in 2017, Hanna-Rose lobbied for the program to be offered to the Eberly College of Science, which led to the Evidence-Based Teaching Academy beginning at Penn State in 2018.
This program brings together instructors in the college to share evidence-based teaching methods, and it features peer-to-peer learning and practical application.
“Wendy Hanna-Rose was an executive board member in the Grove Center at the time, and I am proud to say that I was a member of that team,” Bortiatynski said. “I want to give credit to Wendy for her leadership in getting EBTA started and for making it a permanent part of the Grove Center.”
As Bortiatynski reflected on her 34-year career with Penn State, she shared a few projects that she said she had a privilege to be a part of: Science-U camps, the college’s Climate and Diversity Committee, and the Grove Center.
“The science camp experience was really important, and I’m proud of it because it allowed me to see teaching science from a different frame,” she said. “I’m also proud of the fact that I was on the Climate and Diversity Committee when we came up with the principles that we have about our community and the culture of our college.”
Throughout working on those projects and many more, Bortiatynski crossed paths with those she is proud to call her colleagues and mentors. One mentor that she said stood out to her was Lloyd Jackman, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Penn State. Jackman, who died in 2023, had led the Jackman Group, which Bortiatynski was a part of as a graduate student.
“I was fortunate enough to find Lloyd Jackman, who was an incredible mentor and friend, and just absolutely brilliant,” she said. “I don’t know how much luckier I could have been; he wanted us to be great scientists as well as great human beings, not just tools for research.”
Bortiatynski shared some pieces of advice, which she modeled after her own career and experiences.
“Take a chance,” she said. “I took a chance on a lot of different things. You also have to be willing to do a little extra on your own, because you’ll never know unless you push yourself that extra bit. Sometimes opportunities aren’t going to come to you, you have to go to them.”
During her time at Penn State, Bortiatynski received various awards such as the Teaching Innovation Award in 2024, George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2019, the Priestley Teaching Award in 2018, and more.
After her retirement, Bortiatynski said she plans to engage in one of her favorite hobbies — cooking. She plans to take cooking classes and make a family cookbook with her three grandsons. She said she’s looking forward to traveling with her husband and attending science seminars as a participant, instead of an organizer.
A few of Bortiatynski’s colleagues shared what working with her meant to them.
“So much of the long-term, collaborative educational progress our college has made is due to Jackie’s thoughtful innovation and ability to bring people together with a shared sense of purpose,” said Mary Beth Williams, acting dean of the Eberly College of Science. “She has been a steadfast champion for our faculty’s instructional innovation, emphasizing creativity combined with inclusive, evidence-based methods in developing resources for teaching and learning that improve our students’ success and truly set them up to be future leaders in their fields.”
“One of Jackie’s many strengths is her ability to build community and connect people,” said Jennelle Malcos, associate dean for undergraduate education in the Eberly College of Science. “From the first day I started working in the Center for Excellence in Science Education, now the Grove Center, she always included me in discussions across campus and even universities, so I had the opportunity to meet others and feel part of the team. This was empowering and, ultimately, helped me grow many value skills I now use every day.”
