Mission of the DePeters Family Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence

The DePeters Family Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence provides the Fisher community with collaborative leadership for the design and delivery of innovative teaching and learning activities both on campus and to the broader community.

The Center encourages new and flexible instructional approaches while providing tools and processes that are both efficient and high-quality. In partnership with faculty, the Center both disseminates and contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning, preserving pedagogically sound, evidence-based teaching practices as a key guiding principle. 

Through the Center, Fisher will align the motto of our Basilian Fathers, “Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge” with the world in which our students live and learn, providing the support required to infuse teaching and learning with evolving technology, driven by pedagogy, and responsive to the world around us.

The DePeters Family Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence was created in September 2020 thanks to a $1 million gift from Jack ’73 and Donna DePeters. Jack retired from Wegmans Food Markets after 52 accomplished years of service to the food company, and in honor of his retirement, Wegmans matched the $1 million gift in December 2019.

The Center's mission is driven primarily by two key elements; pedagogical best practices and educational technologies used for teaching and learning purposes. It is key to the mission that sound, evidence-based pedagogical strategies guide the recommendations for both technology use and teaching and learning activities across campus. Aligned with this work, the Center is both informed by and, in partnership with Fisher faculty, contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The Center focuses on both enhancing the educational experience on campus, specifically related to the design and delivery of online and hybrid courses, support for flipped and active learning classes, recommendations for the design of learning spaces and the use of technology, like iPads into the classroom, as well as the support of learning for alternative audiences. This includes things like professional development offerings for non-traditional learners, those seeking continuing education credits, and executive education opportunities. These educational experiences are offered through the Fisher Next platform.