Strategic Plan Implementation Teams

Our new strategic plan, Solution Seekers, outlines the steps we will take in the coming years to elevate vocation, expand innovation, and sustain our community. As the work gets underway, four implementation teams are charged with turning those steps into reality. Each week for the next month, we will use this space in This Week to highlight one of the implementation teams and provide an update on their work.

This week: the Innovation Hub Implementation Team. This team is led by Chief Information Officer for Libraries and IT Roberta Lembke ’81 and Associate Provost and Professor of Physics Jason Engbrecht. Vice President for Community and Belonging Eduardo Pazos and Vice President for Business and Finance and Chief Financial Officer Mike Berthelsen are the PLT sponsors. Team members include:

• Professor of Spanish and CILA Co-Director Maggie Broner
• Professor of Political Science and Institute for Freedom and Community Director Chris Chapp
• Director of Research and Instructional Technology Ben Gottfried
• Anna Grace ’26
• Piper Center Associate Director Leslie Moore ’77
• Assistant Director of Creative Experience Ezra Plemons
• Director of Creative Services Fernando Sevilla
• Professor of Art and Art History and Department Chair Nancy Thompson
• Professor Emeritus of Biology Dave Van Wylen ’80

The team is charged with:

• Leading the creation of an Innovation Hub in Rolvaag Memorial Library where faculty, staff, students, and community members can gather to connect, create, collaborate, and innovate.
• Designing the physical space for the Innovation Hub through a process that includes stakeholder input sessions, an assessment of technical requirements, and a review of accessibility considerations.
• Outlining how the Innovation Hub’s programming will support St. Olaf’s centers of excellence, academic programs, and curriculum. 
• Creating an operational plan that addresses facility management, staffing needs, budget requirements, and ongoing support for Innovation Hub programs and services.
• More information can be found in the Innovation Hub Implementation Team’s charter, which is a working document intended to guide the team’s progress.

The team began its work by surveying potential Innovation Hub occupants to document not only their space and resource needs, but also opportunities for collaboration with other programs. The team also conducted a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, and is analyzing data on how existing spaces and programs — including DiSCO, the Makerspace, CILA, and other centers — are used. Members of the team have started visiting highly regarded innovation spaces at other colleges and universities to get a firsthand look at how those spaces are designed and used, and those visits will continue into May. They will next develop a detailed occupancy plan, and they will present their roadmap for the 2025-26 academic year — which will focus on the construction and creation of the physical space in Rolvaag — in May.