Who We Are
The Center for Instructional Innovation (CII) support team offers consultation and professional development with academic technologies & instructional design for faculty and staff at Western. To learn more, see Services and Who We Are.
The CII has served Western's campus community as a teaching and learning center since 1998, merging with Academic Technology and User Services (ATUS) in 2012, and again merging with the Learning Systems office of ATUS in 2025. Justina Brown directs the Center, supervises and collaborates with a small team of instructional technology specialists, coordinates with colleagues in ATUS and Outreach and Continuing Education (see Teaching & Learning Cooperative), and employs a crew of student experts.
The CII works as an integrated part of ATUS, collaborating to support instructional and technological endeavors in our campus community. To see our partners, visit How to Get Help.
Staff
AJ Barse, M.Ed.
Instructional Designer & Technologist
Contact: AJ.Barse@wwu.edu
Panopto lead, professional development creator, AI alchemist, solutions brainstormer for Canvas + third-party tools, digital accessibility advocate, OER specialist, media production maestro
David Bass, MSIS
Senior Developer for Digital Initiatives
Contact: David.Bass@wwu.edu
Software developer, AI explorer, accessibility advocate, automation and workflow solution developer
Justina Brown, M.Ed.
Senior Instructional Designer/Director
Coordinating Partner, Teaching & Learning Cooperative (TLC)
Contact: Justina.Brown@wwu.edu
CII Director, professional development creator and promoter, Socrative polling lead, Canvas grading investigator, Panopto guide, course design advisor, FERPA & accessibility enthusiast, OER specialist, AI explorer
Chris Powell
WWU Canvas Admin
Contact: CanvasHelp@wwu.edu
LMS oracle of knowledge, technology minimalist, helpful resource for macOS, Windows 11, Linux, iOS, and Android
Student Staff
The student technology assistants in the CII work as a team, assembling their complimentary talents and skills in all of our projects—whether it is a custom application for a professor or building the components of the Innovative Teaching Showcase publication. Working at the CII, students can gather useful work samples to add to their portfolios and working skills they can draw upon as they enter their new professions after graduation.
What We Believe
by Center for Instructional Innovation staff, ATUS
We work together and across departments to expand connections and research solutions. With our combined 80 years of service working at Western Washington University, we have a long track record of empowering personnel across departments and programs to promote student success and accomplish the academic mission of the university via academic systems and professional relational support. We recognize our privileges and hope to use our positions to expand access, diversify our collective knowledge, and promote ease and joy in teaching and learning. We also acknowledge when we fall short, when we must be accountable, and when we have more to learn. We honor all the teachers, authors, and sages who have guided us and continue to mentor us.
We are relational technologists. This means that we approach working with our clients as people first, regardless of role, background, identity, or affiliation at the university. We ask a lot of questions to better understand client needs, to challenge our own and our clients’ assumptions, and to be student-centered.
We partner with our clients. We listen to our clients’ needs and walk with them through the steps to find customized, personalized solutions.
We aim to destress our clients’ relationship with instructional technology and design. We share strategies with clients that align with their ideas, relieve some of the pressure points in working with technology, and creatively solve problems.
We believe that accessibility, diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism (ADEI-AR) efforts should be integrated and considered in all aspects of our work, from trainings, consultations, and communications to technology research and evaluation. We believe in creating an environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to participate fully in the teaching and learning process.
- Accessibility: We recognize that education is a transformative process that should be accessible to all individuals, regardless of their background, ability, or identity.
- Diversity: We are dedicated to creating a teaching and learning environment that celebrates diversity, represents a variety of identities and perspectives, and values holistic practices.
- Equity: We acknowledge that systemic barriers can disproportionately affect certain groups and create inequitable access to educational resources, technologies, and opportunities. We actively work to eliminate these barriers, promote equal access to technologies, and enable clients’ skills potential.
- Inclusion: We believe that inclusion is fundamental to our approach in our service to faculty. We endeavor to reach those who are excluded from our traditional domain by sharing professional development opportunities with all those who teach, support teachers, and use our academic learning systems–not just professors.
- Anti-racism: We approach our work with the understanding that higher education was formed with white supremacist roots and supports exclusionary practices. We work against this by questioning traditions, patterns, and processes to reconfigure constraints, conditions, and systems of power.
We believe that education is lifelong, can be formal or informal, comfortable or uncomfortable, linear or nonlinear, and can appear in a multitude of ways–some we have yet to imagine.
We examine and test emerging trends and relay best practices, challenges, and possibilities to our faculty. By doing so, we hope to positively impact students in gaining the knowledge and the skills necessary for their future careers.