Jenny Frederick serves as the Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives. Jenny helps advance university priorities in teaching and learning and oversees a portfolio of academic support units. She also leads the university-wide effort to advance Yale’s AI strategy.
As founding executive director of the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning in 2014, Jenny has been instrumental in the Center’s creation and support of all aspects of student learning and faculty pedagogy. Under her leadership, the Poorvu Center has developed the Faculty Teaching Initiatives team, the Academic Strategies Program, and the Educational Program Assessment service, and expanded its footprint to bring teaching and learning resources to the north end of campus (Poorvu North). In 2024, Jenny participated in the Yale Taskforce on Artificial Intelligence to develop the institution’s AI priorities and make recommendations for investments to improve educational policy and provide curricular guidance. Building on that work, she now leads the university-wide effort to advance Yale’s AI strategy by supporting development of resources, infrastructure, and training focused on AI.
Jenny leads the AI Faculty Working Group, co-chairs the University AI Steering Committee, and, in partnership with a faculty chair, leads the Poorvu Center Advisory Board.
Prior to joining Yale, Jenny held teaching and research-focused faculty positions at the University of Bridgeport and Western Connecticut State University before returning to Yale in 2007 to focus on educational development. Beyond Yale, Jenny served for many years as the principal investigator on an award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to support a national STEM faculty development initiative, the Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching. She designs and leads mentorship and leadership training for HHMI scientists and other organizations.
Jenny holds a BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and a PhD in chemistry from Yale.