Dr. Heather Rypkema is a founding member of the Foundational Course Initiative team, and has served as an Assessment & Analytics specialist since 2018.

She earned a B.A. in Chemistry and Physics, M.A. in Chemistry, and Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, all from Harvard University. After her postdoc at Stanford University, Heather held faculty appointments at University of Louisville (Chemistry), Purdue University (Chemistry), and University of Michigan (CLASP). She has more than 20 years of experience as an instructor in higher education, having taught as an undergraduate, graduate student, postdoc, and faculty member. As part of her FCI portfolio, she has leveraged Learning Analytics to develop evaluative tools that inform course design and promote equitable teaching practices. Her analytics work incorporates course-specific surveys and data about student engagement with instructional technology platforms as well as Canvas data and the Learning Analytics Architecture database (LARC). In 2022, Heather took on the inaugural role of Head of Learning Analytics, in order to lead the Center’s growing efforts to provide analytics services to enhance teaching across the entire University.