Northern Illinois University
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education

Elizabeth A. Wilkins, Ph.D.
Professor, Curriculum and Instruction
Coordinator of Graduate Career and Professional Development

Department

• Curriculum and Instruction
• Graduate School

Education

• Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Curriculum and Instruction (specialization in Teacher Education, Supervision, and Leadership)
• M.S. University of Illinois, Education
• B.M.E. Illinois Wesleyan University, Music Education

Administrative, Research and Teaching Responsibilities

Each semester, I create and make available career and professional development curriculum to over 4,000 masters and doctoral students across NIU's six colleges. Since launching this Graduate School office in 2016, I have built support for students by framing the curriculum around real-time labor market data. This approach to graduate career and professional development has led to outside-the-box thinking and innovative practice, with recognition from R1's and medical schools because of the design and delivery model. Also, our career courses were mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article (February 2021) due to innovation. In addition to creating and teaching the two courses (UNIV 601 and 602), I also offer and coordinate workshops/webinars that have served over 7,000 attendees to date as well as manage the Graduate School's weekly text messaging system. In January 2021, our Be.Career.Ready. podcast channel was launched where I serve as host. Finally, the use of PowerBI drives our proprietary career tools to make labor market and alumni information available to all NIU graduate students.

High-Impact Skills

• Project management
• Professional development
• Curriculum design and delivery
• Marketing (e.g., social media outreach, drip campaigns, content marketing)
• Data analytics (both quantitative and qualitative)
• Dissertation coaching

Background

As a full professor with over 30 years as a professional educator, I have worked in a variety of settings: three higher education institutions, a medical school (Department of General Surgery), a military academy, and K-12 public schools. I have delivered over 325 professional development workshops throughout the United States and abroad (i.e., Canada, China, Taiwan). I am an active researcher who has published over 40 articles, three books, and numerous book chapters. Another book chapter is currently underway (2022 publication date). Finally, I have a high success record coaching curriculum leadership doctoral students to completion of their degree.