Dr. Teri Balser
Founding Expert Advisor
Dr. Teri Balser has more than 25 years as an academic and advisor and 15 years in senior leadership. Trained as a coach and a facilitator, she brings imagination and creativity into her work and loves supporting PhD students in unlocking their fullest potential.
Professor Teri Balser is an experienced academic with strong research and teaching background and nearly fifteen years in senior and executive leadership.
During the past 20 years she has worked her way up from assistant professor to university president, with time spent as provost at two Canadian universities. She brings broad international experience, with academic appointments in the U.S., Canada and Australia. In addition, she brings an internationally recognized interdisciplinary research program and recognition as a master teacher, with specific training in leadership development, life coaching, and integral facilitation.
Appointed as Academic Advisor to Office of Human Resources at Curtin University, and Faculty Associate for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Human Resource Development, she was also Leadership Development Coordinator for American Societies of Soils, Crops, Agronomy for five years and delivered a two-day intensive leadership development program prior to each annual conference.
For two years she also delivered the same two-day intensive for the U.S. Phytopathological Society. In 2014 she was invited by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to train women university administrators in Jeddah and Riyadh, and in 2015 she delivered more than 30 talks and workshops in India as a U.S. Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair. She continues to be a regularly invited speaker and workshop facilitator, working with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific region on topics related to sustainability and the future of education. Her leadership topics include conflict management, new models of leadership, developing as a leader, and women’s leadership. Other topics include exploring the role of teachers in post-modern learning, going beyond learning outcomes, teacher development, activating learning, and harnessing motivation.
She has delivered roughly 75 talks and workshops in the past 10 years. Her sessions are active and experiential, focussing on pragmatic action and “person-centred” learning.
Former Student
“I cannot even begin to imagine the work that must have gone into assembling the team of teachers and individuals who make this project happen, though you’re more likely to hear Dr. Balser call it fun than work. Only a very special type of person dreams big like this, and then delivers. Dr. Balser is the embodiment of everything a teacher should be. She is bubbling with passion and child-like excitement for life. She is brilliant, but humble, and she is content to sing her partners’ praises while gaining her own satisfaction from making her ideas come to life. It is teachers like these who most deserved to be recognized. A true leader attracts others with their resilience, and their endless passion for making the world a better place. This is Dr. Teri Balser.”
Faculty Colleague
“I wanted to let you know that you did make a difference and definitely opened my mind to new and more effective ways of teaching. I truly believe that all your efforts and initiatives significantly contributed to make me a better teacher.”
Former Student
“Even after years of experiencing her infectious enthusiasm for teaching and learning, Teri continues to impress me with her insight, creativity, and dedication to finding better ways to help our students learn. She continues to influence my passion for science education and influenced my decision to pursue continued graduate work in Educational Psychology focusing in the Learning Sciences.”
Former Student
“I personally, deeply appreciate how Teri modeled for her graduate students and fellow faculty that one can be an incredibly successful scientist and also learn to be an exceptional, creative teacher.”