Jess Taggart

Jessica Taggart joined the Center for Teaching Excellence in May 2020. As an Assistant Director, her work focuses on supporting instructors as they engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and navigate pedagogical implications of generative AI in higher education.

In her current work, Jessica is particularly interested in how instructors and students are responding to the emergence of generative AI. She co-leads the Faculty AI Guides program and is co-Principal Investigator on a SCHEV-funded cross-institutional SoTL initiative aimed at fostering ethical AI use across Virginia institutions.

Her recent work has been presented at the AAC&U Forum on Digital Innovation, Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, ISSOTL, POD Network conference, and Society for Research in Child Development’s Developmental Science Teaching Institute; and published in Active Learning in Higher Education, College Teaching, International Journal of SoTL, New Directions in Teaching and Learning, and To Improve the Academy. She currently serves on the POD Network’s Scholarship Committee and the Society for Research in Child Development's Teaching Committee.

Jessica graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Psychology and English. She earned her M.A. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UVA.