When I saw on LinkedIn that Rice’s Shawn Miller is recruiting for an assistant director of AI and education, I knew that this opportunity would be perfect for my “Featured Gig”* series. Earlier this year, Shawn and I worked on a “3 Questions” piece for this space. I want to share how I introduced Shawn in that Q&A, so you are excited both about the gig and about the possibility of working with Shawn.
“In our small, tight and connected world of digital learning, Shawn Miller stands out. Through his current and past leadership roles at Rice (where he serves as associate provost for digital learning and strategy) and Duke, Shawn has been an important voice for equity, inclusion and innovation in higher education. I feel lucky to count Shawn as one of my most important friends and colleagues across the postsecondary ecosystem.”
Q: What is the university’s mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the university’s strategic priorities?
A: This role is born directly from a core pillar of Rice University’s new strategic plan, Momentous. In it, we name responsible AI as a key catalyst for our future, and this position is central to making that vision a reality in our educational mission.
Our goal is to lead in responsible AI education, and that means going far beyond just technology adoption. We’re committed to developing cutting-edge curricula that weave AI and its ethical dimensions into every discipline, building robust partnerships with industry and, most importantly, empowering our world-class faculty.
That’s where this role comes in. The assistant director of AI and education will be the architect of our faculty support ecosystem. They will co-design and manage innovation pilots, help build a campuswide culture of experimentation around AI-powered pedagogy, and serve as the lead communicator for these critical initiatives.
Q: Where does the role sit within the university structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across campus?
A: This role will report to me (as one of Rice’s main stakeholders for AI and education efforts). They will be part of our overall leadership team within Rice Digital Learning and Strategy, but initially, at least, their role will be very outward facing—acting as a liaison and collaborator with other stakeholders involved in AI and education efforts at Rice, including various deans, faculty and department chairs, our Center for Teaching Excellence, information technologies teams, and some key collaborations we have with Rice OpenStax and a new unit on campus called Transformational Technology and Innovation, which, while focused more on the operations end of the AI-driven transformation, is also a key partner for us in terms of overall strategy and infrastructure planning.
This role will also collaborate closely with Rice’s AI Advisory Committee to coordinate efforts and, as much as possible, streamline communication and activities. We see this person as one of the key central nodes in our AI education network.
Q: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?
A: This first year is all about co-designing and establishing new programs to support AI faculty literacy. In future years, we want to move beyond that to more substantive transformational activities and initiatives—some of which are currently being planned, some of which this person will have a critical role in shaping. Success won’t be just defined by engaging with a broad and diverse range of faculty, but also by helping to collaborate on the design of these initiatives to truly meet the objectives of our strategic plan.
We’re only at the beginning of this transformation—but success at a place like Rice also has to be grounded fully in this concept of responsible AI. We won’t succeed if all we do is endlessly march out new platforms or tools and thrust them on our faculty and students. What we want at Rice is to not only bring everyone to a level of AI literacy and fluency, but to then start having the deeper conversations and collaborating on the harder work around what this means for the future of education, work and life.
Q: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?
A: It’s likely that we’ll build a new team around this role and the role itself will grow in different ways depending on our initial and ongoing success. I can see someone using this position to really cement those cross-institutional, collaborative skills and grow their résumé with a portfolio of successful programs and initiatives that point to a clear impact. That could help someone springboard into other, more senior leadership roles—heads of CTEs or instructional design shops, ed-tech roles focused on scaling new innovations, or even leading more traditional academic technology units that want to center themselves around a more design thinking/service-oriented/collaborative approach.
I think there’s also room for the possibility of an emerging field or vertical within this particular space (AI and education) that grows both in the academic side of the house (new instructor or faculty lines, new research opportunities) and the more practical/applied side of the house (new development teams, new projects or technology platforms to lead, etc.).
