Dr. James Stellar, Virtual Lab Director
Department of Psychology (https://www.albany.edu/psychology/index.php)
Curriculum Vita
Blog: www.otherlobe.com
Podcast: experienced.simplecast.com
20Stellar’s career began as a basic neuroscientist, trained at the University of Pennsylvania as a PhD and postdoctoral fellow, and then appointed as an assistant and associate (untenured professor) at the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. In 1985 he wrote a book, The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward, with his father, Eliot Stellar, also a neuroscience professor who had then returned to the faculty after serving as Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1986, J. Stellar moved to Northeastern University in Boston, keeping his continuing research affiliation at McLean Hospital. His laboratory research focused on the dopamine brain systems in laboratory rats, beginning with studies of rewarding electrical stimulation of the brain and then moving into cocaine research with an additional focus on craving from a behavioral, neuroanatomical, and molecular genetic change perspective
Stellar's senior administrative career began in 1998 as Dean of the large College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University, during the period of a remarkable rise in university ranking (US News - from 165 to eventually in the 40s) and in college applications (tripling to 15,000 with an attendant 250 point Freshman SAT increase). Given his long-term interest in working with and even hiring his own undergraduates as laboratory research assistants and given his leadership in a cooperative education university, it was only natural that he would take an interest in how learning from experience worked to transform the students and the university itself. This interest was expressed through the World Association of Cooperative Education (WACE), where he co-founded and co-directed their Experiential Education Planning Institute that for over 13 years worked with nearly 100 universities which developed institutional Experiential Education Plans. In 2008, he made a transition to administration in the public university as Provost at Queens College CUNY and then again as Provost at University at Albany SUNY. He also served at UAlbany as Interim President for an academic year before returning to the Provost position and then finally going back to the faculty as a Professor in the Department of Psychology.
The union of Stellar’s administrative career with his earlier work in basic neuroscience was reflected in his 2017 book, Education that Works: The Neuroscience of Building a more Effective Higher Education (IdeaPress). The influence of the diversity mission at the public university is seen in a 2020 multi-authored book that he and recent college graduates have just produced, Diversity at College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive, from the same publisher. That basic union of behavioral neuroscience and combined learning from classic academics and direct experience remains the focus of this new virtual laboratory of students and colleagues that we are calling the Center for Neuroscience and Experiential Education. It is reflected in Stellar's blog and podcast and in new projects on teaching for engagement and the neuroscience of how professional knowledge and even wisdom develops with experiential learning.
Stellar teaches courses on introductory psychology (with an active engagement approach borrowed from experiential education), psychopharmacology, and seminars on cognitive-limbic integration in making decisions. He works with universities, companies, institutes, consulting firms, and cooperative education societies (e.g. WACE).
Stellar's senior administrative career began in 1998 as Dean of the large College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University, during the period of a remarkable rise in university ranking (US News - from 165 to eventually in the 40s) and in college applications (tripling to 15,000 with an attendant 250 point Freshman SAT increase). Given his long-term interest in working with and even hiring his own undergraduates as laboratory research assistants and given his leadership in a cooperative education university, it was only natural that he would take an interest in how learning from experience worked to transform the students and the university itself. This interest was expressed through the World Association of Cooperative Education (WACE), where he co-founded and co-directed their Experiential Education Planning Institute that for over 13 years worked with nearly 100 universities which developed institutional Experiential Education Plans. In 2008, he made a transition to administration in the public university as Provost at Queens College CUNY and then again as Provost at University at Albany SUNY. He also served at UAlbany as Interim President for an academic year before returning to the Provost position and then finally going back to the faculty as a Professor in the Department of Psychology.
The union of Stellar’s administrative career with his earlier work in basic neuroscience was reflected in his 2017 book, Education that Works: The Neuroscience of Building a more Effective Higher Education (IdeaPress). The influence of the diversity mission at the public university is seen in a 2020 multi-authored book that he and recent college graduates have just produced, Diversity at College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive, from the same publisher. That basic union of behavioral neuroscience and combined learning from classic academics and direct experience remains the focus of this new virtual laboratory of students and colleagues that we are calling the Center for Neuroscience and Experiential Education. It is reflected in Stellar's blog and podcast and in new projects on teaching for engagement and the neuroscience of how professional knowledge and even wisdom develops with experiential learning.
Stellar teaches courses on introductory psychology (with an active engagement approach borrowed from experiential education), psychopharmacology, and seminars on cognitive-limbic integration in making decisions. He works with universities, companies, institutes, consulting firms, and cooperative education societies (e.g. WACE).
Social Media
Twitter: @JamesRStellar
LinkedIn: James Stellar
Facebook: James Stellar
Talks:
The Brain, Experiential Education, and Tolerance 2012 - Queens College, Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religions Understanding
Education that Works: The Neuroscience of Building a MoreEffective Higher Education 2019 - Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Stony Brook University
Cybersecurity Workforce Alliance (CWA) Building Soft/Workplace Skills - National Institute for Cybersecurity Education, Monthly Meeting, May 2020 with David Lasater of Akamai Technologies
Georgina Breihof - Chief Lab Assistant with interest in mindfulness and education
Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University at Albany followed by a Masters in Educational Psychology and Methodology. Currently enrolled in a Masters program in the School of Education. She is interested in and has worked with Stellar and Agata Buras on the flipped-hybrid model of active learning in the teaching of introductory psychology as well as the use of mindfulness to promote learning. She has written several blogs on mindfulness in learning and has an interest in entrepreneurship with Pat Gareau. She functions as the coordinator for the Center for Neuroscience and Experiential Education.
Dr. Brandy Eggan - neuroscientist with interest in dopamine, diversity, and learning
Bachelors degree at Elmira College, Neuroscience PhD Albany Medical School. Teaching as an Assistant Professor at Siena College. Co-author of a new book, Diversity at College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive. She is also a three-time a serial blog co-author, once on dopamine, once on diversity issues, and now on brain networks. She has participated in CSTEP and other such undergraduate research programs including last summer with Brandon Ascencio on neural networks. She is currently working with Stellar on a new book on the neuroscience of professional knowledge/wisdom gained in college from academic learning coupled with experiential education.
Adrienne Dooley - long-time research assistant and development podcast co-leader
Adrienne earned her Bachelors degree in Communications with a concentration in Media Studies as well as her Masters in Speech and Language Pathology from Northeastern University. She has been both a participant in Northeastern's Cooperative Education Program through as well as a student advisor to those participating in a cooperative education program abroad, NU international. She was one of the first blog co-authors in 2009 to write a post about some of her own experiences and was a key research assistant in Stellar's 2017 book, Education that Works. Currently, Adrienne works as a practicing Speech and Language Pathologist who after after years in the Salem Public School system has moved into private practices on the island of St. Thomas. She is part of a team of three that has launched a podcast, ExperiencED, that interviews thought-leaders about experiential education and is now in season three.
Agata Buras - virtual teaching with an interest in immigrant populations
Former student with Stellar at Queens College and blog co-author in both short and long forms, she worked at Queens College on a flipped/hybrid introductory psychology course. She is a co-author of a chapter in Diversity at College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive, published in 2020. She has continued her work at UAlbany on the flipped-hybrid introductory psychology course with Stellar and Georgina Breihof in spring and fall of 2020 and will again in the fall of 2021. She is interested in the application of principles of experiential education, social neuroscience, and growth mindset to promoting learning and student success particularly in immigrant, underserved, and non-traditional students. She looks forward to more major blogs and other writing projects.
Pat Gareau - alum with interest in entrepreneurship, the brain, and decision-making
Pat is currently enrolled in a joint J.D. / M.B.A at Albany Law School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He graduated from the University at Albany in 2017 with a double major in economics and psychology, and graduated from Hudson Valley Community College in 2015. Pat started a freelance writing, research, and consulting company in 2016 called Gareau LLC, and has primarily contracted with economic development organizations. Pat became interested in experiential education as a member of the SUNY Applied Learning Steering Committee from 2015 - 2017 through his role as a member of the Executive Board for the SUNY Student Assembly, a system-wide student government. Pat continues to be involved in the local higher education community as a member of the Board of Directors for the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation, and looks forward to exploring ways to increase the level of student entrepreneurship at local colleges in the coming years. He has written several blogs on entrepreneurship and the brain, and has a current new interest in the social neuroscience of moral agency and responsibilities that is tied to his emerging law degree.
