PULSE Regional Networks: Different Approaches to Drive Departmental Change Across Diverse Educational Landscapes
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: To facilitate its goal of fostering department transformation, the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) organizes some of its work into five geographic regions and leverages the expertise of the PULSE Fellows in each region. This article examines how these Regional Networks have driven department-level changes through outreach activities, use of the PULSE Rubrics as a diagnostic tool to help departments to advance the Vision and Change recommendations, and implementation of the PULSE framework to address local needs and challenges. We present impact data through Regional Network activities and identify commonalities in successes and challenges across all the geographic regions. Through reports from the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, and Midwest Great Plains, we highlight each Regional Network’s accomplishments in influencing the adoption of PULSE strategies to implement the Vision and Change recommendations to transform departments.
Authors: Jacqueline M. Washington, Judy Awong-Taylor, Robert M. Kao, Fernando E. Nieto-Fernandez, Kathy Marrs, Steven Matzner, Alison J. Albee, Peggy Brickman, Christopher Finelli, Cerrone R. Foster, Carlos G. Goller, Gail Hollowell, Nitya P. Jacob, Melanie Lenahan, Sara Lindsay, Kristen Miller, Katharine Northcutt, Jo Anne Powell-Coffmann, Jennifer Rhode Ward, Michelle Withers, Michael J. Wolyniak, David Zuzga
Institution: Empire State University
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: Pilot of Southeast Regional PULSE (SERP) Institute for Inspiring and Supporting Department-wide Reform of Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, G3053240281, RCN-UBE: Northwest PULSE-A Community of Practice for Departmental Transformation Using Vision and Change, Southeast Regional PULSE Conference Planning Meeting, Atlanta, GA, August 9-11, 2013, Conference: Building Departmental Capacity for Best Practices in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education in the Southeastern US; June, 2019; North Carolina A&T State University, RCN-UBE: Midwest and Great Plains PULSE Network - Building Institutional Capacity for Inclusive Excellence in Undergraduate Biology Education, EAGER: Northwest PULSE-Departmental Transformation through Vision and Change, EAGER:From Vision to Change in Undergraduate Biology Education Across the Great Plains, Midwest, and New England
OpenAlex ID: W7166320253