Robert Vanderlan

Dr. Robert Vanderlan is the executive director of the Center for Teaching Innovation. He has been with the Center since its founding in 2017 and has worked in faculty development for more than a decade. He has led teams that offer instructional design support for faculty, co-designed the Center’s New Faculty Teaching Academy, provided instructional design expertise for a range of Cornell’s edX massive open online courses, and helped guide the Center’s response to COVID-disrupted teaching. He received the Cornell President’s “Thoughtful Leader Award” in 2021. 

Rob is also a historian and the author of “Intellectuals Incorporated: Politics, Art, and Ideas Inside Henry Luce’s Media Empire.” He was a visiting assistant professor at Cornell for a number of years, teaching courses on U.S. intellectual history, recent political history, and foreign policy. He was previously a visiting assistant professor at Hamilton College. 

Uniting his work in faculty development and history are interests in how individuals can seek meaningful work and advocate for change in institutional settings, and a commitment to higher education as a protector of engaged, democratic citizenship.

Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell, where he graduated with distinction in all subjects. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in U.S. history from the University of Rochester.