Director
Education
University of Connecticut, BA, MS, and PhD
About
Charles (Charlie) Blaich became the Director of HEDS in 2012. In his role, Charlie — along with Kathy and Kelly — is responsible for making HEDS mission come true: to advance liberal arts education, inclusive excellence, and student success.
To accomplish this mission, Charlie works closely with Kathy and Kelly to design, implement, evaluate, and improve everything HEDS does. With Kathy, Charlie visits and collaborates with people at colleges, universities, and higher education organizations across the country to aid their efforts to use evidence to improve their institutions for their students and employees.
Charlie’s career has always revolved around education and research. He began teaching in 1981 while he was in graduate school and continued to teach at the college level, at least part-time, until 2007. Charlie has taught at a large research university, a regional state university, a community college, and a liberal arts college. He taught in the Psychology Department at Wabash College from 1991 to 2002.
In addition to teaching, Charlie has also conducted various kinds of research. From 1981 to 2002, he studied communication in mallard ducklings, then Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, and finally zebra finches.
In 2002 he joined the Center of Inquiry at Wabash. From 2006 through 2012, the Center of Inquiry conducted the Wabash National Study which documented student learning and the experiences and conditions that promoted student learning for thousands of students at dozens of colleges and universities. The most important lesson the Center learned from the Wabash National Study is how difficult it is for institutions to use evidence to improve student learning.
It was this finding that spurred Charlie to join HEDS, as the consortium provides an avenue to help institutions more effectively and efficiently use evidence to improve student learning.