Staff Members
The Office of Experiential Education was created to carry out the experiential education part of the Transformative Education 2.0 initiative. The Office is part of the Office of the Provost, in the Teaching and Learning Division.
Mission: to support, enhance, and expand undergraduate experiential education at Purdue – West Lafayette
Kathryn Stremiecki
Director of Experiential Education
Stremiecki is a career student affairs practitioner with a background in experiential education through co-curricular opportunities. For nearly 20 years, Stremiecki has served as a student engagement and experiential education professional at higher education institutions throughout Indiana. She has presented at conferences such as the Society for Experiential Education, the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities and the American Democracy Project National Meeting on topics related to applied learning, co-curricular experiential education, and assessment in co-curricular activities. Stremiecki is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with a major in Career and Technical Education at Purdue University.
Kate Caward
Assistant Director in Indianapolis
Caward has served as an administrator for curricular-based work-integrated learning for over 10 years with the Purdue College of Pharmacy. She is passionate about community, collaboration and leadership and has been a mentor and peer in many collaborative efforts. In her new role, she is excited to connect business and industry partners to programs at Purdue University in Indianapolis. Caward also looks forward to supporting ExEd programs for the most ideal outcomes for our students.
Laura Todd
Assessment Specialist in I-DA+A
Todd is an assessment practitioner with over 10 years’ experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors. She previously served as the assessment coordinator for Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, focusing on evaluating the engaged programs and services provided within the Center and across campus. Todd received her Bachelors’ in Sociology at the University of San Antonio and is currently working on her Masters’ in Research and Evaluation Methods at the University of Colorado-Denver.
Jennifer Bay
Experiential Education Fellow
Dr. Bay is a practitioner and scholar of experiential education. She has been fortunate to be recognized by Purdue for her engaged work with Purdue’s Service-Learning Award, Faculty Engagement Scholar Award, and Jefferson Award. Whether she is coordinating internships, teaching internship courses, or engaging with the community through service-learning projects, she firmly believes that students learn in deep and unexpected ways through applied experiences.
Dr. Bay is professor of English in the Technical and Professional Writing undergraduate major and the graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition. Her research focuses on community engagement and experiential learning, internships, digital rhetorics, and rhetorical theory. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, Computers & Composition, Programmatic Perspectives, as well as in edited collections. Most recently, she has published on data rhetorics and equity and inclusion in the TPC classroom.
melinda Irby
Senior Administrative Assistant
Irby supports the Office of Experiential Education with years of experience in administrative assistance and graphic design. In 1998, she joined Purdue Printing Services as a graphic designer and prepress specialist. After 15 years with printing services, Irby began work as a clerical administrator for Purdue’s Grounds Department. In 2016, she joined the Office of the Provost, and currently supports the experiential education, and teaching and learning staffs.