April 7, 2020

Dr. Jody Clarke-Midura Promoted With Tenure to Associate Professor

jody clarke-midura headshot
Dr. Jody Clarke-Midura, ITLS Associate Professor

The USU Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences (ITLS) Department is pleased to congratulate Dr. Jody Clarke-Midura on her promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.

The Utah State University Board of Regents approved Dr. Clarke-Midura’s position on Friday morning, after which Clarke-Midura was informed of the good news by Dr. Beth Foley, dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. 

Clarke-Midura said that the tenure decision is an important professional milestone. “It is reassuring that all of the hard work that I’ve done has paid off,” she said. 

Clarke-Midura earned an Ed.D. in Learning and Teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA. She was a researcher at the Educational Arcade at MIT, where she helped develop Radix, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game that teaches math and science. She joined the USU ITLS department in December 2014.

As an educational designer and researcher, Clarke-Midura studies how people learn with digital media, toys, and games in the context of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Computer Science (STEM+C) programs. Broadening participation in STEM+C is central to her work. 

One of Clarke-Midura’s ongoing projects, Coding in Kindergarten, explores the impact of mathematics and computer science toys in early childhood. Clarke-Midura also leads a project focused on using near peer mentorship to broaden participation in computer science. As part of this project, she and her colleagues train high school students to be mentors who help run weeklong summer camps in which middle school students can design their own smartphone apps. 

Clarke-Midura’s dedication to mentoring is evident in her research and her relationships with her students. Of all of her contributions to Utah State, Clarke-Midura said she is most pleased that her first PhD student, Katarina Pantic, recently defended her dissertation and will soon start a new tenure track position at Weber State University.

“We both have achieved major milestones,” Clarke-Midura said. “Those are the accomplishments that make me feel like what I’m doing is worthwhile.”

While successfully navigating the tenure and promotion process, Clarke-Midura has also balanced a busy family life raising her two young daughters.

Dr. Andy Walker, ITLS department head, commented on the high caliber of Clarke-Midura’s scholarship, mentoring, and example.

“I am impressed at the way she brings her research into her advising, which is one of the reasons why she is enjoying success alongside Dr. Katarina Pantic,” Walker said. “I’m also impressed that in addition to broadening participation in computer science, Dr. Clarke-Midura is very much interested in making the road she has traveled easier for other academic moms.”   

For more information about Jody Clarke-Midura’s research projects and publications, browse her faculty profile.