Contact Information:

Home:
5924 Crimson Court, S.E.
Olympia, Washington 98513 USA
jeff.c.johnston [at] gmail.com
http://www.jeffcjohnston.com

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I recently moved to Olympia Washington from Nashville Tennessee to take an environmental planner position in the Air Quality Program at the Washington State Department of Ecology.

I know that it is an overused term, but I don't know how else to describe myself and the work that I do other than to say that I am a knowledge worker. I have broad interests and adaptive expertise that keeps me engaged with a wide variety of endevors.

Previously I was an assistant director at the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, where I worked with the administration, faculty and graduate student instructors, and undergraduate students with the goal of fostering and sustaining a culture that practices, values, and rewards university teaching and learning.

My disciplinary background is in chemistry and the geosciences, and while at Vanderbilt I had an appointment as a lecturer in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University.

I spent several years working with the MG Taylor Corporation, a small consulting company with 25 years of experience in facilitating groups of people in finding solutions to complex problems. This is the work that really got me interested in the tools, the processes and the environments that lead to significant learning experiences.

More information about my professional experience is available on my curriculum vitae page.

Current projects of interest ...

The Earth's Oceans in the Global Environment is a first-year writing seminar course that I developed and taught through the department of earth and environmental sciences during the fall 2006 semester. I'm looking at data from a variety of sources in an effort to refine and strengthen the course in anticipation of teaching it again in spring 2008.

More generally I'm exploring the importance of the affective domain (i.e., motivations and attitudes) in creating effective learning environments.

Past projects of interest ...

Weak Signal Research

A Weak Signal is a half-hidden idea or trend that will affect how we live our lives, and Weak Signal Research involves the systematic identification and investigation of these emerging patterns. In a narrow sense, we're talking about tracking trends, but more generally, we're interested in spotting nonlinear, hard to predict ideas long before they reach mainstream recognition. Scanning is a fundamental piece of the Weak Signal Research process.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/weak_signal_research/

Recent books that I've enjoyed ...