Transformation Lab Team
Stephanie Hinshaw is the Associate Vice President of Transformation at Butler University. In this role, Stephanie is accountable for leading innovation efforts and collaborating with Butler’s faculty and staff for transformational change. One of the most notable accomplishments in this role is the creation of a new college, Founder’s College, designed to increase accessibility for students who have great potential and have lacked opportunity. Dr. Hinshaw also serves as a faculty member in the MBA program, teaching leadership.
Before joining Butler University, Stephanie served as the Provost at American College of Education for seven years and spent 13 years in multiple roles at other higher education institutions. Dr. Hinshaw was recognized for her leadership skills, earning the United States Distance Learning Association’s 2020 Outstanding Leader Award. Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University, a Master of Business Administration from Butler University, and a Doctor of Education in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton University.
Callie Wright is the Project Manager for Butler’s Transformation Lab in Strategy and Innovation. In her current role, she is responsible for the project management of new education/business models and ventures from a variety of sources (internal and external) that support the Butler Beyond strategic direction and spans the organization. She coordinates the development and innovation processes necessary to support moving ideas forward. Callie joined Butler in February 2022.
Prior to her time at Butler, Callie worked for a local tech start-up, LifeShare (later acquired by Spectrio), and wore a variety of hats relating to project management, customer experience, marketing, and customer onboarding. She was also a Kindergarten teacher for 7 years after graduating from Hanover College with a double major in Communication and Elementary Education.
In her personal time, Callie enjoys spending time outdoors and traveling with her husband, Josh, and her children, Halden and Cullen.
Dr. Furuness has been teaching at Butler University since 2007 and was promoted to rank of professor in 2021. During her career at Butler, she has taught in the University Core, Honors program, and College of Education. She has served as a Faculty Senator and has been on many university-level committees, including co-chairing Faculty Affairs and the UCC. She also spent four years living on campus as a Facutly-in-Residence.
She has taught and co-taught face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses for undergraduate and graduate students related to foundational learning theory, curriculum theory, adolescent literature and content literacy, history of American Education, teaching methodology, curriculum design, leadership, and educational research methodology. She has advised 20 master’s theses, more than a dozen undergraduate honors theses, co-authored and co-presented articles, book chapters, and conference presentations with alumni, and designed the Teacher Led Teacher Ed professional development support course with seven Butler alumna. Dr. Furuness has also served on disseration committees for alumni pursuing doctorates.
By academic preparation, Dr. Furuness is a former middle–high school English teacher and curriculum theorist with expertise in curriculum studies and pedagogy approaches associated with different curricular approaches. A curriculum theorist is concerned with the development and implementation of curriculum and seeks to understand what is worth teaching, learning, and assessing and to whom it is of worth. As a scholar in the field of curriculum studies, Dr. Furuness seeks to both create and to question curriculum through the lenses of systems thinking and historical analysis to better understand who benefits and who doesn’t when any curriculum is enacted. While specifically trained in critical theories related to pedagogy and research, Dr. Furuness’s scholarship in teaching and learning has focused primarily on moving beyond critique and deconstructing toward the creation of curricula generated through shared vision building and mission alignment.
In her roles as Director of Academic Operational Excellence and Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence, Shelly seeks to be of service to her faculty and staff colleagues as a thought partner and internal curriculum consultant for individuals, programs, departments, and colleges working on systemic projects and resource alignment related to curriculum planning and development, high impact instructional practices, and meaningful assessing cycles with an eye toward immediate and enduring impact on all current and future students.