Starting next month, Angela Lindner will lead the LearningWell Coaliton, taking over from the capable hands of Keith Buffinton. Like Buffinton, Lindner is an engineer. She has recently retired from the University of Florida, where she was the director of the Engineering Leadership Institute and vice provost for undergraduate affairs, as well as an associate professor.

Like all organizations, the LearningWell Coalition, the publisher of LearningWell magazine, is a reflection of the people who drive its mission, and in this interview, Lindner gives us a window into how she might make her mark. She describes her body of work in student-centered education, her perspective on higher education’s most pressing problems, and what drew her to the work of the Coalition — including the memorable way she was introduced to it.

The LearningWell Coalition is a growing network of colleges and universities — large and small, public and private — dedicated to ensuring that every student is prepared to flourish in work and in life. Through collaboration, networking, and access to evidence-based practices, they help institutions create and scale initiatives and opportunities to prepare students for lifelong flourishing.

LW: Welcome to the Coalition, and congratulations on your retirement from the University of Florida! 

AL: Thank you. Yes, it's retirement in the sense that I'm emeritus status there, and I may come back and teach a class periodically, but it's no longer my work to do. It's bittersweet, but I'm a big proponent of allowing the next generation to lead and do great things and make mistakes, just like we did. There's far too many faculty who stay way too long, and it's blocking the ability of younger people to come in and lead.

LW: It’s worth noting that you’ve been teaching at the flagship school in the state that’s been at the epicenter of recent political pressure and change. What has that been like?

AL: That's a great starting point for a conversation about these big topics of “Where are we headed in higher education?” — especially in states like Florida. The change is rapid. In that sense, we're going through so many changes — forced changes. At the University of Florida, our nose is right out there. We're going through a third presidential search attempt right now as we speak, and it's very critical to many disciplines and to faculty. It’s existential. 

I went to the College of Charleston, which is a city that cannot hide its history. And that's the beauty of Charleston — it's right out there, right? I left college fully believing in the liberal arts education and what that truly means, opening your mind to many different ideas, and sifting through the core values that you had from your family and your faith tradition — to be more accepting and to understand inclusion was not a bad word. 

LW: What were your pre-U.F. days like? What drew you to academia?

AL: I worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Ann Arbor as a chemical engineer from 1986 to 1989, followed by working as a project engineer at General Motors Corp. in Warren, Michigan from 1989 to 1991. I had an “epiphany” moment in my car on a commute home from G.M. one day: I wanted to teach and mentor undergraduate students. I was seeking a purpose higher than making profit for my company. That is when I nurtured the resolve to visit the University of Michigan’s campus to meet with two environmental engineering faculty members, who ultimately admitted me into the Ph.D. program. Ironically, given the tensions that are swirling in the U.S. Department of Education today, I was admitted to the University of Michigan with a scholarship from the D.O.E. for women pursuing doctorates in engineering. I suspect this scholarship would not be allowed today.

LW: How did you get to the University of Florida?

AL: I've been at the University of Florida since 1998. I chose U.F. as my career home because the faculty in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, especially the chair, Dr. Joe Delfino, exhibited a strong care for their undergraduate students. I was convinced this was the best place for me to pursue my solidified purpose in undergraduate and graduate education. The moment I decided to accept U.F.’s offer was when I received a packet from Joe that included a hand-written note affixed to a sheet of paper saying, “We covered this in our faculty meeting today.” The sheet of paper had text that reminded the faculty that the student is the reason why they were at U.F. I have cherished that original piece of paper throughout my career at U.F., and it followed me into my associate dean role in the U.F. college of engineering and onto my role in the U.F. provost’s office. 

LW: What first put the LearningWell Coalition on your radar?

AL: There are seminal moments in in one's life that they remember exactly where they were when something happened. This was one of them for me, actually. I was in my garage at home on the exercise bike back in early June 2023, listening to [former editor of Inside Higher Ed] Doug Lederman on his podcast interviewing this Rick Miller [president emeritus of Olin College]. I knew about Olin because I come out of engineering, but I was fascinated by what Rick was saying about the work of the Coalition and the core values of higher education. I immediately went into the Coalition’s website and found out how to contact them through an online form. University of Florida has a project called U.F. Quest, and it aligns so beautifully with the language that was shared in this podcast. And I'm still on the bike, and I'm writing, “How can I talk to you about becoming a member?”

Within hours I get an email response, and that week, we were on Zoom together, Rick and the executive director Keith Buffinton and I. And I just sort of laid out the whole situation we were in at the time with U.F. Quest and with our general education in the state of Florida. I left that call with a deep, profound sense of calmness that we have advocates outside of the state of Florida that will help us to tell the narrative of U.F. Quest and the transformational impacts. They get it. 

From there, it's been just an incredible, tremendous relationship between the University of Florida and the Coalition. I can't emphasize enough the importance of having that external validation of what we were doing. Which is why I think expanding the membership of the Coalition is so critical. 

LW: Is that one of the key priorities as you step in as E.D.?

AL: It’s one of them. And also, how do we recognize and measure the goodness of the initiatives that are going on in the member institutions? I’m excited to see the numbers double and see its role expand, not just next year, but 10 to 15 years from now, because I think it's going to take us that long for higher education to really be able to ask the right questions — to take a good internal look at ourselves, at why higher education has lost public trust and what we should be doing to prepare the whole student for the evolving world.

LW: Let’s talk about that issue of public trust. This is a critical time in higher ed and redefining people’s expectations of it. What role can the Coalition play during this realignment?

AL: That's a good question. A critical element of the work of the Coalition is to keep asking questions. Higher education is out of equilibrium right now and for many different reasons. Being out of equilibrium is a journey of going from order, to disorder, and reorder. Higher ed is on that path now, and the Coalition, I believe, provides this other place to discuss what we all agree is the mission of higher ed, or should be. For us, it is keeping the personal and professional development of students at the center of all we do. 

"I think with A.I. upon us, my hopeful side — which comes out most days — believes that all of this is going to force us to ask some fundamental questions: What is the purpose of higher ed? What does it mean to be an educated human?"

I think with A.I. upon us, my hopeful side — which comes out most days — believes that all of this is going to force us to ask some fundamental questions: What is the purpose of higher ed? What does it mean to be an educated human? How do we have that conversation, and agree? I believe that's what higher ed is for — to form and shape and at least point students in a direction of being able to impact humanity and the world in positive ways. It goes back to core values. What's our unifying principle? I do think we're being asked that question, and I think the Coalition is going to play a major role in helping support institutions towards that goal. 

So yes, we're in the disorder now. I can't tell you how long it'll last. I am confident that when we're back in the reorder, whatever it looks like, we're going to look back and be grateful for the disorder because there would be no other way that we would have gotten to the next place. 

LW: When we talked earlier, you mentioned the Gallup-Purdue Big Six, which correlates to lifelong wellbeing and career success. How can we continue to prioritize those pillars, like mentorship and belonging, when so much of the conversation has shifted to tangible R.O.I.? 

AL: No question some institutions of higher ed do it better than others. I come out of one of the largest public institutions in the country, which creates an environment with the biggest opportunity for nurturing the Gallup Big Six experiences. First, do they align at all, R.O.I. and the Gallup Big Six? The Big Six is implying that if you offer these experiences to undergraduate students, it means that they matter in the mission of your university. Why? Because it means that faculty's time spent on the formation of students, with students, is valued. Pure and simple, you cannot replace any faculty member with a machine or A.I. If you were going to fulfill the Gallup Big Six, a student must know a faculty member cares about me as a person, right? That's what's implied with the Gallup Big Six. Taking that further, one would assume that if that is of value to the institution, then the faculty — and tenure and promotion — are evaluated based on the amount of meaningful time they spend with the students. 

The other side of this is that we would have to assume — and it’s not a correct assumption, as we're learning in the Coalition's faculty learning communities — that faculty know how to do these things. Many of the faculty were students who did not have access to these principles in practice. We've just had two years of faculty learning communities, and I would say over half of the faculty that participated said they joined so they could learn how to connect with their students — how to keep the student at the center of their teaching. That shocked me. I just thought we were, you know, picking the low hanging fruit here. So we need to coach faculty on how to do these things.

What R.O.I. implies is that money leads. That's what's driving everything, right? And it's corporatizing the institution. There is great value in making sure that that the institution uses the tuition dollars and state dollars and philanthropy dollars in a responsible way. But not without leadership that guides the community in shared values, hopefully including the value of spending time with our students — which by the way, short of time for the faculty, costs nothing, right?

We need to ask the same questions that we force our students to ask themselves. Why are we here? What's our purpose? The answers to these big questions translate into where the money flows and how we evaluate our performance. That can translate to large class sizes where students’ hearts are not engaging because you're swimming in this water of R.O.I. and you're being rewarded for efficiency. But I also say, from a very hopeful side, that these aren't polar opposites here — that if you look at it from like a long game perspective, R.O.I. is very much connected to having students who come out courageous and well-spoken with communication skills, with great ideas to go up and take leadership positions. 

LW: What is the wellness environment the Coalition is looking at right now? Are there ways the Coalition could shift the conversation about wellbeing? Does it need to be shifted? 

AL: One of the more promising happenings in higher ed is that we're seeing the language of wellbeing used much more frequently and at the drop of a hat. At the individual level, at the program level, at the institution level and national level. I am concerned that if we just run so fast with the wellbeing terminology, we don't have a shared sense of what it means. But I'm so excited that the Coalition is trying to lasso that — to have some pillars that define wellbeing and how we measure it, assess it. I see this as incredibly positive. Our students recognize this, and what is so remarkable about these students is they are determined that their career is not going to take over their life. We never thought about those things in my generation, but they're dogged about it, and fearless. 

LW: Tell me more about that. What are they fearless about?

AL: They are standing up for their life balance even while they’re speaking to their future employers. Here’s one example: At the University of Florida, we brought in guest speakers who were current C.E.O.s or former presidents, and students would raise their hand and ask, “Working in a national lab, tell me about what you did to promote life balance outside of work. What did you do to promote families?” One guest lecturer was the former C.E.O. of a major defense company and very traditional, and she just point blank looked at him and said, “There is no balance. If you love your work, there's no balance.”

You should have seen the student essays writing reflections on what they heard. They excoriated that. They all wanted photos with her, but the essays were just like, “No, we're not buying this.” The students are pressing towards a life with wellbeing, and they use terms like balance — in engineering even! Even the guys were saying, “I want to have children.” So we cannot deny this. Students lead the way, whether we admit it or not. It'll be a very interesting clash of cultures, I think, but I find it hopeful because their force is going to be much more powerful in the end. It’s the the sum of the parts, not just a takeover.

I'm a mosaic artist, and every part has meaning in mosaic art. If you leave one out, you know it's not there. In higher education, there is no one part that feels entirely responsible for the outcome of the student. We need to have a unifying leadership to say, “Your part is here; your part is here.” If it's successful, we see students coming out as full, whole persons who felt like they belonged in college. That's kind of what I'm mulling on: how to create this mosaic where every part matters and contributes.

LW: I love that metaphor. And a mosaic artist! Tell us more about yourself. What do you like to do in your free time?

AL: Well, my husband and I rescue greyhounds. Since 2000, we've adopted 10 former racing greyhounds, and we now have two, and they're from Ireland. So, we're dog people. 

I used to be a marathon runner, an ultra-marathon runner, and I still like to run, but I'm much more reasonable now, and diversified. I do a lot of gardening. And every day my hands get dirty. It's a good balance.

I'm originally from South Carolina and still consider it my home. I've been in the South most of my life. I understand the South very well. Growing up in a very segregated state, I have been through many of the events that I worry are being hidden or veiled in our teaching. My hometown is Orangeburg, South Carolina, and, in 1968, I was a kid at the time of the Orangeburg Massacre on the campus of South Carolina State College [now University]. Going through a tragedy like the Massacre in such a small town becomes part of your identity, and depending on how parents were at the time, you came out of it with one perspective or another. Thank God my parents were very good at being open and transparent about what was happening at the time. 

My mom, who completed high school, grew up very poor on a farm, where her parents, with only a middle school education, were South Carolina tobacco sharecroppers. And so these are the salt of the earth kind of people. My dad went to college because of the G.I. Bill after World War II. In my childhood home, education was something that you don't waste, and that shaped my whole way of thinking — that college was a privilege and you didn't waste it.

I still feel this way. Education is a privilege, and this is all the more reason not only that students should not waste the opportunity but also that our institutions of higher education must deliver on their commitment to their students.