Jessica Babcock is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Mathematics in the College of Science and Technology.  She serves as the Director of Developmental Mathematics, overseeing the core foundational and corequisite courses in the department. 

A self-proclaimed “lifelong Owl,” Professor Babcock began her own undergraduate career at Temple in 2003 and simply never left, serving as a math tutor, graduate extern, and Assistant Director of an academic support center until she found her calling as a faculty member.

She was a participant in the inaugural Student-Oriented Active Redesign (SOAR) program at the CAT in 2016, and through this found her true passion in supporting student success through evidence-based teaching practices.  She went on to earn the Teaching in Higher Education Certification in 2017, complete the CAT’s Provost’s Teaching Academy in 2019, and participate in several Faculty Learning Communities.  Through these experiences she continued to develop her appreciation for and dedication to active and inclusive teaching practices and has presented on various related topics at the CAT’s Annual Faculty Conference on Teaching Excellence, the Mathematical Association of America’s local chapter meeting and nationwide annual celebration of MathFest, and has collaborated on and facilitated a number of workshops in the Math Department.  She is also one of the founding members of the new STEM Foundational Courses Community of Practice at Temple.

Professor Babcock holds a B.A. in Mathematics, M.Ed. in Secondary Education, and Ed.D. in Higher Education, all from Temple (of course!).  Her dissertation, successfully defended in Spring 2024, studied the ways in which the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic affected STEM faculty’s perceptions and use of evidence-based teaching practices, a topic for which she attributes her passion to her initial CAT experience in the SOAR program.