LMC's Jillann Hertel Promoted to Senior Academic Professional

Posted May 22, 2020

Jillann Hertel, who has served the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) in numerous capacities since her hire in 2013, has been promoted to the position of Senior Academic Professional. The promotion recognizes Hertel’s significant contributions to achievement of goals in the school’s strategic plan through an array of endeavors.

“Ms. Hertel's work in the School and beyond has made a remarkable difference for students, staff, and faculty," said LMC Chair Richard Utz. "Her creative engagement with students and various external constituencies and her administrative and managerial skills have added great value to our degree programs and unit.

Hertel, who received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2011, joined LMC when its undergraduate major was known as Science, Technology, and Culture (STaC), helping to advise, teach students, and roll out the new LMC major. Although her role has evolved, she has continuously worked closely with students, staff, and faculty both within and outside the school.

Utz noted three of Hertel's most significant contributions have been her work to revive the school’s undergraduate major, her work to improve diversity in the school, and her founding of CoLab, a space that links career and academic advising with innovative professional development opportunities for students.

Hertel played a major role in rebranding the school's undergraduate degree and finding ways to attract students to the program. Her collaborations with faculty program directors and the recruiting team, creative changes to the school’s website, and launching of social media platforms and other outreach methods to engage students with the program resulted in a 300% growth in applications. Most recently, she launched a newsletter Highlights of the Week, which has been well received.

Hertel’s CoLab has become a model on campus for combining areas that are traditionally handled separately. By offering both career advising with hands-on experiences in professional development, the lab provides opportunities for students to gain internship experience, apply lessons learned in their classrooms to real-world projects, and build a cohort of like-minded and like-educated collaborators who learn how to parse their liberal arts degree to potential employers.

Hertel has also developed a special topics course, Art of the Industry (LMC 4813), which helps graduating seniors market their work and skills to potential employers. The course helps students become prepared for life after Tech, building industry connections by bringing in alumni and other professionals, taking industry field trips, reflection, and in-class presentations in the style of TED Talks. Hertel received the campus-wide Innovation in Co-Curricular Education Award in 2017 in recognition of her work in the classroom and with CoLab.

Another strategic dimension of Hertel’s work has been her efforts to increase inclusive excellence. She is active in diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus, serving on LMC's Diversity Working Group and on the steering committee of the Office of Institute Diversity's Transformative Narratives initiative. In 2017, Hertel was featured by Georgia Tech’s Office of Institute Diversity as one of its “Faces of Inclusive Excellence” and she was awarded the Women’s Leadership Conference “Outstanding Woman of Distinction Award.” The award praised her “exemplary leadership abilities” and ability to create “innovative solutions while inspiring and uplifting the entire Georgia Tech community.”

“Ms. Hertel has assisted our unit and Georgia Tech in creating a more welcoming and supportive environment for underrepresented minorities,” said Utz.

Additionally, Hertel collaborated across LMC and the School of History and Sociology to expand the LMC Social Justice track in the undergraduate major into a minor that attracts students from various parts of campus. Via the minor, she has also connected LMC with the Human Trafficking Institute and the Center of Civil and Human Rights to open internship opportunities for students.

Utz lauds Hertel as a leader in LMC. In addition to teaching, advising, and service she has established relationships with other units and offices, including Arts@Tech, the Center for Career Development and Discovery, Academic Success, the Library, and many others both internal and external, all serving to create new opportunities for students.

The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit of Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.