Heidi Echols Joins the Poole College of Management Instructional Design Team

Heidi Echols will be serving as the new instructional designer for the Poole College of Management beginning December 15. Echols will join the newly created instructional design team reporting to Beth Shepherd, the college’s first director of instructional design. 

Echols joins Poole College bringing over 20 years of experience in higher education at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She served as a chair and professor of the dance studies department where she designed and created degrees in dance and movement science from the ground up. In addition to a faculty role, she held project manager and director roles at Salem College’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation.

“I am delighted to welcome Heidi to the instructional design group. With her background as the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Professor at Salem College, Heidi brings years of instructional design experience to our team,” said Shepherd. “Heidi’s addition to our team will enable us to provide more services and support to Poole faculty and provide the best possible learning experience for our students.” 

Heidi is the latest addition to our very talented design group and she will be working directly with faculty in our top-ranked online MBA program and other degrees to produce the excellent educational experience that our students have come to associate with the Poole College.

“Poole’s instructional design group was formed on the recommendation of a college-wide teaching technology task force to help our faculty develop and deliver the highest quality, state of the art instruction across our programs,” said Richard Warr, associate dean for faculty and research. “Heidi is the latest addition to our very talented design group and she will be working directly with faculty in our top-ranked online MBA program and other degrees to produce the excellent educational experience that our students have come to associate with the Poole College.”

As an instructional designer, Echols will support the instructional use of technologies to promote student success. As a part of the instructional design team, Echols will partner with faculty to design engaging, high quality courses and implement quality assurance standards and best teaching practices. 

As many courses and faculty have transitioned to online learning, Echols will be working one-on-one, in group consultations and in workshops with faculty to help them implement research-based instructional design principles in their courses. She will also help with building Moodle courses, supporting video creation, and creating engaging online synchronous class sessions.

Echols received her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also earned a Master of Fine Arts in choreography and performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 

NC State is an exceptional place and I am impressed by the work being done at Poole College.

“I am looking forward to improving the student experience and working with faculty,” said Echols. “NC State is an exceptional place and I am impressed by the work being done at Poole College.”

In her free time, Echols practices and teaches yoga and enjoys family hikes and supporting the arts. 

 “I identify as a curriculum designer, an educator, an artist, a scholar, a mother, a friend and many others. These identities have alternated in priority and relevance throughout my career.  I am honored by the work I do in higher education and excited to bring that to the Poole College of Management,” said Echols.