Professional Biography

Zachary Herrmann serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Herrmann leads the Penn Leadership Education Institute, the Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice initiative, and designs partnerships and professional learning efforts focused on teacher and leader development, team effectiveness, negotiation, and creative problem solving. Dr. Herrmann is a Faculty Fellow with the Penn Environmental Innovations Initiative and chairs the Penn GSE Committee on Professional Learning.

Dr. Herrmann taught high school mathematics for several years, during which time he developed a collaborative professional development network of schools dedicated to improving teaching and learning with a focus on complex tasks, collaborative learning, and equity.

Dr. Herrmann also serves as a member of the professional faculty at Penn GSE, where he teaches within several of the school’s master’s and doctoral programs. The new courses he has designed and teaches at Penn GSE are Collaboration & Conflict, which engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of how people work together to solve complex problems, and Teaching and Learning in Student-Centered Classrooms, which explores student-centered approaches to teaching and learning. Dr. Herrmann also teaches the popular elective, Negotiation, within the M.B.A. program at The Wharton School.

Selected Publications