JEN KATZ-BUONINCONTRO 

PhD, MFA

CREATIVITY RESEARCHER
PROFESSOR 
ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH 
DREXEL SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

COURTESY PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Helping children and adults learn to think and act in creative ways that optimize their academic and professional success is the central motivation of my research, teaching and service.
- Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD, MFA
Dr. Katz-Buonincontro's research aims to clarify and build socio-cognitive theories of creative agency to ultimately advance educational research with knowledge and applied teaching tools. Her scholarship traces inborn versus learnable beliefs about creativity and talent in philosophical tracts and political rhetoric, documents the process of learning how to effectively problem solve through the arts in leadership development and integrates the arts into leadership curriculum and STEM education.

​​Current studies focus on creative thinking and problem solving as a function of learning domain-specific content knowledge. These studies on beliefs about creativity, creative performance and academics extend past research on creativity, motivation and identity with a distinctive emphasis on learning.

Grant-funded projects include a National Science Foundation two-year study of student creativity in engineering technology and faculty workshops, a Career Development Award for using experience sampling method research, and The Barnes Foundation app Keys to the collection (KTTC), a 3D immersive visual arts digital game. 

​Courses she teaches are Creativity and Innovation in STEM Education, Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis and Mixed Methods Research; as well as Leadership Development courses.