JEN KATZ-BUONINCONTRO
PhD, MFA

CREATIVITY RESEARCHER
PROFESSOR 
ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH 
DREXEL SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

COURTESY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

PRESIDENT
APA DIVISION 10: SOCIETY FOR PSYCHOLOGY OF
​ THE AESTHETICS, CREATIVITY & THE ARTS

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
PSYCHOLOGY OF AESTHETICS, CREATIVITY & THE ARTS (​APA JOURNAL)

ABOUT

Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD, MFA, is Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Education. She is 2016 recipient of the Daniel E. Berlyne Award for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Scholar from the American Psychological Association, Division 10: Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts. Helping children and adults learn to think and act in creative ways that optimizes their academic and professional success is the central motivation of her research, teaching and service.

​​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. Her 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.

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. Dr. Katz-Buonincontro is Chair of the Faculty Steering Committee (SoE), Chair of the Social Science Committee (Drexel), Chair of the Arts and Learning SIG (AERA), Program Chair (Division 10-APA), and serves on three editorial boards.
Ph.D. Educational Leadership: Policy, Management & Organization, University of Oregon
  • Cognate Area: Aesthetics and Art

M.F.A. Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey
​
B.A. Sociology, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
  • Sociology Program, University of West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
Associate Dean of Research, School of Education, Drexel University.

Professor, School of Education, Drexel University, Philadelphia.
​
Assistant Professor, School of Education, Drexel University, Philadelphia, 
​
Non-tenure track faculty member, Educational Leadership, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.

Program Assistant, Area of Educational Leadership, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR:
  • M.S. Educational Leadership Program in Canada.
  • Administrator Licensure Program

Assistant to Director, Leadership Development Program, Educational Leadership, University of Oregon.

Chief Administrative & Financial Officer, Educational Policy Improvement Center, Eugene, OR.
President-Elect, ​Division 10, American Psychological Association

Past Chair, Faculty Steering Committee.

Past Chair, Social Science Research Committee, Social Sciences Initiative at Drexel.

Past Chair, Arts and Learning Special Interest Group, American Education Research Association.

​Past Program Chair, Division 10, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, American Psychological Association Annual Convention 2017.
​
Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology (LIWP). American Psychological Association. 

Editorial Board Memberships:
  • Journal of Creative Behavior
  • Arts Educational Policy Review
  • Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education
  • Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
  • International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving

UPCOMING 

Announcing…

​“CIRCLE”: A new collaborative for research on creativity and learning

A student-centered community dedicated to discussing research projects on creativity and learning, in any discipline.

​We meet once a month to share ideas, help each other problem solve methodological issues, network and collaborate.