# Cathy Casserly to head new OER program at Carnegie Foundation


![](http://www.hewlett.org/NR/rdonlyres/56C38A4F-7BAB-4BB9-A95D-8F3490BBBAE0/1060/CathyCasserly_resized.jpg)I
first met [Cathy
Casserly](http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/Staff/cathyCasserly.htm)
at the [Open Ed
conference](http://www.core.org.cn/en/conferences/dalian_2008/index.htm)
in Dalian in 2008, where she immediately welcomed me and began thinking
of projects I could get involved with and ways she and
[Hewlett](http://www.hewlett.org) could support me. At that time, I was
still an undergraduate, and barely knew anyone in the field – and her
reception was a wonderful and inspiring welcome.

From I first began to understand the development of the OER and OCW
movements through [David Wiley](http://davidwiley.org/)'s [Open Ed
course](http://opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=Intro_Open_Ed_Syllabus),
I was struck by the incedible deftness through which the Hewlett
Foundation had basically "constructed a brand new field". I don't want
to say that there were not many other organizations and institutions
contributing, nor that the idea of open education was brand new (go back
and read
[Illich](http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich/Deschooling/intro.html)),
but there seems to be no doubt that Hewlett has played a huge role. By
strategic investments in a number of projects, and by pushing these to
collaborate and create synergies, first in the US, and rapidly also
internationally, they achieved what I believe is every charitable
funding organizations wet dream: To put a limited amount of resources in
just the right place, at just the right time, and create something that
is valuable, sustainable, and growing.

Now, Cathy [is
moving](http://carnegiefoundation.org/news/sub.asp?key=51&subkey=2855)
to the [Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching](http://carnegiefoundation.org/), to head Carnegie's new
strategic work in open education. From the [press
release](http://carnegiefoundation.org/news/sub.asp?key=51&subkey=2855):

*As the first full-time Senior Partner appointed by Carnegie President
Anthony S. Bryk, Casserly will be responsible for new program
initiatives and will manage the strategic direction of Carnegie’s work
in Open Educational Resources. In leading efforts to build a new field
of Design, Educational Engineering and Development (D-EE-D), Carnegie
provides an ideal combination of timing and place to extend the
knowledge and evidence base regarding the effectiveness of innovation
and Open Educational Resources for learning.*

I am very excited that Carnegie has decided to focus strategically on
open educational resources. I have long respected their work on teaching
and learning in higher education, and read several of their
publications, for example on rethinking assessment of scholarly work.
From what I can gather from their webpage, they already have a program
called the [Knowledge Media
Library](http://carnegiefoundation.org/programs/index.asp?key=38), where
they seem to have been playing with ideas similar to OER, and they also
helped publish [Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of
Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open
Knowledge](http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11309)
with [MIT Press](http://mitpress.mit.edu/ "MIT Press").

It will be very interesting to follow as Carnegie develops it's program
in OER, and also to see who will replace Cathy at Hewlett Foundation,
and whether their focus will shift.

Stian