When she was a child, Mary Ellen Wiltrout PhD ’09 didn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a K-12 teacher. Growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, Wiltrout was studious with an early interest in science — and ended up pursuing biology as a career.
But following her doctorate at MIT, she pivoted toward education after all. Now, as the director of blended and online initiatives and a lecturer with the Department of Biology, she’s shaping biology pedagogy at MIT and beyond.
Establishing MOOCs at MIT
To this day, E.C. Whitehead Professor of Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator emeritus Tania Baker considers creating a permanent role for Wiltrout one of the most consequential decisions she made as department head.
Since launching the very first MITxBio massive online open course 7.00x (Introduction to Biology – the Secret of Life) with professor of biology Eric Lander in 2013, Wiltrout’s team has worked with MIT Open Learning and biology faculty to build an award-winning repertoire of MITxBio courses.
MITxBio courses are currently hosted on the learning platform edX, established by MIT and Harvard University in 2012, which today connects 86 million people worldwide to online learning opportunities. Within MITxBio, Wiltrout leads a team of instructional staff and students to develop online learning experiences for MIT students and the public while researching effective methods for learner engagement and course design.
“Mary Ellen’s approach has an element of experimentation that embodies a very MIT ethos: applying rigorous science to creatively address challenges with far-reaching impact,” says Darcy Gordon, instructor of blended and online initiatives.
Mentee to motivator
Wiltrout was inspired to pursue both teaching and research by the late geneticist Elizabeth “Beth” Jones at Carnegie Mellon University, where Wiltrout earned a degree in biological sciences and served as a teaching assistant in lab courses.
“I thought it was a lot of fun to work with students, especially at the higher level of education, and especially with a focus on biology,” Wiltrout recalls, noting she developed her love of teaching in those early experiences.
Though her research advisor at the time discouraged her from teaching, Jones assured Wiltrout that it was possible to pursue both.
Jones, who received her postdoctoral training with late Professor Emeritus Boris Magasanik at MIT, encouraged Wiltrout to apply to the Institute and join American Cancer Society and HHMI Professor Graham Walker’s lab. In 2009, Wiltrout earned a PhD in biology for thesis work in the Walker lab, where she continued to learn from enthusiastic mentors.
“When I joined Graham’s lab, everyone was eager to teach and support a new student,” she reflects. After watching Walker aid a struggling student, Wiltrout was further affirmed in her choice. “I knew I could go to Graham if I ever needed to.”
After graduation, Wiltrout taught molecular biology at Harvard for a few years until Baker facilitated her move back to MIT. Now, she’s a resource for faculty, postdocs, and students.
“She is an incredibly rich source of knowledge for everything from how to implement the increasingly complex tools for running a class to the best practices for ensuring a rigorous and inclusive curriculum,” says Iain Cheeseman, the Herman and Margaret Sokol Professor of Biology and associate head of the biology department.
Stephen Bell, the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor of Biology and instructor of the Molecular Biology series of MITxBio courses, notes Wiltrout is known for staying on the “cutting edge of pedagogy.”
“She has a comprehensive knowledge of new online educational tools and is always ready to help any professor to implement them in any way they wish,” he says.
Gordon finds Wiltrout’s experiences as a biologist and learning engineer instrumental to her own professional development and a model for their colleagues in science education.
“Mary Ellen has been an incredibly supportive supervisor. She facilitates a team environment that centers on frequent feedback and iteration,” says Tyler Smith, instructor for pedagogy training and biology.
Prepared for the pandemic, and beyond
Wiltrout believes blended learning, combining in-person and online components, is the best path forward for education at MIT. Building personal relationships in the classroom is critical, but online material and supplemental instruction are also key to providing immediate feedback, formative assessments, and other evidence-based learning practices.
“A lot of people have realized that they can’t ignore online learning anymore,” Wiltrout noted during an interview on The Champions Coffee Podcast in 2023. That couldn’t have been truer than in 2020, when academic institutions were forced to suddenly shift to virtual learning.
“When Covid hit, we already had all the infrastructure in place,” Baker says. “Mary Ellen helped not just our department, but also contributed to MIT education’s survival through the pandemic.”
For Wiltrout’s efforts, she received a COVID-19 Hero Award, a recognition from the School of Science for staff members who went above and beyond during that extraordinarily difficult time.
“Mary Ellen thinks deeply about how to create the best learning opportunities possible,” says Cheeseman, one of almost a dozen faculty members who nominated her for the award.
Recently, Wiltrout expanded beyond higher education and into high schools, taking on several interns in collaboration with Empowr, a nonprofit organization that teaches software development skills to Black students to create a school-to-career pipeline. Wiltrout is proud to report that one of these interns is now a student at MIT in the class of 2028.
Looking forward, Wiltrout aims to stay ahead of the curve with the latest educational technology and is excited to see how modern tools can be incorporated into education.
“Everyone is pretty certain that generative AI is going to change education,” she says. “We need to be experimenting with how to take advantage of technology to improve learning.”
Ultimately, she is grateful to continue developing her career at MIT biology.
“It’s exciting to come back to the department after being a student and to work with people as colleagues to produce something that has an impact on what they’re teaching current MIT students and sharing with the world for further reach,” she says.
As for Wiltrout’s own daughter, she’s declared she would like to follow in her mother’s footsteps — a fitting symbol of Wiltrout’s impact on the future of education.
