Dean Velenchik has responsibility for curricular and instructional matters including the assessment of student learning and the development of new curricular initiatives. She also works directly with departments in the natural and physical sciences and the empirical social sciences, the Writing Program and the Women’s and Gender Studies Department. Prior to becoming dean, she served as Director of First-Year Academic Programs, including the Writing Program, the First-Year Seminar Program, and Wellesley Plus. In the more distant past, she was Chair of the Economics Department and Director of the International Relations Program.
Professor Velenchik is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she studied International Economics. She received her PhD in Economics from Stanford University, where she was awarded the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her scholarly work is in the area of development and labor economics, with a focus on Africa. She was a Fulbright fellow in Cote d’Ivoire and has also worked in Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Professor Velenchik has particular interests in the role of active learning, particularly the case method, in the economics classroom and in the combination of writing and quantitative reasoning. She has taught a range of courses including introductory and intermediate microeconomics, international trade, development, and a popular first-year writing course on Wealth and Poverty in America. She received Wellesley’s Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2006.
