Today we start an exciting new chapter of the Orbis story with the creation of our new division, Mindset. We are also pleased to announce that Bill Heinrich has joined our team to lead this new division. He joins us from Michigan State University, where he served as Head of Assessment and Experiential Learning for the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology.
Mindset is our new research and ‘big idea’ division. Mindset, was a natural name for this arm of our business as it recognizes the establishment of an outlook, or “habits of the mind formed by previous experience.” If experience has taught us anything, it is that we are all capable of so much more together.
We designed this division to support conversations around new and promising concepts and ideas in our industry and help move those conversations into best practices that Orbis campus partners can successfully use in your day-to-day operations. Over the next few weeks and months, you’ll see firsthand some of the opportunities we have to start up these exciting conversations. But first, meet Bill – our newest hire and the Director of Mindset.
In his role leading Mindset at Orbis, Bill supports campus partners by connecting big ideas to repeatable educational practices, guiding informed decision making, and building holistic learning experiences that support student success. Trained in student development, experiential and organizational learning, and higher education assessment, Bill is passionate about emergent outcomes through meaningful learning experiences. His unique expertise and academic credentials position Bill as a trusted and invaluable resource for the Orbis higher learning community. With 20 years of experience, Bill’s career spans on-campus, regional, and international capacity development focusing on assessment skills and mindsets, program evaluation, experiential design, teaching, learning, human-centered design, and data analysis.
Bill joins our team from Michigan State University, where he worked as the Head of Assessment and Experiential Learning for the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Before the Hub, he worked in learning research roles at MSU, in student affairs at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and as a guide and outdoor educator in California and Vermont. His monitoring and evaluation work has supported various university programs and community-based non-profit organizations, such as a (US) National Science Foundation grant and several USAID (United States Agency for International Development) funded, human-centered design training projects in Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. Bill holds a B.A. in Psychology from Northern Illinois University, an M.A. in Student Affairs Administration from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in Higher Adult and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University.
He rides a bike to work year-round (and will even fix your bike for a cold beverage).
Connect with Bill and introduce yourself by emailing him at bheinrich@orbiscommunications.com
