Washington Center Staff | Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education

Julia Metzker (she/her), Director

Julia Metzker

I believe in the power of a liberal arts education to transform individuals and heal communities.

I have experience in many aspects of building effective learning environments and assessing student growth. I am thrilled to be able to continue this work as the Director for the Washington Center. Prior to joining Evergreen and the Washington Center, I served as the founding Executive Director for the Brown Center for Faculty Innovation and Excellence at Stetson University.

I received my first degree from The Evergreen State College where I learned first-hand the value of a transformative liberal arts education. I obtained a doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry from the University of Arizona and completed a post-doctoral appointment at the University of York in York, UK. In my 10 years as a chemistry professor at Georgia College, I discovered the power of community-based learning to engage students and was selected to champion the institution’s Quality Enhancement Plan as the inaugural the Director of Community-based Engaged Learning at Georgia College in 2016. During my journey of discovering myself as an educator, I was fortunate to find a cohort of like-minded university educators and we co-founded of the Innovative Course-building Group (IC-bG) – a grass-roots social network for learning that supports teaching faculty and staff across disciplines. Our most recent endeavor, Course Design for Essential Learning, helps faculty build courses that use dilemmas, issues and questions (DIQs) to inspire students and facilitate transformative student learning. I am also particularly proud of my recent work with Imagining America’s Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship, a research group that is reimagining and reclaiming the democratic potential of assessment.

I hold many identities. I am a life-long learner. I am a faculty developer. I am cis-gender. I am a feminist. I am a scientist. I am a humanist. I am a knitter. I am a wife. I am a Gemini. I am addicted to podcasts. I am a citizen. I am an educator. I am a daughter. I am an occasional farmer.

Jaime O’Connor (she/her), Assistant Director

Jaime joined the Washington Center in 2022, bringing higher ed experience spanning instructional and administrative roles from academic advising to general education curriculum design to program assessment to institutional accreditation. In her prior role with Georgia Southern University, she developed extensive faculty development resources and programming to support the assessment of course and program level outcomes with a focus on improving student learning and success.

Jaime’s teaching philosophy has been shaped by the thinking of Paulo Freire, Nel Noddings, John Dewey, and Parker Palmer and infused with contemplative practices gained through the completion of her M.A. in Contemplative Education from Naropa University. Her thesis research explored the emotional dynamics of grades through the experiences of faculty and students and contrasted various models of grading and non-grading. Jaime remains fascinated with alternatives to traditional grading, such as Evergreen’s narrative evaluations, that provide a more holistic record of student learning and development.

Jaime thrives in collaborative environments and enjoys the challenge of unravelling complex problems to discover core issues and propose solutions that simplify, clarify, and lighten paths to more meaningful teaching and learning engagement. She believes in the essential role of public education in the preservation of democracy and in the power of education to inspire personal transformation and social progress.

Ashley Hilton (she/her), Program Coordinator

Ashley Hilton is passionate about education’s ability to change lives and empower individuals. She is dedicated to creating inclusive, engaging, and student-centered learning environments that inspire growth and confidence.

She earned both her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and her master’s degree in Special Education from Arizona State University. As a teacher in Mesa, Arizona, she especially loved working in kindergarten English Language Development classes, fostering curiosity and confidence through play, exploration, collaboration, and culturally relevant teaching. She prioritized creating a safe and supportive classroom environment where students felt empowered to advocate for themselves and connect their learning to the real world. She explicitly integrated Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into her teaching and incorporated mindfulness practices to support both her students and herself.

Her fascination with human behavior and motivation extends beyond the classroom, fueling a love-hate relationship with reality television. She enjoys making soaps, perfumes, and skincare products using sustainable and ethical materials, as well as hiking, trail running, and collecting—rocks, vinyl records, and more. She also has a deep appreciation for music, cartoons, and any form of art.

Ashley is excited to be part of a team that truly cares about others and is dedicated to improving education. She firmly believes that education is power and that it should be accessible to all.