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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

As a panelist at a Georgetown conference in 2014, Jon M. Baker (C’64) expressed that the existing political environment precluded discourse, suppressed ideas, and limited progress on important issues. He then orchestrated the conversation regarding how the role of future leadership and governance should specifically address the decline in civil discourse in politics and the ability of society to develop policies to address challenges affecting economies and institutions.

To curb this combative entrenchment worldwide, Mr. Baker believed Georgetown should leverage its global brand, values, and principles to transform how policy issues are debated. To support Georgetown, Patricia and Jon Baker provided $10 million to create The Baker Center for Leadership and Governance, a nonpartisan center at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy to observe, study and practice intelligent, respectful, good-faith discourse on important policy issues affecting the global community.

The Baker Center for Leadership and Governance offered an opportunity for thought leaders worldwide to engage in dialogue and debate, identify actionable solutions, and emerge with both action items and engaged support, reestablishing faith in our institutions. The initial theme of “inclusive prosperity” was developed through:

The Baker Dinners: Regional gatherings that convened leaders from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to discuss major global challenges, identify common ground, and lay the groundwork for further collaboration.

The Baker Forum: An annual convening of key stakeholders from the Dinners, designed to produce practical solutions to complex policy issues. Notably, the 2017 Forum addressed the societal implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize sectors including healthcare, education, and energy.

The Baker Fellows: Established to engage McCourt School students in the inclusive prosperity initiative, this program identified students who demonstrated leadership and civic engagement and enabled them to work directly with the Center on topics such as income inequality.

In 2018, a strategic review assessed the Center’s progress and areas for growth. While the Center successfully increased its visibility and cultivated cross-campus partnerships, it faced challenges expanding beyond the McCourt School and fully realizing its interdisciplinary and solution-oriented goals.

In response to these findings, Baker collaborated with Vice Provost Randy Bass at The Red House to explore a broader, university-wide approach to learning and leadership. Together, they developed a model for “transformative learning,” aimed at creating a more integrated, adaptive, and socially responsive educational framework. This model, approved by the Office of the Provost, sought to:

Partner with school-specific priorities and faculty leadership

Integrate the design and testing of innovative curricular models, particularly those that created greater fluidity between theory and practice

Initiate an institutional conversation about the future of human learning, especially in light of Al, machine learning and the future of work, and the ways the curriculum and broader ecosystem can respond to these changes

Innovate alternative ways to look at learning outcomes, assessment, credentials and progress to generate greater flexibility, customization, and affordability

Foster institutional collaboration across academic units and learning centers

In 2020, this vision was formalized with the launch of The Baker Trust for Transformative Learning, funded by an additional $20 million investment from the Baker family. Established as a trust—not a center or institute—The Baker Trust was designed to operate across school and departmental boundaries, serving as a dynamic funding engine for strategic learning initiatives. Managed by The Red House, the Trust identifies and supports innovative collaborations that position Georgetown as a leader in reimagining higher education.

Vision: Advance a new paradigm for learning at Georgetown to provide an education that is more experiential, holistic, and geared toward positive change.

Mission: Target research, design, implementation, and scaling of new approaches to develop the skills, mindsets, and values necessary for graduates to take on the world’s greatest problems and shape a more just world.

Implementation:

Align Georgetown’s values and Ignatian traditions with the New Learning Paradigm
Amplify Georgetown’s role in national conversations on higher education reform
Increase investment in innovative, mission-driven academic programs that advance the emerging paradigm

Eight critical themes link the curriculum to some of the most complex and pressing challenges that face Georgetown and the higher education ecosystem. These initiatives and spotlight examples include:

Experiential Learning – Prioritized the Capitol Applied Learning Labs (CALL): A downtown D.C. semester program combining internships with academic coursework.
Future of Higher Education – Fostered participation in the Paradigm Project: A national initiative to develop systemic transformation in undergraduate education.
Environment – Pursued Joint Environment and Sustainability Program: A new degree program integrating ecological and social justice frameworks.
Artificial Intelligence – Established Design Lab for AI and Transformative Education: Exploring how AI technologies can support and redefine pedagogy.
Global Learning & Collaboration – Engaged Visiting Chair in Global Perspectives: Broadening student exposure to global issues through expert-led coursework.
Conflict, Connection & Justice – Developed Conflict Transformation Lab: Training students in mediation and negotiation to bridge divides and promote justice.
Equity and Access – Launched Mastering the Hidden Curriculum: A course helping first-generation, low-income students navigate higher education.
Wellbeing – Co-created Wellbeing Project: A global initiative linking personal well-being to social and ecological impact.

Since the launch of The Baker Trust, more than forty projects and partners have received support. Separately, these initiatives have expanded the community of innovators advancing the New Learning Paradigm. Collectively, they represent the achievement of four key capacities critical for transformation:

Establishing an innovation ecosystem including a diverse set of community partners and a broad portfolio of initiatives.
Scaling up pilot initiatives into campus-wide programs including the Joint Environment and Sustainability Program and the Capital Applied Learning Lab (CALL).
Examining and redesigning the core academic structures by prioritizing investments and R&D on costs, credentials, and calendar.
Providing national and global leadership in education reform through significant external partnerships.

In 2025, as the gap between the rate of societal change and human capacity widens, the Baker Trust commits to reinforcing Georgetown’s goal to reshape students’ educational journeys – including what and how they learn, their experiential initiatives, and their lives as professionals. The commitment to an intrinsic transformation is executed through the following priorities that strive to reaffirm Georgetown’s raison d’etre:

THEME #1: Reaffirm the value proposition of a Georgetown undergraduate education

Goal: Cost-benefit of the degree through redesign

Redesign the Bachelor’s Degree to address the purpose, pace, and cost of obtaining a Georgetown education, while enhancing transformative outcomes and well-being for all students.
Implement a more relevant, lower-cost bachelor’s degree that centers on high-impact experiences.
Build out a competency-based platform robust enough to support holistic development for long-term career resilience.

Actions:

Developing a dynamic, scalable competency-mapping system that captures emerging skills and competencies across degrees, certificates, and organizational needs, supporting curriculum design and learner navigation.
Developing field intelligence platforms that create a more dynamic dialogue between industry/societal needs and curricular redesign.
Seeking academic partners to develop ideas around alternative pathways to the degree, as well as models for rethinking the 4th year as a “transition year” to launch.

Outcome:

The Red House has proposed the development of alternative pathways through the bachelor’s degree, especially those that are redesigned with the emerging paradigm in mind: experiential learning and interdisciplinary curriculum.

THEME #2: Recenter education around experience as the new paradigm

Goal:

Accelerate the integration of academic and experiential learning—particularly though challenge- based approaches—to equip graduates to tackle the world’s most complex problems. Create new programs and renew existing curricula. Implement new modes of challenge-based learning with complex problems
Implement new high-impact experiential learning models to support enrollment growth and build a flourishing educational environment on the Capitol Campus.

Actions:

Launch a campus-wide Experiential Learning Series for design and discussion around Experiential Learning as the emerging paradigm of education.
Develop of “Challenge Labs” at the Capitol Campus that model new contexts for credit-bearing problem-solving experiences.
Create the Experiential Learning Hub to support the centrality of experiential learning at the Capitol Campus.

Outcome:

The Red House plans to significantly elevate the visibility of “experiential learning” as central to the emerging paradigm to focus on “experience” — not content — as the new center of education.

THEME #3: Integrate AI into Education—Shape Human-AI Interaction

Goal:

Explore the frontiers of human potential through human-AI collaboration and its ties to human potential.
Redesign curricula to empower individuals and expand cognitive capacity within AI-informed digital ecosystems.

Actions:

Launch the next level of human-AI learning incubation work within the Red House and Academic Innovation Network (AIN, see below),
Through the AIN, create a next-level ecosystem for approaching AI integration in agile, creative, and responsible ways.

Outcome:

Building on the Baker Trust-funded Initiative on Pedagogy and AI (IPAI), The Red House is working with campus partners to significantly accelerate the University’s response to AI (curricular and pedagogical).

THEME #4: Build Institutional Capacity for Transformation

Goal:

Launch the Academic Innovation Network at Georgetown as an engine of institutional transformation, linking real-world insights with academic program development.

Actions:

Launched the Academic Innovation Network (AIN) as the new platform for the Red House to influence institutional change in ways that are responsive to institutional priorities, faculty expertise, and the evolving landscape of higher education. The AIN is problem-driven, taking on the most compelling challenges facing the University in its adaptation to educational change by connecting research to curriculum design. The AIN also supports new program development through the new Emerging Studies Institute (ESI), which is being created as part of the transformation of the Graduate School.
Appointed Dewey Murdick, a national leader in AI policy, emerging technology and data science, to helm a new human-centered AI incubator for educational settings. As the senior fellow in the Red House and AIN, Mr. Murdick will lead research on how students and professors can collaborate with AI and develop innovative learning models that address cost, quality and access needs.

Outcome:

The AIN creates a new ecosystem for institutional transformation, combining Red House, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), and Emerging Studies Institute (ESI).

SUMMARY

Today, Georgetown graduates face a future landscape changing at unprecedented speed, living within increasingly diverse communities, and interacting with rapidly advancing technologies. Students will be expected to enter and lead workplaces where collaboration is required across disciplines and on a global scale. The Baker Trust remains committed to redefining the learning experience to meet these demands, reshaping not only what students learn, but how they learn and apply knowledge to real-world challenges.