Educator. Builder. Experimenter.

Jana Remy I run educational technology at Chapman University, where I spend a lot of time thinking about what technology is doing to teaching, learning, and the people trying to make both work. I co-chair our AI Task Force, which means I spend a fair amount of time asking uncomfortable questions about what generative AI actually means for 10,000 students and 1,200 faculty. I haven’t stopped teaching. I haven’t stopped building things. And I have a longstanding habit of trying things before I’m entirely sure they’re going to work.

My work sits at the intersection of AI adoption, educational technology, and institutional change.

I experiment before it has a name.

I get curious about things early. Then I try them. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t. When something does work, I tend to stick around long enough to figure out how to make it useful for other people, too.

1995

Hand-coded websites, before the commercial web had a playbook.

2000

Blogging early, when the platforms were still being invented.

2008

Making History Podcast (2008–2011). One of the early academic podcasts, back when “academic podcast” was not yet much of a thing.

2010

Digital scholarship, before anyone quite knew what to call it. Founded DHSoCal, the regional collaboratory. Built Chapman’s ePortfolios, which eventually became the university’s institutional Tenure & Promotion review system.

2019

Teaching with GPT-2 and Talk to Transformer. The students were fascinated. The technology was clunky. I was curious enough to keep going.

Today, that curiosity has turned into leading AI adoption across Chapman, serving as PI on Ithaka S+R research on AI literacy, and investigating AI tools in research administration through NSF-funded work.

A standing appointment with not-knowing.

Every year, on purpose, I’m bad at something new. I’ve kept this practice for thirty years. The recent list: welding in 2025. Open-water snorkeling in 2021. A Library Science degree in 2019. Geolocation in 2012. Putting my hobbies on the internet, in 1995.

Being a beginner every year is how I keep my thinking honest about adult learning. The strongest learning happens in the doing, usually with someone nearby who can see what you can’t see yet. And when I’ve recently been the person who couldn’t do something, I build differently for the person who can’t do it yet. It also keeps me honest about something else: how much energy it takes to advocate for yourself inside a system that wasn’t designed with you in mind.

What I’m working on this season.

• AI adoption across Chapman: How do we help people become genuinely AI-literate without throwing accessibility, academic integrity, or good judgment overboard?
• Defining AI Literacy Within Existing Frameworks: Principal Investigator, Ithaka S+R, 2025. Read more.
• AI Implementation and Governance at Emerging Research Institutions: Investigator, NSF, 2025. Findings published by Ithaka S+R.
• Helping faculty teach with generative AI, still figuring out what is genuinely useful, what is hype, and what we should probably leave alone.
• WASC Peer Reviewer, Reaffirmation of Accreditation and Foundation Principles, 2026.
• Google AI certification series, AI Fundamentals through AI for Research, Writing, and Data Analysis, 2026.

Things I built that stuck around.

Outside work

Also: I race boats.

World Champion in the 250m and 500m at the 2024 World Va’a Championships. ACA silver medalist. Member of Team USA Paradragons; Paradragon Advocate for the US Dragon Boat Federation, 2025.

I race as a leg amputee. The racing is fun. The advocacy work matters more: pushing federations on classification, equipment, and all the unglamorous logistics that have to work before para-athletes can even get to the starting line.

I train a lot. I race boats. I teach. I build things. I remain stubbornly interested in what happens next. Follow the paddling on Instagram: @janapaddles.