Growing the Innovative Spirit

The Center for Innovation and Professional Development (CIPD) is designed to develop, promote, coordinate, and support a wide range of collaborative and consultative projects, programs, and partnerships in the public and private sectors. The Center will enable Webster University to develop innovative non-credit and interdisciplinary for-credit programs and initiatives beyond its traditional for-credit programs, courses and markets.

CIPD Benefits

• Students will benefit by engaging in activities that bolster their professional acumen and enrich their educational experience.
• Communities will benefit by using Webster University resources to help them address economic and social problems and opportunities.
• Faculty members will benefit by applying their expertise to private- and public-sector problems and opportunities, which constitutes professional development in Boyer’s “Scholarship of Engagement” model.
• Webster University will benefit by making a difference in its communities, advancing its mission, and improving its reputation.

The Center’s activities will emerge in phases. The first phase will develop and deliver non-credit professional development and continuing education seminars and programs, incubate interdisciplinary initiatives, and administer Webster’s existing Audit for Enrichment program. Later phases will explore opportunities to seek grants and contracts for the Center’s activities, develop seminars and workshops, and identify community-based research opportunities for faculty.

Julian Schuster, Provost, SVP & COO
Webster University

"This Center will enrich our students’ educational experience, in part by helping them engage in more activities that bolster their professional acumen. It will also benefit the communities we serve by channeling the strengths of Webster’s global network toward addressing economic and social challenges and opportunities in the public and private sectors."