by Kendal Enz
New full-time Center for Leadership Education (CLE) faculty member Charlotte O’Donnell wants students to understand the importance of communicating clearly.
“Clear communication saves lives,” she said. “And visual communication is just as important as your written communication!”
From an early age, O’Donnell knew that she wanted to be a designer, photographer and writer, and now, as a lecturer of marketing and communications courses, she has the opportunity to share her knowledge and passion for these written and visual mediums.
O’Donnell’s desire to teach began when she was an undergraduate at Washington University, where she had the opportunity to learn from an array of talented professors who encouraged her and her peers to ask big questions and take real risks.
It was during one of these classes that O’Donnell had her “this is what I want to do with my life” epiphany.
“To this day I still think a lot about those old college classes—I try to recreate those classroom dynamics in my own courses every time I teach,” she said.
O’Donnell’s first experience with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) was as a graduate student in the prestigious Writing Seminars program. As a teaching fellow in the Writing Seminars, O’Donnell taught creative writing courses to undergraduate students each of her four semesters. Shortly after receiving her MFA in fiction in 2009, she began teaching part-time for CLE, which is part of the Whiting School of Engineering at JHU.
“I loved the experience of teaching students here so much I jumped on the opportunity to stay,” she said. “It’s really wonderful to get to work with so many incredibly intelligent and creative students every semester.”
While O’Donnell is a gifted fiction writer, she said that she is a pragmatist at heart, and enjoys teaching students skills that can improve their daily lives, such as how to write clear and concise emails.
“Imagine what a difference that would make across campus: how many fewer frustrated teachers and students there would be, and how that goodwill might radiate out,” she said. “How many more ideas might be exchanged. How much more intelligent dialogue we might all participate in together.”
One of O’Donnell’s favorite aspects of teaching for CLE is helping students who don’t consider themselves strong communicators to find their voices.
“I believe that clear communication is what changes the world and that we benefit most when more articulate voices are added to the dialogue,” she said.
O’Donnell referenced Edward Tufte’s essay “PowerPoint Does Rocket Science—and Better Techniques for Technical Reports” on the Space Shuttle Colombia, which burned up upon reentry into the earth’s atmosphere because of damaged tiles on its wing, as evidence of why clear communication is so important, and how it does indeed save lives. In his essay, Tufte wrote that the PowerPoint slides used by NASA to report the damage to the shuttle were so visually confusing that the administrators did not understand the message the engineers were trying to convey: that the damage to the shuttle was in fact severe. Consequently, repairs were not made, and seven astronauts died and a $1.7 billion dollar space shuttle was destroyed.
O’Donnell believes that students should take CLE courses because they teach practical skills and offer real-world experience.
“CLE courses help ground students’ education. So much of what students learn at Hopkins can be so theoretical, and though big ideas are important, it’s knowledge of real-world practices and skills that help give those ideas traction,” she said.
While maintaining good grades is important, O’Donnell advises students not to get overly focused on their GPA.
“Now is the time to take risks and try new things! Expand your perspective and challenge yourself. In the end, this risk—even if it ends in failure—is going to make you a lot smarter and happier,” she said.
When she is not teaching, O’Donnell works as a freelance designer, photographer and writer. She believes that continuing to work outside of academics keeps her courses fresh and relevant, and she often references her real-world work experiences in the classroom.
O’Donnell has published a multitude of creative and journalistic writing, but said she considers her biggest accomplishment being appointed a lecturer at CLE.
“It’s an unbelievably big deal to me,” she said.
In her free time, O’Donnell teaches yoga on the Homewood campus at the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center. She has been a practitioner of yoga for 14 years, and she can sometimes be found doing yoga in her office. From April to November, she spends much of her free time tending to her garden of irises, daisies, tickseed, coneflowers and Russian sage.
A Baltimore resident, O’Donnell said she enjoys the city for its grittiness and vibrant art culture.
“To me, what makes it best is that it’s the kind of place where you can have an accidental adventure,” she said. “Wandering around looking to meet my friends at certain restaurants or bars, it’s not infrequently that I’ve stumbled on obscure musical performances or art stuff—underground book and coffee shops, too!”
O’Donnell originally hails from Rhode Island, or the “land of clam cakes and coffee milkshakes.” She does not recommend consuming these two items at the same time.