JUN 3, 2025
Educator’s Month: Intelligence Amplified: Human-Centered Education in the Age of AI
As artificial intelligence accelerates into our labs, classrooms, and learning spaces, educators face a pivotal question: whether to use AI, how to use AI, and why to use it. In this keynote, Toni-Marie Achilli, Associate Dean of Biology at Brown University and Senior Lecturer, argues that educators are not merely participants in AI integration, we are its stewards. This responsibility spans institutional policy, ethical foresight, and transformative pedagogy.
The talk unfolds in three acts, each illuminating a sphere of educational influence. Act I focuses on the programmatic level, urging institutions to lead the ethical conversation about AI’s role in shaping curricula, equity in access, and intellectual integrity. Act II brings us into the classroom, exploring how AI can transform learning and assessment. A case study of AI-augmented grading in a bioethics unit on the film GATTACA reveals how educators can balance efficiency and ethical nuance. Act III turns to experiential learning and research. Here, we examine how AI can democratize access to advanced research training, using a case study in vitro modeling in collaboration with the Brown Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing.
Throughout, this talk, Dean Achilli affirms a core belief: educators are irreplaceable, not in spite of AI, but because of our capacity to guide students toward ethical, imaginative, and human-centered futures. This is not a time to resist change, but to lead it.
Our Speakers
Toni-Marie Achilli
Associate Dean of Biology Undergraduate Education, Brown University
Toni-Marie Achilli is the Associate Dean of Biology Undergraduate Education at Brown University. Toni-Marie’s education includes a Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University. Her expertise lies in the field of 3D in vitro models for drug discovery and development. Toni-Marie has been actively engaged in teaching since her graduate student years and further enhanced her pedagogical skills through the INBRE Teaching Postdoc in the Biology Department at Rhode Island College. Since joining the Brown Faculty in 2016, her courses have fostered a dynamic learning environment that intertwines theoretical understanding with practical applications in biology. She is passionate about advising undergraduate students in the biology concentrations and providing guidance and support to help students navigate their academic and career paths. Toni-Marie serves as the BEAR Faculty Liaison to several athletic teams at Brown, including Women’s Ice Hockey, where she directly supports student-athletes. She was the 2021 recipient of The Elizabeth Leduc Award in Teaching Excellence. Toni-Marie teaches BIOL 0150D Techniques in Regenerative Medicine: Cells, Scaffolds, and Staining, BIOL 0170 Biotechnology, and BIOL 0940G Antibiotic Drug Discovery: Identifying Novel Soil Microbes to Combat Antibiotic Resistance, as well as courses in the Summer@Brown Program.
Matt Repasky
Senior Vice President, Life Sciences Products, Schrödinger
Matt Repasky, senior vice president of life sciences products, and leader of the scientific and technical support groups, joined Schrödinger in 2002. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University in the laboratory of Prof. William Jorgensen. Since joining the company as a scientific developer, he has held several management roles including product manager of the industry-leading docking application, Glide, since 2006. Matt has published extensively in the area of structure-based virtual screening and has provided leadership in the development of software products in the areas of docking, pharmacophore modeling, conformation generation, and QSAR modeling.