Moravian University is taking a human-centered approach to artificial intelligence—one designed not simply to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, but to help students, faculty, and staff navigate its possibilities and challenges with confidence, ethics, and purpose.
Leading that work is Dr. Jenifer Norton, inaugural Executive Director of Emerging Technologies, a position created following recommendations from the Presidential Taskforce on AI. Dr. Norton sees her role as rooted in a responsibility to help the entire campus community understand and shape the impact of AI.
“AI can feel as though it’s taking away agency and autonomy,” she says. “I want to empower our students, faculty, and staff to feel like they still maintain their agency, and explore the ways AI can amplify, not replace, their unique human capacities.”
\Moravian’s AI strategy centers on three priorities: equity, enhancing human capacities, and preparing students and employees for a rapidly changing world. This work will extend beyond the classroom through the new AI Innovation Lab, which opened this fall. Students from every major and technical background will be able to bring real-world challenges into the lab and explore AI-powered solutions within established intellectual property, data, and ethics policies.
Looking ahead, Moravian’s AI roadmap runs through the 2028–2029 academic year, with goals that include integrating AI across all majors, establishing an AI literacy requirement for incoming students, and creating a sustainable ecosystem for faculty development.
Still, Norton believes success cannot be measured solely by technological expertise.
“The key markers of success at this point are agility and discernment,” she says. “We want to prepare our students by giving them every opportunity to hone those skills to successfully navigate the rapidly changing world.”
As AI continues to evolve, Moravian is building a strategy designed to evolve alongside it—ensuring that technology remains in service of people and that graduates are prepared not just for the world they know today but for the possibilities still ahead.
Learn more about the all-new AI Innovation Lab helping students build practical AI tools for real-world application.
