The Thorpe Center for Curricular and Faculty Development is designed to enhance academic excellence throughout the IWU campus.  Its resources, especially those involving Instructional Design and Technologies, offer support to the campus faculty as they pursue their work as teachers, scholars and curricular innovators.  Thorpe Center programs encourage reflective discourse and the sharing of views and experiences among faculty, as they relate to issues involving the theory and practice of teaching, course development, academic program design, and scholarly inquiry. 

The Dean of Curricular and Faculty Development holds administrative responsibility for coordinating the University's general education program, May Term, and university-wide writing programs.  The Dean is deeply involved in all university initiatives concerned with enhancing the strategic assessment, planning and development of curriculum. Because the activities and programs involving faculty development and curricular innovation are inextricably linked, the Dean provides faculty with multiple levels of support for professional development and programmatic curricular innovation and administers travel and internal grants involving scholarly activity and curricular development, programs, and faculty leaves.

Created in 2013, the Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETAL) promotes innovative teaching and learning practices by supporting pedagogical development of IWU faculty through workshops, reading groups, teaching circles, and more. CETAL also works to involve students as partners in active learning across a range of settings, from classes, to extra-curricular activities, to work as tutors. The council advises the Dean on matters related to teaching and learning and is key in coordinating pedagogical initiatives with other bodies such as Curriculum Council (CC), Faculty Development Committee (FDC), the Writing Program, the Assessment Committee, and the Council on University Programs and Policies (CUPP). 

The Thorpe Center for Curricular and Faculty Development (originally the Mellon Center) was originally established in 1995 with a Mellon Foundation Presidential Discretionary Grant secured by Minor Myers Jr., the 17th president of Illinois Wesleyan University.