The 2016-2017 academic year has been another period of high achievement for the faculty, students, and staff in the College of Education at Illinois. From awards given out by the College and campus to professional recognition from organizations nationwide, we are pleased to see our scholars excelling on many fronts. Congratulations to all of this year’s College of Education awardees.
Congratulations go out to three faculty members whose scholarly work and dedication to our students have earned them promotions. Maya Israel (Special Education) and Robb Lindgren (Curriculum & Instruction) have been named associate professors with indefinite tenure, and Adrienne Dixson (Education Policy, Organization & Leadership) has been named a professor. In addition, Sarah McCarthey, former director of Teacher Education in the College, is now the interim head of Curriculum & Instruction.
Meanwhile, the following scholars have accepted new positions and will be leaving the College this summer: Eurydice Bauer, Sarah Lubienski, Luz Murillo, and Patrick Smith. We wish them many successes in their new endeavors and thank them for their valuable contributions to our College. Additionally, Mary-alayne Hughes and Marilyn Parsons will be retiring before the end of the semester.
Looking toward the future, I am extremely proud of our College’s effort to attract top talent to Illinois. We are excited to welcome five new scholars to the College at the start of the 2017-18 academic year. They are:
- Elizabeth Biggs (Assistant Professor, Special Education)
- Catherine Corr (Assistant Professor, Special Education)
- Stina Krist (Assistant Professor, Curriculum & Instruction)
- Christopher M. Napolitano (Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology)
- Rachel Roegman (Assistant Professor; Education Policy, Organization & Leadership)
A sixth new faculty member, Rebecca Hinze-Pifer, will join the College in 2018 as an assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford.
We’ve included in this month’s Education at Illinois newsletter a few of our recently honored scholars. Computerized testing pioneer Hua-Hua Chang was awarded the 2017 E.F. Lindquist Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of educational testing and measurement; Eboni Zamani-Gallaher was the first person of color to receive the Senior Scholar Award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges; and our faculty were recognized by AERA for producing the most widely read research in 2016.
Commencement on May 13 was a wonderful opportunity for us to hood more than 60 newly minted doctoral graduates and the first graduating cohort of our undergraduate Learning & Education Studies program. This innovative program began in 2014 as revamped undergraduate course offerings to prepare teachers and educators to meet the challenges and demands of 21st-century learners, and we are excited to see what these inaugural graduates will accomplish as they go out into the world. A few of them in the Applied Learning Science concentration gave capstone project presentations prior to graduating, and I encourage you to watch those talks.
Thank you for your continued support of the College of Education at Illinois. We hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable summer after a productive academic year.
James D. Anderson, Ed.M. ’69 Ed., Ph.d. ’73 Ed.
Interim Dean and Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Education
