New Hires Bolster Faculty Ranks

 

Frank Worrell	Ingrid Seyer-Ochi	Sophia Rabe-Hesketh	Diane Mayer	Laura Sterponi
Rick Mintrop	Cynthia Coburn	Janette Hernandez	Jim Slotta	Andrew Furco

The last few years have seen an unprecedented growth in the number of faculty in the Graduate School of Education. Since P. David Pearson began his tenure as dean in 2001, no fewer than seven Acadmic Senate faculty have been hired, many of them for newly created positions. More hires are in the pipeline. Several non-Senate positions have also been filled recently. There has been a net gain in the number of professors since 2001, despite attrition.

“The past three years have been exceptionally active hiring periods,” said Dean Pearson, ”but hardly a year has gone by in the past twenty when we have not been searching for at least one or two positions. Hiring has a natural cycle of ebb and flow. Part of it is determined by retirements and resignations. We like our well established programs, so when people leave we tend to replace them with new hires. But part of the spurt in hiring is determined by growth in the size of our student body as a result of bringing new programs on line—programs like the Principal Leadership Institute and the new Joint Doctoral Program for Leadership Educational Equity. Because these are new initiatives, we need new faculty with expertise not currently represented in the GSE.”

Last academic year the School attempted for the first time to hire four new faculty members at once, making use of two joint search committees. New faces who have joined the faculty since 2001 include Frank Worrell, who directs the School Psychology program; Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, whose area is Social and Cultural Studies; Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, with an expertise in statistics in education; Diane Mayer, who assumed the new post of associate dean for professional programs; Laura Sterponi, who will teach in reading and literacy; Rick Mintrop, an instructor in the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI); and Cynthia Coburn, newly arrived in the Joint Doctoral Program in Leadership for Educational Equity.

Non-Senate faculty have also seen their ranks increased by the edition of several important new members, including Janette Hernandez, an academic coordinator who supervises and teaches in the PLI; Jim Slotta, an associate adjunct professor in Cognition and Development; and Andrew Furco, director of the Service-Learning and Research Center, whose title was recently upgraded from lecturer to assistant adjunct professor.

Helen Clifton

Helen Clifton, the School’s administrative analyst for Senate Faculty personnel, is actively involved in recruiting and hiring new professors. Clifton also remarked on the increase in hiring: “We’re bringing in some exciting new people at the assistant and associate levels. In the last few years there’s been a sense of renewal and momentum in the school.”

 

 

 

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