Search for Dean of the College of Education

Joseph Glover, Provost and Senior Vice President

This is to announce the initiation of the search for the next Dean of the College of Education. A search committee has been formed and will be chaired by Steve Dorman, Dean of the College of Health and Human Performance. The list of search committee members and meeting dates may be found at www.aa.ufl.edu/search_committees/Dean_Education. Additional information about the search will be posted at this web site as it develops. For a complete position description, please visit the “Current Opportunities” page at www.parkersearch.com.

Members of the university community are encouraged to nominate candidates for the position before April 15, 2011 by notifying lwilder@parkersearch.com or pwilliams@parkersearch.com.

This search follows Dean Catherine Emihovich’s decision to return to teaching and research in the College of Education. The college has prospered under her leadership in many ways, thanks to her insightful and sustained attention to academic excellence, skillful administrative and fiscal management, and foresight in planning for the future. She has been the 12th dean of the college since 2002 and the first woman to lead the college.

During her tenure, the college has emerged as a national leader in effective education reform. A shining example is the college’s renowned Lastinger Center for Learning, which links some 300 partnering schools across Florida with UF research scholars from multiple disciplines, forming powerful learning communities in support of school improvement and children’s learning and healthy development.

Another program, UF Teach, a replication of the highly successful U-Teach program from the University of Texas, began in 2008. It represents a radically different approach to recruiting science and mathematics majors into the teaching ranks in order to ease the shortage of qualified teachers in the STEM fields. Dean Emihovich secured a $1 million match from the Helios Foundation to ensure the program would be funded at UF.

A major milestone occurred in December, 2010, when she facilitated UF’s creation of a Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies. In 2006, she also helped secure the college’s $1.5 million David Lawrence Jr. Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Studies.

Last year under her leadership, college faculty held nearly $38 million in active research and training grants, the college’s highest total ever. About $14 million of that was in new grants. As part of UF’s ambitious Florida Tomorrow Capital Campaign, the college is fast approaching its third fundraising goal of $25M, although the campaign runs through 2012. Over the course of her deanship, donations have funded over 30 new student scholarships and fellowships since she arrived in 2002.

The college’s online learning program, launched in 2004 with 57 students in three graduate courses, experienced tremendous growth during Dean Emihovich’s tenure, generating nearly 4,400 enrollments, in 130 courses, in 2010. Dean Emihovich also substantially increased faculty, staff, and student diversity during her tenure.