Final Report of the Consultative Committee for the Selection of a Dean of the Graduate School of Education |
|
September 9, 2014, Volume 61, No. 04 |
The Consultative Committee for the Selection of a Dean of the Graduate School of Education was convened by President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price on August 28, 2013. During its four months of work, the full Committee met on 12 occasions and reported its recommendations to the President and the Provost on December 19, 2013. The Committee members were:
Chair
Michael A. Fitts, Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School (Law)
Faculty
Vivian L. Gadsden, William T. Carter Professor of Child Development & Education (GSE)
Larry Gladney, Edmund J. & Louise W. Kahn Professor for Faculty Excellence, Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy (SAS/GSE)
Joan F. Goodman, Professor of Education (GSE)
Rebecca A. Maynard, University Trustee Professor of Education and Social Policy (GSE)
Howard C. Stevenson, Professor of Education (GSE)
Beth A. Winkelstein, Professor of Bioengineering and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education (SEAS)
Stanton E. F. Wortham, Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (GSE)
Students
Paul McCormick, EdD Candidate in Teaching, Learning & Teacher Education (GSE)
Ayoung Lee, Master’s candidate in Intercultural Communication (GSE)
Ex-officio
Joann Mitchell, Vice President for Institutional Affairs
Alumni and Overseer Representatives
Eleanor Fogarty, GRD’08
Joel M. Greenblatt, W’79, WG’80 and Chair of the Graduate School of Education Board of Overseers
Consultants to the Committee
Jean Dowdall, Witt/Kieffer
Robin Mamlet, Witt/Kieffer
Oliver Tomlin, Witt/Kieffer
Staff to the Committee
Adam Michaels, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the President
The Committee was greatly aided in its efforts by Jean Dowdall, Robin Mamlet and Oliver Tomlin of Witt/Kieffer and considered the dossiers of several hundred candidates and potential candidates. The Committee then interviewed a group of 11 semi-finalists that included four women, two African-Americans, one Hispanic and one Asian. The six individuals recommended for consideration were selected from this group of 11 interviewed semi-finalists.
The Committee and the consultants each conducted extensive informational interviews and consultative meetings with individuals and groups throughout the Graduate School of Education community, as well as many informal contacts, in order to better understand the scope, expectations and challenges of the Dean’s position and the opportunities and challenges facing GSE in the years ahead. These consultative activities included full Committee meetings with Dean Andy Porter, Associate Dean Stanton Wortham (who also served on the Consultative Committee) and the School’s Vice Deans and senior leadership; an open meeting for GSE staff; meetings of the Chair with the School’s Board of Overseers, faculty and administrators and staff; and extensive networking by members of the Committee with the School’s faculty and students, as well as with colleagues at other institutions. We also solicited advice and nominations from all faculty, staff, students and alumni of the School via email and reviewed a variety of documents about the School.
Based upon these conversations and materials, our initial meeting with the President and the Provost, and the Committee’s own discussions, a comprehensive document was prepared outlining the scope of the position and the challenges a new Dean will face, as well as the qualities sought in a new Dean.
The vacancy was announced (and input invited from the entire Penn community) in Almanac, and the position was advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Women in Higher Education, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education and online on InsideHigherEd.com, AcademicKeys.com, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, American Education Research Association, American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Association of Teacher Educators, American Psychological Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education and University Council for Educational Administration. The members of the Committee were also very energetic in soliciting and recommending the names of potential candidates.
On March 26, 2014, President Gutmann announced (Almanac April 1, 2014) the selection of Dr. Pam Grossman, Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and Faculty Director of Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching, who will assume the deanship on January 1, 2015. Dr. Grossman, an internationally regarded scholar in the field of teaching and teacher education and a member of the National Academy of Education, is dedicated to demonstrating how schools of education at research-intensive universities can help improve teaching and learning at all levels.
—Michael A. Fitts,
Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, Dean of the Law School and
Chair of the Consultative Committee for the Selection of a
Dean of the Graduate School of Education
|