Revival - College of Education - University of Florida

facultyA fond farewell (but not really goodbye) to 8 retiring facultyThe great thing about the academic world is that you never really have to say goodbye. The College of Educationbid an official farewell to a number of retiring faculty over the past year, but many of these scholars will remainactive in research in their roles as emeritus professors—and all of them have produced scholarship that will deepenour understanding of education for years to come. Among the retirees are:Jeri BensonAssociate DeanBefore joining the College ofEducation as associate dean foracademic affairs in 2004, JeriBenson was associate dean offinance and administration andassociate dean for academic affairsat the University of Georgia’s Collegeof Education. She also was a member of the facultyat UGA for 10 years prior to her move into administration.During her professional career of 31 years, she alsohas been on the faculty at the University of SouthernCalifornia and the University of Maryland-College Park.She taught graduate level courses in measurement, statistics,and structural modeling. She has published nearly50 journal articles and book chapters. Her researchinterests include the measurement of test anxiety andstatistical approaches to construct validation. At UF, shehas worked with faculty development including hiring,promotion and tenure, and other UF reviews; she hashelped to lead the college’s state and national accreditationefforts; worked to develop the fiscal side of thecollege’s distance education operation; and numerousprojects related to the college budget and operations. Analumna of UF, Benson earned her Ph.D. in foundationsof education at the College of Education.Phil ClarkEducational Administrationand PolicySince 1972, Professor PhilClark has been director of theStewart Mott Davis Center forCommunity Education, whichhelps communities developeducational programs to meetthe changing needs of citizens. A leader in the fields ofleadership and community education, Clark has representedthe United States, Canada and Bermuda on theInternational Community Education Executive Board,and has received distinguished service awards from PhiDelta Kappa, the National Community EducationAssociation, the Florida Association for CommunityEducation, and the Adult and Community Educators ofFlorida, Inc.Jim DoudEducational Administrationand PolicyProfessor Jim Doud becameone of the nation’s youngest highschool principals at the age of 21,and went on to a 26-year career inK-8 administration before joiningthe professoriate. Doud taught atthe University of Northern Iowa before coming to UF,where he served from 1994 to 2005 as the chair of theEducational Administration and Policy department.Among other honors, Doud has been named HonoraryNational Distinguished Principal by the NationalAssociation of Elementary School Principals and is arecipient of the John M. David Distinguished EducationalLeadership Award from the Southern Associationof Colleges and Schools.Mary Kay DykesSpecial EducationSpecial Education ProfessorMary Kay Dykes has builther career on finding solutionsfor students who don’t fit thetraditional mold provided by theK-12 school system. Much ofher research has centered on theneeds of gifted students, particularly “nontraditional”gifted students—those who are disabled, economicallydisadvantaged or from cultural groups that are underrepresentedin gifted education. Long before multidisciplinaryprojects came to the fore in academia, Dykessaw the potential benefit in working with specialists inother fields, and developed cross-disciplinary projectsthat looked at the role therapy, nutrition and otherhealth issues play in student outcomes. Popular withher students, Dykes received the college’s GraduateTeacher of the Year Award multiple times. She chairedthree divisions of the Council for Exceptional Children.Dykes served as executive director of curriculum servicesfor the School Board of Alachua County from 2002-2004, where she coordinated a number of innovativenew federally-funded programs in the county schools.John GregoryTeaching and LearningProfessor John Gregory isperhaps best known for his researchon the way mathematics teachersask questions of their students, andin particular, his studies of howteachers’ silences can encouragestudents to participate. But over his35-year career as a teacher educator, he also wrote a numberof books intended to make mathematics fun for K-12students—including a book of number puzzles in limerickform. Gregory has served as a writer of the Sunshine StateStandards and a consultant on the Florida Teacher CertificationExamination.Larry LoeschCounselor EducationProfessor Larry Loesch cameto UF at a time when the counselingprofession was almost entirelyunregulated, and played a crucialrole in the movement to establishcertification procedures thatwould boost the reputation of theprofession nationwide. A leader in the development of theNational Counseling Exam, he was also the first presidentof Florida Association for Measurement and Evaluationin Guidance. His accomplishments led the AmericanCounseling Association to name him a Fellow of theirorganization and to give him their Arthur A. HitchcockDistinguished Professional Service Award.Rodman WebbEducational PsychologyAs associate dean for academicaffairs at the turn of the 21st Century,Rodman Webb played a key rolein the College’s shift to a facultygovernanceleadership model, andhelped lead a number of efforts totransform the built environment atNorman Hall—including the conversion of the NormanGym into the Digital Worlds Institute and the plannedconstruction of a super-high-tech Experiential LearningComplex. As a professor in the educational psychology,Webb taught qualitative research methodologies to ageneration of young researchers. His own research interestsinclude the philosophy of social science, pragmatism,school improvement, teacher careers and the education ofstudents at risk of school failure.Paul GeorgeTeaching and LearningDistinguished Professor PaulGeorge was one of the leading voicesin the middle school movement thatchanged the structure of K-12 educationin the 1970s. A K-12 teacher for10 years before he became a professor,George spent one week per semester inthe K-12 classroom during his tenureat UF—drawing insights that kepthis work fresh. Since arriving here in1972, he has written more than 150articles, books, textbook chapters orother publications, and many of hisworks are considered to be classics intheir field. Middle School Journal hasdescribed him as the nation’s “No.1 ranking scholar” in middle gradeseducation, and George has worked as aconsultant in nearly all of the 50 statesand 15 countries. Though enteringretirement, George has been workingon a number of projects, including acomprehensive review of the state ofmiddle-grades education, funded bythe Helios Foundation.30 EducationTimes Fall / Winter • 2008 Fall / Winter • 2008 EducationTimes 31