The College of Education is searching for a dean for the second time in two years. The University search committee has chosen three finalists for the position, and the first of the three spoke at the Knight Library Browsing Room on Thursday to make her case for the position.
Susan Zelman, superintendent of public instruction at the Ohio Department of Education, spoke to an audience of education and general University staff and faculty about her vision and plans for the College of Education.
“This is a superior college of education, and I am humbled and honored to be here,” said Zelman.
In her presentation, Zelman highlighted her reasons for pursuing the position, what her experience with education has taught her, and where she would like to see the college go before taking questions from the audience.
Zelman said she is running for the dean position at the College of Education because she has a strong sense of urgency to close the education gap.
Zelman said that based on her experience, she saw the College of Education’s role as being a research institute – a place to foster talent and human capital at all levels, and a place to develop innovation. She said she thinks the college must develop partnerships and collaboration both within the University, across disciplines, and with the outside community at local, state, national, and international levels.
Wendy Larson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, asked Zelman what kind of collaborations she envisioned making across the University, and how she would address some of the problems the schools face while trying to collaborate. Zelman said that she had dealt with problems collaborating with people before, and that the underlying problem is getting all the people involved to feel they are part of the same profession working toward the same goal.
In her speech, Zelman also addressed what she considered to be very important issues of education inequality and her strong desire to work to close the education gap, and hoped that working as the dean of the College of Education would enable her to address this issue more closely.
Zelman does not yet have a clear vision for where she hopes to take the college as dean, but said that she will be having numerous discussions with faculty across the University to develop a strategy.
An audience member wanted to know how Zelman would implement a process to collaborate with the other departments. Zelman said that she would search and find the “movers and shakers” at the University and then work from there.
She said she will listen to everyone, advocate and raise money for the college, and guide the college into the future.
“I’m a very good fund raiser,” Zelman said.
During her nine years as superintendent of public instruction in Ohio, Zelman had a lot of contact with the College of Education’s research and outreach program, overseeing and observing the implementation of many ideas from researchers at the University.
The College of Education’s outreach program provides “schools and community agencies access to faculty research and expertise,” according to its Web site.
Before her superintendent position, Zelman held numerous administrative and research positions in education, according to her résumé.
[email protected]