Eight new faculty supported the strength of the college this year, with two visiting faculty contributing to the excellence.
For the fourth year in a row, Dean Don Pope-Davis’ recruitment strategy of cultivating excellence, innovation and diversity has yielded quality hires. Eight new faculty joined the college this autumn, expanding inclusion and augmenting excellence within the three departments.
Of the eight new hires for the college this autumn, seven are on the tenure track. That means of the college’s 160 tenure-track faculty, 37.5% now identify as people of color, up from 33.5% last autumn.
With the addition of one new clinical faculty member, the total clinical faculty has increased to 17. With seven clinical faculty of color, the college now has 41.2% identifying in that category. The clinical role allows the college to draw on these individuals’ rich experiences in a wide variety of settings.
Two visiting faculty of color add to the excellence and diversity.
“United by a commitment to excellence, we have worked together to expand and diversify our faculty like no other college in the country,” said Dean Don Pope-Davis. “Because to compete with our peer institutions, we must reflect the shifting demographics of our future student population, which is increasingly more racially, culturally and linguistically diverse.”
“Additionally, we must ensure that our students graduate prepared to be successful in diverse school settings and other workplace environments,” he said.
Senior Associate Dean Noelle Arnold, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach, said that since Pope-Davis became dean, “How we recruit, conduct searches and select talent for the college is reflective of our core values and pillars. We have transformed the way we search and hire some of the most talented people around,” she said, “which increases our impact in the community and to the world."
As a result of the college’s focus on excellence, its overall ranking by US News and World Report among public universities is No. 19. This places it in the top 10% of nationally ranked universities and makes it No. 1 among teacher education programs in Ohio.
Students in these programs to benefit from new hires
One time-honored recruitment strategy — conducting national searches —attracted two new senior faculty, both in the Department of Teaching and Learning.
Detra Price-Dennis, an alumna and former staff member, arrives as a full professor from Columbia University Teachers College. She is known for her unique approach to studying literacy education, technology and curriculum development to amplify equity-oriented teaching for K-8 students.
Becky Huang, also a full professor, is a pioneer in her field. She uses research methods to examine the under-studied area of second language development among children of primary and pre-primary years.
The Human Development and Family Science program hired Associate Professor Ji-Young Choi, known for her research focus on early development topics such as patterns of preschool language exposure and use of linguistically diverse children.
Special Education welcomed Associate Professor Carly Blustein Gilson, who is known for her high productivity in publications, presentations and especially in grant work.
A second recruitment strategy, created by the dean and Senior Associate Dean Noelle Arnold, is to cultivate postdoctoral scholars, both as part of the Dean’s Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and independent of it. Each department nurtures these scholars, encouraging the broadening of their academic achievements.
The approach resulted in the hire of Allen Mallory this year for the Human Development and Family Science program. He was previously an Ohio State Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar as well as a postdoctoral fellow. His research interest is in studying how multiple forms of discrimination intersect to affect the health and well-being of sexual and gender minorities.
Two visiting faculty augment the college’s academic excellence. Venus Evans-Winters arrives as a visiting professor, bringing her considerable experience in educational policy and qualitative measurement.
Lucía Chacón-Díaz is a visiting assistant professor with expertise in science education. Among her projects, she collaborates with the Center for Life Sciences Education at Ohio State to assess teaching and learning.
Additional programs with new faculty this autumn are:
- Higher Education and Student Affairs
- Kinesiology
- School Psychology
Read more about the expertise of the eight new faculty. Scroll through the carousel and select the images to read bios.
