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New Dean Named for the Bower Suhrheinich College of Education

A university administrator and professor at a public university in Ohio will be the new dean of the Bower Suhrheinrich College of Education and Human Services at the University of Southern Indiana.

Dr. Linda L. M. Bennett, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, announced that Julie H. Edmister of Bowling Green State University, the 14th largest producer of teachers in the United States, will assume the duties of dean July 1, 2008.

She is filling the position held by Dr. C. Thomas Pickering, who came as dean in 1988. He retired in 2007 and Dr. Jane Davis-Brezette has been acting dean since then.

Dr. Bennett said Dr. Edmister will be an energetic college leader and a strong contributor to the continued development of USI and the surrounding region.

At BGSU Dr. Edmister leads a state-wide pilot licensure program for K12 school administrators holding “alternative principal licenses” in collaboration with the Hamilton County Educational Service Center. She applied for and received the grant from the Ohio Department of Education.

In other administrative work, Dr. Edmister is chair of the Dean’s Faculty Advisory Committee for the College of Education and Human Development at BGSU. She also is co-chair of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) steering committee, Standard 6 (unit Governance and Resources).

She co-chaired a state-wide task force on Ohio Principal Standards alignment in 2006-07, which was a collaborative initiative involving faculty members from 11 public institutions, 18 private institutions, and two community colleges.

Her research interests cover evaluation practices of educational leaders, evaluation of educational administration preparation programs, and policy and practices impacting the preparation and evaluation of administrators.

She is a professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Leadership Studies. She has taught courses in leadership theories, leadership and adult development, and dissertation research among others.

For five years, Dr. Edmister served the U.S. Department of Commerce as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award examiner and senior evaluator. The Baldrige Award promotes awareness of the importance of quality improvement, an understanding of the requirements for performance excellence, and sharing of information on successful performance strategies.

Prior to joining the academic community, Dr. Edmister worked in the government and business sectors in Washington, D.C. as a senior manager at Arthur Anderson & Co. She built a consulting practice over 16 years and during that time provided training in theory, process, and tools of quality management for New Mexico’s Strengthening Quality in Schools initiative.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in English and secondary education at Portland State University and master’s and doctoral degrees at Florida State University. Her professional educational experiences include positions as a high school English teacher, director of Instructional Media Initiatives for the public school system in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and professor at the University of Mississippi.

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