Message from the Interim Dean

In this issue, we celebrate our accomplishments of the year, we reflect on the past, we turn our gaze into the bold future.

Welcome to the 2020-21 Agents of Change Magazine for the College of Education and Human Development, formerly known as Spectrum. 2020 was a year filled with change, not only for the college but for our world. 2020 was also filled with challenges that we are proud to participate in addressing, hence the new bold name of our magazine. A world pandemic, social unrest, and intensifying political division, and the complete restructuring of schools and schooling tested our strength, resilience and patience. Through it all, the COEHD community worked diligently to make the bold and necessary changes to pivot the way we teach, learn, celebrate and engage.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, we welcomed 12 new faculty members, named 3 new department chairs and graduated 572 students. Additionally, we bid farewell to former COEHD Dean, Margo DelliCarpini, Ph.D, who was named chancellor of Penn State Abington.

Throughout the challenges and uncertainties of the year, I am proud of the work and services faculty, staff, and students were able to continue to provide to each other, to students and to the San Antonio community. Our faculty was able to quickly shift to online teaching as well as embracing new technologies and practices in order to instruct future educators to teach in a virtual environment. After the killing of George Floyd, our country faced months of protests and social unrest and we participated in helping to take a critical look at racial inequality.

Despite the many challenges of the year, COEHD faculty was not only able to continue their research, they created new programs, developed a complete array of online courses and were able to secure important funding including an integral $5 million Mellon grant for racial justice efforts.

In this issue, we celebrate our accomplishments of the year, we reflect on the past, we turn our gaze into the bold future.

It was an honor to serve COEHD as Interim Dean from January through July. During that time, I was able to witness the strength, the resilience and the humanity of the individuals who make up our college. Now, we turn our gaze to the future and the bold new leadership of our new Dean, Mario Torres, Ph.D. We are excited to see what our future holds.

JULIET LANGMAN, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Education and Human Development