I completed my undergraduate degree in 1970 in biology
at the Univ. of California in Riverside, worked in banks
in the Los Angeles area for several years, acquired a
law degree and practiced in Southern California. In 1986,
I became a science teacher in an inner city South Los
Angeles middle school and acquired my teaching credential
through Chapman University in Orange, California. In 1991,
I was accepted into the doctoral program in Cultural and
Social Foundations of Education at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, graduating in 1993. After teaching
in upstate New York, and at Southeast Missouri State University,
where I also served as a Department Chair for five years,
I came to Oshkosh as the Dean of the College of Education
& Human Services in July 2005.
Most of my teaching, as well as my scholarship, before
moving into higher education administration were in foundations
of education, particularly social, historical and multicultural
aspects of American education. Additionally, I taught
graduate courses in Curriculum Theory, Higher Education
Administration, and School Law. My research and writing
has been grounded in examining the social milieu and purposes
of American education through the lens of a critical theorist
centered on issues of sociocultural and educational change
in both inner city and rural school settings. My focus
has been the role of schools, in both settings, in perpetuating
the margins of American culture. That background and my
increasing concern for and interest in the role and future
of American public higher education, specifically teacher
education, in that focus has led to my current position
here at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
As an administrator, I have chaired a 20+ member department,
including through NCATE and Missouri state continuing
accreditation, created and administered one of the largest
alternative education programs in the Midwest with over
400 active students at its largest, and now serve as Dean
of the College of Education & Human Services at the
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the largest of the comprehensive
universities in the University of Wisconsin System. The
College has six departments plus four service or resource
centers including a large Head Start office (10 centers
and 4 counties). Along with normal administrative functions,
my primary areas have been the deep redesign of curriculum
and programs, the systematic development of outreach and
virtual programs and development and maintaining of broad-based
linkages between the department or college and local area
K-12 systems.