After 16 years as your dean, I am retiring as of August 31, 2016. I am very happy that Lindsay Clare Matsumura, who has been a very wise and effective associate dean for the school, will be filling my role on an interim basis while the search for a long-term replacement continues. Lindsay and I have been working together for quite a while now, and it is clear that she has values and expertise that fit well with the school’s continuing efforts to keep growing stronger in both its scholar...
Alan Lesgold was an undergraduate math major at Michigan State University in the early 1960s when he realized that math was not the right major for him. He went to the school’s advising center, where advisors conducted an interest inventory to see where his professional interests lay. The results came in, and mathematician was “pretty close to the bottom, slightly under lumberjack,” Lesgold jokes. He also had an interest in psychology, which was spurred on by his “quantitatively ori...
“I am sincerely thankful to Dean Lesgold for allowing me the opportunity to join the faculty in the School of Education and to serve in a leadership capacity. It was clear from the beginning that we had common goals: to make the School of Education special and to strive for excellence. While the road ahead to achieving this lofty goal would not be easy, the journey would be exciting. On a personal note, Dr. Lesgold has inspired me to set high goals personally and professionally and to put fo...
When Namgi Park was 7 years old, he moved from his rural town in South Korea to live with his aunt in the city for a year. From age 8 on, he and his brother lived together. They cooked and cleaned without a heating system or washing machine. They had very little. It was not until he went to middle school, was taught English by Peace Corps volunteers, and heard more about the United States that his world began to open up a bit and he saw the possibilities for his future. Park’s teachers...