College Announces Nine Leadership Appointments

Robb Lindgren

Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Bureau of Educational Research

Lindgren, an EPSY and C&I professor, centers his research on how people learn with interactive and immersive digital technologies. He has affiliate appointments at the Beckman Institute, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the Informatics program in the iSchool, the Center for Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS), and the Computers and Education program in the Grainger College of Engineering. In addition to his new research leadership roles in the College of Education, Lindgren is also serving as the interim director of campus' new Center for Research and Innovation in Technology-Enhanced Learning, housed in the College of Education.

Lorenzo Baber

Interim Head, Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership

Baber is a professor of EPOL and serves as director of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL). He brings a wealth of academic and leadership experience to the role of interim department head, having held faculty and leadership roles at three different institutions. He has also managed budgetary and administrative responsibilities at the University of Illinois and Iowa State. Within Education at Illinois, Baber has served as elected moderator of the College Executive Committee, a member of the EPOL Faculty Advisory Committee, and co-director of Graduate Studies within EPOL. He also leads the Higher Education program concentration. Baber has a strong record of scholarship and long-term experience with faculty mentorship.

Joshua Danish

Head, Department of Curriculum & Instruction

Danish previously served as a professor in the School of Education at Indiana University, where he held the Barbara B. Jacobs Chair in Education and Technology and directed the Center for Research on Learning and Technology. He is a past president of the International Society for the Learning Sciences and a Fellow of the Society. His research focuses on the role of representations, from drawings to skits to computer models, in supporting cognition. Danish’s work has been generously funded by the National Science Foundation and the McDonnell Foundation. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychological Studies in Education from the University of California, Los-Angeles.

Helen Neville

Chair, Department of Educational Psychology

Neville has received numerous recognitions and honors and is a world leader in the counseling psychology community. In addition to her appointment in EPSY, Neville is an esteemed Center for Advanced Study professor at the University of Illinois, selected on the basis of her outstanding scholarship. She has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Residency, and numerous College and university awards. From 2010 to 2012, she was Provost Fellow, and in that role, she helped to revise and reinvigorate the university's Target of Opportunity (TOP) hiring policy. Neville has served as president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and on the board of directors of the Association of Black Psychologists. She is an APA Fellow and has received several prestigious APA awards, including an APA Presidential Citation. 

Tamara Bertrand Jones

Director, Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA)

Bertrand Jones' scholarship employs qualitative methods and critical and feminist theories to examine the sociocultural contexts shaping the educational and professional experiences of underrepresented populations, particularly Black women in academia. Her leadership as CREA director is informed by her previous work as a higher education administrator and program evaluator. Bertrand Jones also serves as associate dean for faculty affairs for the College of Education. She is the founder and past president of the Sisters of the Academy Institute, an international organization that promotes collaborative scholarship and networking among Black women in academia.

Emily Stone

Executive Director of School Partnerships 

In addition to her current role as Director of Public Engagement for the College of Education, in this new role, Stone will provide vision, leadership, and oversight for the College's strategic initiatives focused on school partnerships. This includes the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities (CESUC); the Forum on the Future of Public Education; the Office of Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education (MSTE); and the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative (INTC). She will also work to strengthen collaboration among strategic initiative directors and faculty across the College, while enhancing the visibility and impact of these efforts within the campus and broader community.

Dean's Fellows

Wenhao David Huang

Dean's Fellow for Pathway Initiatives

In this new role, Huang will lead College-wide efforts to establish workforce-aligned online undergraduate pathways (e.g. in human resource development) in collaboration with the associate dean for undergraduate programs and the assistant dean for online programs. Professor Huang has served in various leadership roles within the Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, and is currently a Provost Fellow.

Theopolies Moton III

Dean's Fellow for Student Inclusion (re-appointed)

In this role, teaching assistant professor Moton will work closely with the associate deans for graduate and undergraduate programs to advance student inclusion, which includes diversity efforts. He will also serve on the College's DEME committee.

Michelle Perry

Dean's Fellow for Faculty Development (re-appointed)

In collaboration with the College's associate dean for faculty affairs and the associate dean for research, Perry will continue to provide the vision and leadership to design, implement, and evaluate professional development opportunities to advance all faculty career development and aspirations.