UW-Madison’s School of Education is welcoming faculty and staff back to campus with its typical Welcome Back Bash event on Thursday, Sept. 2.
The event will be held outside on the North Plaza of the Education Building from 12:30 to 2 p.m. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the start of the upcoming 2021-22 academic year, connect with colleagues from across the School, and enjoy a tailgate-style lunch with Babcock ice cream. There will be a brief program, with remarks from Dean Diana Hess, beginning at 1 p.m. (Note: While we all hope the fall semester can proceed in a more normal fashion, circumstances beyond our control may necessitate changes to our current plans. We will follow all campus guidelines and keep you updated about any developments.)
The School will again introduce new faculty members during the event, with three talented scholars joining us for the start of the fall semester. Since there was no Welcome Back Bash last year, we’ll also be introducing the 16 faculty members who joined our School during the 2020-21 academic year — which marked one of the largest cohorts to sign on with the School since its founding in 1930. (Learn more, here.)
Following are the incoming faculty members for the fall semester, in alphabetical order:
Scott K. Crawford, assistant professor, Department of Kinesiology
Crawford is joining the Department of Kinesiology after serving since January 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher within UW–Madison’s Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation. In this role, he utilized quantitative ultrasound imaging analyses and his expertise in the field of muscle injury and muscle mechanics to characterize tissue organization, mechanical properties, and adaptations related to hamstring strain injury in athletes. His work intends to inform evidence-based injury prevention and rehabilitation approaches. He earned a PhD in biomedical engineering from The Ohio State University in 2015, after which he worked at the University of Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab in Lincoln.
Suzanne Eckes, professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Eckes had served since 2003 as a faculty member with Indiana University’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department, where much of her work focused on how civil rights laws influence education policy for historically marginalized populations in public schools. At IU, she helped lead the educational leadership program and the McCarthy Education Law & Policy Institute. Eckes is a co-author or co-editor of several books about legal rights and school law. She is an alumna of UW–Madison, earning undergraduate degrees in 1994, a JD from the Law School in 2001, and a PhD in 2002 from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Tanya Schlam, assistant professor, Department of Kinesiology
Schlam comes to the Department of Kinesiology from the UW–Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, and the Department of Medicine. Her research focuses on health behavior change — primarily smoking cessation— and she works on developing interventions (including mobile health interventions) to help people acquire behavioral and cognitive control skills to optimize health outcomes in the face of societal, environmental, interpersonal, and psychological challenges. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. Schlam earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale and her PhD in clinical psychology from Rutgers. She completed a predoctoral clinical internship in UW–Madison’s Department of Psychiatry.
Hess will also introduce the new leadership team she announced in April, with Adam Nelson, a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, the School’s new senior associate dean for academic programs. In addition: Faisal Abdu’Allah, the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art with the Art Department, is now the associate dean for the arts; Gary Diffee, the William H. and Virginia F. Marsh Professor with the Department of Kinesiology, is serving as the associate dean for health; and Stacey Lee, the Frederick Erickson WARF Professor with the Department of Educational Policy Studies, is the new associate dean for education.
In other leadership changes over the past year: Lisa Barker was announced in May as the new executive director of the School’s Office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE); Marianne Spoon in August started her position as the School’s associate dean for communications and advancement; and also in August, Percival Matthews, an associate professor with the Department of Educational Psychology, was named interim associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
In addition, Li-Ching Ho, an associate professor with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is now the sole faculty director of the Global Engagement Office (with Adam Nelson’s appointment as senior associate dean) and Anna Lewis is now the School’s sole interim CIO and director of MERIT (following the summer retirement of Brenda Spychalla).