New dean at GSE, Mitchell to succeed Petrie

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

She will succeed Hugh G. Petrie, who served as the school's chief academic and administrative officer for 16 years and last year announced his decision to return to teaching and research in September 1997.

Headrick, to whom Mitchell will report, praised her as "an experienced educator who is committed to maintaining the school's outstanding reputation as an innovative leader in education.

"In addition, she has a strong interest in the quality of our urban schools and looks forward to working closely with the schools in Buffalo and the surrounding region. Attracting her to Buffalo is a major plus for the university and our region."

Mitchell was vice president and dean of faculty at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., from 1993-96 and associate dean for academic affairs in The Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences from 1990-93. She also has taught at the University of California, Davis.

She is a scholar with extensive research experience in the field of ethnographic and sociolinguistic studies, and cognitive development and community intervention, particularly among low-income children.

Her research has demonstrated a long-standing interest in the interface of learning with race, ethnicity and gender. It includes studies of educational decision-making in students' careers, literacy resources in a pre-school context, family stress and coping strategies, and neighborhood social organization. Widely published in her field, she has received many national and regional awards and citations for her work.

The UB Graduate School of Education serves 1,150 students in several departments, research centers, laboratories and special programs. These include the Department of Learning and Instruction; the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology and the Department of Educational Organization, Administration and Policy; the Early Childhood Research Center; the Buffalo Research Institute on Education for Teaching; the Educational Resources and Technology Center; the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education; the English Language Institute, and the UB Reading Center and Clinic.

Mitchell will oversee the activities of 60 full-time-equivalent faculty, 22 full-time-equivalent staff and 70 graduate teaching assistants. She will have overall responsibility for the development of academic programs, faculty recruitment and advancement, and for maintaining standards of teaching, scholarship and creative activity in education and education research.

She also will exercise chief responsibility for the faculty in matters of planning and budgeting, equipment and space allocations and personnel and oversee development activities within the school and among its alumni and supporters.

In her former administrative positions Mitchell has had major responsibility for strategic planning, faculty appointments, policy and program development, and short- and long-term financial planning.

Mitchell earned a doctoral degree in education, cultural anthropology and sociolinguistics from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she was a teaching fellow. She is a graduate of Trenton State College and holds a master's degree in education and child study from Smith College.