Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Appoints Katherine Strzok as New Dean – New Hubs Uk

Katherine O. Strunk will serve as dean of the Graduate School of Education beginning July 1, according to an announcement by University of Pennsylvania Dean Liz McGill.

Strunk follows GSE Dean Pam Grossman, whose eight-year term ends on June 30th. She will begin her term during Grossman’s tenure and will begin her term upon the completion of her landmark $36 million expansion of her GSE building, which will centralize GSE facilities.

Strunk is a professor at Michigan State University, specializing in education policy and economics. She is the founding director of the Michigan Education Policy Innovation Coalition, a strategic research partner of the Michigan Department of Education.

Citing GSE’s “commitment to real-world impact” in the announcement, Strunk is excited to begin working with GSE students, faculty, alumni, and staff in the coming months. I wrote.

“We look forward to working with partners in Philadelphia, across the country, and around the world to serve the GSE’s mission of expanding access to education, especially for those who are underserved by society. We are,” Strunk wrote.

According to Penn Today, Strunk will follow in Grossman’s footsteps by appointing more than a third of its current full-time faculty, doubling research grants, and expanding partnerships with GSE and schools in West Philadelphia. Under her leadership, GSE has been ranked #1 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of graduate education programs for the past two years, and in the top five for seven consecutive years.

“Pam was a transformative Dean for the GSE,” Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein wrote in the announcement. “We are deeply grateful for her outstanding leadership and look forward to working closely with Katherine and Penn as her GSE and her community continue this extraordinary momentum well into the future. I look forward to it.”

The search for a new dean was led by a special advisory committee formed by McGill and Winkelstein on September 21 last year. The committee consisted of her 18 members, primarily from her GSE faculty, students, alumni, university administrators, and her Heidrick & Struggles consultants for leadership consulting services.

The committee was accepting nominations until December 9 last year.

Previously, Strunk served as president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and her work with Michigan’s EPIC program has informed COVID-19 recovery efforts in schools statewide.

“Katherine Strunk’s career has been built around the concept of ‘research with consequences,’” McGill wrote in the announcement. Her mission-oriented leadership is a perfect fit for Penn University’s top graduate school of education. Penn, GSE and Philadelphia are very lucky to have her. ”