By: CHRISTINA CLARK
Editor-in-Chief
EditorPreface@gmail.com
On March 1 a release from IU South Bend announced that Hope Davis was named Dean of the School of Education. The release, authored by Ken Baierl, said that the announcement was made officially by Interim Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Linda Chen, and that Davis has been serving as Interim Dean of the School of Education since 2017.
Davis will officially step into the role of Dean on July 1.
Davis came to IU South Bend in 2009, and has since taken on many roles within the School of Education.
“I’m not from South Bend, I came from Cincinnati,” said Davis. “This campus is my home. I am truly humbled and thrilled to be able to take on this role, and move us forward. You can’t do this job if you don’t understand how important it is that everyone row in the same direction. To look at the mission of the School, which I firmly believe in, I’m really happy to be here.”
The School of Education at IU South Bend is continually working on their programs to keep up with Indiana’s legislation, as well as what skills educators need for today. This includes considerations such as more training in socio-emotional wellness, autism training and computer and computer science training.
Looking forward, Davis sees expansion in offerings for the School.
“We’ll also be looking into other areas of licensure where we haven’t licensed in the past,” Davis said. “We also are working more closely with other networks of schools in education, across IU, over the last year and we’ve done a lot of great work with them.”
Including entering into offering an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree, which would prepare students to qualify for superintendent positions.
The School of Education has dual credit courses working with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at IU South Bend as well.
The search for Dean of the School of Education was nationwide, and narrowed down to four candidates who visited campus. Davis, an internal candidate, said that she was treated the same as the candidates from out of down during the search.
Davis is excited to continue working with the School of Education, as she prepares to enter her official role as Dean of the School.
