AACTE Member Leaders Discuss Leading in Difficult Times
AACTE Board members Marvin Lynn and Laurie Mullen recently met with me to discuss the important role education leaders play in crises. In the videos, Lynn and Mullen shared the following:
“I think what we’re seeing happen at the national level is that inequalities are being exacerbated because of not only the lack of attention to those inequalities in the first place but [also] a kind of callousness around what those issues are, and who’s impacted and whether or not we should be focusing on them. I think leaders have an opportunity to take a crisis and turn it on its head by really focusing on issues of equity,” said Marvin Lynn, dean of the college of education at Portland State University. Lynn possesses decades of leadership and community service experience on prestigious national, state, and local committees. His leadership experience in schools of education includes his role as program coordinator at the University of Maryland and later at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lynn also was the associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and dean of the School of Education at Indiana University South Bend.
Lynn is recognized internationally for his scholarship on race, education, and the experience of Black male teachers in the United States. He has published dozens of research articles and book chapters on these topics with his most recent co-authored article appearing in the Journal of Teacher Education in 2018. He is the lead editor on the Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education, with a second edition published this year. Lynn, a member of Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, earned a Ph.D. in social sciences and education with an emphasis on race and ethnic studies from UCLA. He earned a Master of Arts in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College of Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from DePaul University.
“As we think about the ways in which we partner during this time with other educators, other programs, other institutions, other organizations, there are a lot of opportunities in this way. … We are there to serve our partner schools,” said Laurie Mullen, dean of the College of Education at Towson University. “ [We] told our students when they moved from face-to-face internship to online internship, your role is to be there for your mentor teacher whatever he or she asks you to do…and we know you’re going to get amazing experiences from working with your teachers, schools, school districts, just in studying and being part of this transition.” Mullen earned her B.S. in secondary education and Spanish from Southern Illinois University in 1983. She was awarded an M.Ed. and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois in 1994 and 1997, respectively. That year, Mullen joined the faculty at Ball State University and was promoted to full professor in 2010.
During her 18 years at Ball State, she served as coordinator of secondary programs, associate dean of the Teachers College and acting associate provost for Learning Initiatives. She has also been co-director of Ball State’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships since 2008, and has served as co-editor of The Teacher Educator for 8 years. Her research interests include teacher education, educational technology, and university-school collaboration. Mullen’s background includes expertise in international projects, including outreach ventures in northern Africa, Asia, and Europe. Her work with corporate partners included co-principal investigation on two federal Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grants with Apple Inc., as well as a grant for the MyVisit Electronic Author Visit (EAV) series with Simon & Schuster.
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