AACTE Thanks Leslie T. Fenwick for Her Service
After serving as AACTE’s first dean in residence, Leslie T. Fenwick completed her five-year tenure this month. On behalf of the AACTE Board of Directors, I offer our sincere gratitude for her years of service in this leadership role.
“While meeting Dr. Leslie Fenwick in 2018, I knew she was the person to become the inaugural AACTE dean in residence,” said former AACTE President & CEO Lynn M. Gangone. “As dean emerita of Howard University’s School of Education and a former AACTE board member, Leslie had the depth and breadth of experience and gravitas for the dean in residence position. I am grateful for all her contributions to AACTE over these past five years and even more so for her colleagueship and friendship.”
During her tenure as dean in residence, Fenwick wrote an award-winning and bestselling book, Jim Crow’s Pink Slip (Harvard Education Press, 2022), which was selected as an NPR Book of the Day and recipient of the Gloria Ladson Billings Book Award. During this period, she also was selected as the 2023 AERA Brown Distinguished Lecturer and named one of two fully vetted finalists for the U.S. Secretary of Education in 2020. Her national visibility and range of expertise allowed her to be an effective advocate on behalf of AACTE, testifying at U.S. Senate briefings about the nation’s educator workforce and helping shape and support federal legislation about teacher recruitment, retention, and compensation. Fenwick applied her research and writing knowledge to produce more than 30 widely disseminated policy briefs and op-ed articles on these topics. In addition, she authored the first 50-state study, which was commissioned and disseminated by AACTE and the National Academy of Education, presenting information and data about state evaluation standards for teacher preparation programs and providers.
While serving as dean in residence, she also conceptualized and helped create and implement the Consortium for Research Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA), an AACTE partnership with 14 states and support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation designed to examine the teacher entrance licensure examination cut-score setting processes (state-by-state) and eliminate racially disparate outcomes created by these processes. Fenwick was a well-regarded AACTE spokesperson, delivering keynote addresses at national conferences and state affiliates, as well as responding to, and referencing AACTE research and policy advocacy in major news outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Education Week. She tirelessly supported recognition of HBCU’s and other MSI’s innovation in teacher preparation and their strong production of teachers of color.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have a near 30-year relationship with AACTE. My affiliation began as an assistant professor, spanned through my tenure as dean, and then afterwards as AACTE’s first dean in residence,” Fenwick said, “It’s been an absolute joy to help advance AACTE’s worthy mission.”
Please join me and the board in sending Dr. Fenwick well wishes and appreciation.
Tags: thought leadership
