UW News

August 19, 2010

Tom Stritikus selected dean of UW College of Education

News and Information

Associate Professor Tom Stritikus, who currently serves as associate dean of academic programs, has been selected by Provost Phyllis Wise to be the next dean of the University of Washington College of Education, effective Sept. 16. The appointment is subject to approval by the board of regents.

He will succeed Patricia Wasley, who has been dean for 10 years and who will return to the faculty.

“Professor Stritikus has distinct abilities that uniquely place him to meet the college’s near-term challenges and to lead long-term strategic planning, building on Dean Wasley’s successes of the last decade,” says Wise. “In my conversations with Tom, I have been impressed with his experience, enthusiasm and forward thinking. He has experience collaborating with teachers, school districts and state policymakers, as well as community organizations and foundations. Community feedback over the past weeks has convinced me that he is the best choice to build and strengthen relationships on behalf of the college.”

Stritikus, an associate professor in curriculum and instruction, has focused his scholarly work on the daily practice of teachers and learners, concentrating on the experience of immigrant students. His work focuses on the context and process of adjustment for immigrant students and the educational opportunities — from a policy and practice perspective — that schools and districts make available to them. He says that his collaboration with students, parents, teachers, principals and district and state policymakers has strengthened his commitment to improve educational policies and practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

He received his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Nebraska in 1993, his master’s in education from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997 and his education doctorate in language, literacy and culture from Berkeley in 2000. He was an elementary school teacher in Baltimore for two years, served as an English instructor in Mexico for a year and taught in middle school in the San Francisco area for a summer. He has been at the UW since 2000.

His salary will be $210,000 annually.

Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and former president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, says, “The appointment of Tom is a bold and exciting step by the University of Washington, an institution which is critically important to the Woodrow Wilson foundation. We believe that the UW is a leader in teacher education in the United States and Tom’s appointment stands out because of his age, vision and the fact that he is the first Teach for America volunteer to become a dean of education at an American university. In a time of dramatic demographic, economic, technological and global change, he is one of those rare individuals who understand the future of American education, the challenges facing our education schools and also has the capacity to move the UW forward into the future as a leader.”

The UW’s College of Education is dedicated to making an excellent education a daily reality for every student in every community across the state and beyond. The college is consistently ranked among the top colleges of education in the U.S. News & World Report ratings. The college offers five broad areas of study: curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, educational leadership and policy studies, special education, and teacher education. It also has 12 research centers designed to support individual research projects and large-scale collaborations. The college offers several pathways to obtain a bachelor’s of arts, a master’s of education or teaching, or a doctorate of philosophy or education.