UW News

March 23, 2015

Mia Tuan named dean of the UW’s College of Education

UW News

Mia Tuan has been named dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington, interim President Ana Mari Cauce and interim Provost Jerry Baldasty announced today. Tuan comes to the UW from the University of Oregon, where she has held a number of academic and leadership positions over the past 18 years. The appointment, effective July 1, 2015, is subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents.

Mia-Tuan

Mia Tuan

“Mia Tuan brings a wealth of successful administrative experience in several different roles to this position,” said Cauce. “She is a highly productive and well-respected scholar and brings a very interesting multiplicity of perspectives to the business of training teachers and educators. We are very excited to bring her to the UW and look forward to her leadership of this key college in the education of our youth.”

Tuan, a professor of education studies, served as interim dean of UO’s College of Education from 2013 to 2014, and was associate dean of its Graduate School for three years prior. She is also a former director of UO’s Center on Diversity & Community, and was director of the sociology department’s honors program. Tuan became an assistant professor of sociology at UO in 1996, before becoming an associate professor in 2002. In 2007 she joined the College of Education and was named a professor of education studies in 2009. Tuan has won numerous academic awards, including the 2012 Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) and Education Testing Services (ETS) Award for Excellence and Innovation, for Diversifying Graduate Education in STEM Disciplines.

She is the author of numerous scholarly articles and three books, Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America; Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute; and Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites? The Contemporary Asian Ethnic Experience. Her research focuses on racial and ethnic identity development, Asian transracial adoption, and majority/minority relations.

Tuan received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990, magna cum laude, her master’s in sociology from UCLA in 1992, and her doctorate in sociology, also from UCLA, in 1996.