JRCoE Welcomes New Dean
On April 9, the University of Oklahoma announced the appointment of Stacy Reeder as dean of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.
Reeder has served as a faculty member and administrator in the College of Education for the past 16 years. She has led the college as its interim dean since February 2020, after having been named acting dean in September 2019. Previously, she served as chair of the Department of Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum, where she currently holds the rank of professor, teaching courses in both the graduate and undergraduate mathematics education program.
In the below Q&A, Dean Reeder talks about who she is, her path in academia and her plans for the future of the college.
Tell us about your path in academia.
I grew up in Creek County, Oklahoma where I attended the same small public school for K-12th grades. In small towns, there can be a strong sense of community because there is overlap with your teachers in and outside of school. Many of my teachers were also our coaches, our bus drivers, our 4-H leaders and we also attended church with them. Because of this, I really enjoyed school and many of my teachers had significant influence on my life
When I got into high school I began realizing I enjoyed mathematics and my math teacher was a positive presence in my life and encouraged me to think about college. This steady and positive presence in my life made a real difference. Not unlike many students who attend small schools, I was active in all sports year-round and was engaged in 4-H. Sports taught me about dedication, teamwork and hard work; and 4-H exposed me to a great number of things through sewing, cooking and public speaking competitions and showing animals. Many of these competitions occurred in the summer on college campuses which also fueled my interest in going to college.
As a first-generation college student, I began college unsure about what I wanted to major in. I knew I really enjoyed art and mathematics, but it took some time before I determined how that might manifest into a career. I started my freshman year taking classes at a community college so I could continue to work full-time and help with my younger sisters. At the end of that first year and taking some general classes I decided I would aim for becoming a high school mathematics teacher and I transferred to Oklahoma State University. I progressed through and ultimately graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University with a mathematics education degree as my husband Dan had taken a faculty position there.
My teaching career began and I knew I loved teaching and working with students. Shortly thereafter, I began my master’s degree with many of my fellow teachers at the time. Continuing my education while teaching was incredibly worthwhile and helped me become a better teacher. Since my husband was a professor, I think I had in the back of my mind that I might want to become a professor someday as well, so, after taking some time off after my master’s degree, I applied for the Ph.D. program.
Since I love teaching mathematics, I initially pursued my Ph.D. so it would open doors for me to teach mathematics at a community college or a regional institution. However, while I was in my Ph.D. program I was introduced to research and what it meant to pursue something you were curious about through research, find answers and see how that could impact learning and what happens in classrooms. With a number of outstanding mentors who encouraged me to grow and to excel, I aimed my career toward working at a research-intensive university. That led to my first faculty position at Oklahoma State University, and after a few years I had the opportunity to move to OU.
Tell us about your family.
I am incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family. Dan, who has been a professor of finance at Oklahoma Baptist University for 30 years, and I have three grown children, Dane, Raye, and Meg. Dane and Raye both live in Oklahoma, and Meg and her husband, Zach live in Colorado. I also have two younger sisters who live in Oklahoma with their families.
Why did you decide to pursue the dean position?
Since my career began in 1993 as an Oklahoma public school teacher, we’ve seen significant changes in education. Our public education system has been systematically underfunded and we’re now experiencing a critical teacher shortage. Because of that we have created a variety of pathways to help get individuals into the classroom to fill in for teachers. I am deeply concerned about that. Every child in every classroom deserves a well-prepared, highly qualified teacher. Our college of education needs to play a role in making that happen. The opportunity to serve as dean of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education provides me the opportunity to work with an outstanding faculty, staff and students to impact transformative change in the lives of children, families and communities in Oklahoma.
What excites you most about the college?
The opportunity we have to work collectively as a faculty, staff and students to impact change and the lives of the people we serve. We serve Oklahoma’s children, families and communities first. When we think about everything we do, we need to think about how we do that to the best of our abilities together. This means pooling our strengths and resources together as a college and looking at how we can work with an in communities to bring about positive change. We know that education holds the key to positive life outcomes and, as a college of education, we have both an opportunity and an imperative to prepare outstanding teachers, education leaders and counselors who will be transformative and to conduct and carryout research that has impact in Oklahoma and beyond.
What do you love most about teaching?
When I began my teaching career, I was motivated by my love of mathematics and the challenge of helping students become empowered mathematically. I quickly came to understand that teaching is more about developing authentic relationships with my students and caring for them than about mathematics. Having experienced the transformative power of teachers and education in my own life, I was eager to engage a career that held the possibility for me to positively impact the lives of my students and our community. When I am teaching mathematics, I love helping students break through the barriers they have had around understanding mathematics. I enjoy finding creative ways to help students become problem solvers who find mathematics as worthwhile and useful and see the beauty of mathematics. Now, working with preservice teachers who are going to become mathematics teachers or those who will go on to become scholars in mathematics education, it is still all about relationships. But it is still about helping them find ways to meet their students where they are and invite them to better understand and enjoy mathematics.
What do you think will be you biggest challenges as dean?
The most significant challenges we face as a college going forward are first, diversifying our profession. We need our graduates to reflect the student population they will be working with in schools, and we need our graduates to understand the communities they serve. Second, we need to increase the number of well-prepared teachers, education leaders, counselors and school administrators we are graduating to help meet the significant shortages we face. Lastly, we need to ensure that our scholarship is community engaged; that we are working in and with and listening to the communities that we serve.
Over the last two decades, Oklahoma schools have experienced significant defunding and a societal shift around the role and importance of public education. As such, we have schools that are struggling to do all the things we need them to do. Consequently, health and economic outcomes for Oklahomans are among the lowest in the nation. As a college, we need to help legislators, policy makers and our fellow Oklahomans understand how crucial a strong P-12 education system is for the future of Oklahoma. Investment in education is an investment in a better future for all of us.
In what space does diversity, equity and inclusion live in the college?
Over the next few years, I hope we can center all we do around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. As a college of education, we need to commit to identifying and rectifying our own practices of harm and exclusion, recognizing that systems of education throughout history have been harmful to many communities. We need to strive to develop a culture that recognizes, affirms and reflects diverse backgrounds, experiences, knowledge traditions, viewpoints and beliefs. This commitment needs to be central to all we do as we work to prepare transformational education professionals.
For various reasons the college has seen its faculty numbers decrease the last few years. How are we starting to bounce back from that?
I am incredibly excited about the new faculty we will be adding to the college this fall. This spring we have had the opportunity to hire seven new faculty members. We’re adding two new professional counseling faculty, two faculty members in the educational leadership and policy studies department, a science educator, a world-languages educator, and the Cable Chair in Education and Early Childhood Education in August. All three departments are excited about what these scholars will bring to the college and how they will augment the great work already underway here. The hiring of these seven individuals represents a greater than 10% increase in our faculty. We hope to hire several more new faculty next year!
In your view, how has the college handled and withstood the difficulties of the last year?
I think our college has done a fantastic job this past year. The leadership team in the college came together to deal with and address what felt like daily crises. What I saw was a college with leadership, faculty and staff who stepped up, met the moment and met it well. I could not be more pleased with what we have accomplished. It hasn’t been easy. People are fatigued from doing their jobs in radically different ways. Faculty were asked to do a lot this year to teach in ways they never had before, and our students had to engage learning in ways they never had before as well. Many of our students also work in schools that were incredibly strained and challenged during this pandemic. What I saw this year were faculty going the extra mile to meet with students after class or via phone to provide support and listen as they faced challenges in their lives. Our staff did very much the same, pivoting and doing their jobs in completely new ways. I witnessed a coming together of people who day after day put our students first.
We also drew from the strength of our technology expertise in the college. Our IT support team spent countless hours in the early days of the pandemic helping to meet the needs of every faculty member, instructor, adjunct, staff and student so everyone could engage in their work and in learning. Their expertise and commitment to our college and to helping us meet the challenges we faced was overwhelming. Their tremendous support, along with our iPad program we’ve had in place for several years, helped our students stay connected with us and with their field experiences. Our college is incredibly fortunate to have such outstanding technology support.
What do you see in our students that makes you excited for the future of education?
My continued work with our undergraduate and graduate students is one of the exhilarating aspects of being dean. We have outstanding students. What I see and sense from them is a profound desire to do their work well and make a difference in the lives of their students and their communities, whether they are a principal, counselor, teacher, mentor or intercollegiate athletics administrator. I am excited about their desire to be advocates for their profession and those they serve. I am moved by their commitment and excitement, knowing that in every student we graduate, their work every single day has impact.