The University announced Thursday that Joyce Alexander will start her tenure as the next dean of the College of Education on Jan. 3.
UA Executive Vice President and Provost Jim Dalton said Alexander brings “a wealth of knowledge in education leadership, policy and research” to her new position.
Alexander previously served as dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University from 2015 to 2021, after which time she stepped down to return to a faculty position in the school’s Department of Educational Psychology.
According to UA News, Alexander increased the college’s budget as dean and helped create a new research support office. The result was that in three years, annual external funding for new grants rose from $14 million to $40 million and annual research expenditures grew from $18 million to over $26 million.
Most recently, Alexander earned the 2022-23 dean-in-residence education research policy fellowship with the D.C.-based American Educational Research Association.
During this time, Alexander worked on policy issues and coordinated a group of deans for the Consortium of University and Research Institutions, according to her Texas A&M faculty directory page.
Alexander wrote in an email that she was drawn to The University of Alabama in part by the College of Education’s “very strong” programs, including the Adapted Athletics, special education, and literacy programs, as well as the college’s faculty, students and staff.
Despite not having begun her tenure, Alexander already has a vision for the college, particularly in enhancing its community outreach.
“One of the challenges for Colleges of Education is to translate the work we do so individual students, their families, and communities benefit,” Alexander wrote, adding that she wanted the college’s research to be part of American’s conversations about “educational, cognitive mental and physical health.”
For that to happen, she wrote that faculty must be comfortable discussing their work in lay terms and engaging purposefully in community partnerships.
Alexander will replace Elizabeth Wilson, the interim dean of the college, who temporarily took over on July 1 after former dean Peter Hlebowitsh resigned at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.
