Wichita State Dean Chosen To Lead Baylor's School Of Education

April 13, 2007
News Photo 4031

Dr. Jon Engelhardt

by Lori Fogleman, director of media relations, (254) 710-6275

Dr. Randall O'Brien, executive vice president and provost at Baylor University, has announced the appointment of Dr. Jon M. Engelhardt, who currently leads the College of Education at Wichita State University, as dean of Baylor's School of Education.

A visionary academic leader, researcher and consensus builder in the education field, Engelhardt will begin his term at Baylor on July 15.

"From the outset of our search for a dean for the School of Education, the university team has been unwavering in its commitment to finding a Baylor 2012 dean to lead the School," O'Brien said. "Jon Engelhardt comes to Baylor 100 percent committed to building upon our twin pillars of academic and Christian excellence an ever greater Christian research university. We eagerly welcome Jon to the Baylor family."

"I am enormously pleased and honored to become part of Baylor University and its School of Education," Engelhardt said. "Broadly respected for its strong programs in educator preparation and in health and human performance, the School is poised to be recognized as world-class. I look forward to joining the Baylor team, working with faculty, staff and the wider community to serve students as well as advance professional practice and extend its knowledge base."

Engelhardt has served as dean of Wichita State's College of Education since 1997. During his tenure, he focused the College's programs, resources and directions around a common mission, while strengthening the sense of community, program quality, use of technology, diversity, assessment and accreditation, resource development, partnerships and research. He also serves as a professor of curriculum and instruction and on WSU's graduate faculty, with academic and research expertise in the areas of mathematics education for elementary and middle school students.

"Dr. Jon Engelhardt has spent more than 30 years helping individuals, programs and organizations in Schools of Education grow and develop," said Dr. Terrill F. Saxon, chair of Baylor's department of educational psychology who also chaired the dean search committee. "His administrative experience ranges from a variety of areas in teacher education and certification to areas that comprise exercise science. His experience and participation at the national level has kept him aware of the considerable challenges that face schools of education. He places a priority on community building and collaborative problem solving."

In addition to his administrative service at Wichita State, Engelhardt was executive director and dean of The Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University from 1992-97, and dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1988-92. For more than a decade, he served at Arizona State University in several capacities, including coordinator of the Mathematics Learning Center from 1974-87, assistant/associate chair of the department of elementary education from 1979-82, department chair from 1982-85, assistant dean (acting) for professional teacher preparation from 1985-86, and College Coordinator (director) of Teaching Centers from 1986-87.

Engelhardt is a graduate of Arizona State, where he received his bachelor's degree cum laude in elementary education (mathematics, music) in 1967, and a master's degree summa cum laude in elementary education in 1969. He earned his doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. He began his education career as a middle school math teacher in Tempe, Ariz., and has taught elementary math education at the university level since 1972.

Engelhardt is a member of the executive board of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and was a member of NCATE's board of examiners from 1996 until his appointment to NCATE's executive board in 2006.

His professional memberships include serving as Wichita State's chief institutional representative for the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), where he was formerly a member of that organization's board of directors, chair and member of the fiscal committee for the Association of Teacher Educators, founding member (and past president) of the Research Council for Mathematical Learning, chair of the Council of Education Deans (Kansas), and current/past member of Great City Colleges of Education, Kansas Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, National Council of Teachers for Mathematics, National Education Association and various associations in Kansas, Arizona and Texas.

Engelhardt is the author of four books on math education, including diagnostic-remedial approaches to mathematics teaching and learning, and has published numerous articles in books and scholarly journals on teacher education issues. He has successfully directed/co-directed several funding projects, the largest of which was a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 1989 that established a Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities in Math and Science at UT-El Paso. In addition, he has been an invited presenter and panel member at many national and international education conferences and research councils.

Engelhardt's university service most recently at Wichita State has been extensive. He has served on or chaired search committees for dean of the College of Fine Arts and for associate vice president for academic affairs; as a member of the faculty development, recognition and rewards committee, which resulted in the establishment of the Center for Teaching and Research Excellence; the university's technology committee; academic affairs council; academic affairs sub-committee on redesigning teacher education; Institute for Rehabilitative Research redesign steering committee; and Committee on Developing a Common Core in Administrator Preparation Masters Degrees.

Engelhardt is a member of several honorary professional societies, including Phi Kappa Phi (currently president of the WSU chapter), Phi Delta Kappa and Golden Key. Other honors include the 2004 Special Recognition Award from WSU Student Support Services, the 1997 Distinguished Administrator Award (Higher Education) from the Arizona School Administrators Association, and the 1997 Arizona Circle of Excellence Award from the Arizona North Central Association for "long history of exemplary service to quality education in Arizona."

Engelhardt will be joined at Baylor by his wife, Diana, an active volunteer in her church, the WSU Women's Association and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Engelhardts have four adult children and six grandchildren, with a seventh expected in September.

Engelhardt is a member of Pine Valley Christian Church and served on the church's leadership and hospitality teams.