From Cambridge (via my friend David Garrow) comes news that University of Virginia Law Professor James Ryan has just been appointed dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Ryan's scholarship includes the widely acclaimed book Five Miles Away, A World Apart, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press. Cribbing now from the press release:
James E. Ryan, one of the nation’s leading scholars of education law and policy, will become the next dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), President Drew Faust announced today.
Ryan, an award-winning teacher who has served on the University of Virginia faculty since 1998, succeeds Kathleen McCartney, who will leave Harvard to become president of Smith College on July 1.
Ryan will officially assume his new role on Sept. 1, near the start of the 2013-14 academic year. Richard Murnane, the Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society at HGSE, will serve as acting dean from July 1 until Ryan begins his tenure.
“Jim Ryan is an outstanding scholar, teacher, and academic leader with a deep passion for improving education and for enhancing the interplay of scholarship, practice, and policy,” Faust said. “Throughout the search, I have been impressed by his seamless integration of the intellectual and the practical, his warm and open personal style, and his evident talent for drawing together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, and points of view.
Read the rest of the story here.