UNC announced today that the new dean of the School of Education will be Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, who currently works at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
At his community forum on campus in February, Abd-El-Khalick said he wants to focus on training STEM educators — including taking advantage of UNC's proximity to the Research Triangle and partnering directly with local schools.
In Illinois, Abd-El-Khalick helped get funding for a program called EnLiST, which promotes science and engineering in K-12 education and has seen particular success among African-American students.
In February, he also talked about improving teacher diversity to keep up with increasing diversity in classrooms.
His appointment is effective July 1.
