UCA’s College of Education Dean, Diana Pounder, is being recognized by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) at their fall conference with its 2011 Master Professor Award.  UCEA is a national consortium research/doctoral granting universities committed to the preparation and practice of educational leaders for the benefit of schools and children.  The UCEA Master Professor Award is given to an individual faculty member who:

• Has a significant record of scholarship pertaining to educational leadership practice, preparation, development and evaluation.
• Has a sustained record as an outstanding teacher, as attested to by students and faculty peers; has exhibited educational innovation in the classroom and the extension of educational opportunities to an ever-wider group of students in educational leadership programs.
• Is an outstanding advisor and mentor of students as evidenced by mentoring students in research projects that address the needs of k-12 educational systems; plays a key role in the advancement of students into leadership positions in Pk-12 systems. In sum, s/he promotes and supports the academic, career goals, and placement of students into educational administration programs.
• Has taken a leadership role in his/her academic unit, as administrators and/or leaders in educational endeavors; has gained a regional and national reputation, as an educational leader and innovator; has accomplished this through participation in regional and national activities as well as in publications in appropriate journals that have impacted the practice of educational leadership/administrators in Pk-12 systems. 
• Has provided outstanding leadership in promoting and supporting diversity in faculty, students, staff, programs, and curriculum in the field of educational leadership.
• Has provided outstanding public service through participation in public or private agencies, or both bodies that contributive to Pk-16 partnerships and to improving the quality of Pk-16 education throughout state, national, or international arenas. 

Dr. Pounder earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as an educational leadership professor and researcher for 25 years (primarily at the University of Utah-Salt Lake City) before joining UCA.  She also worked in public schools for 10 years as a high school math teacher, a secondary guidance counselor, and a middle school principal at the start of her career in education. 

Dr. Pounder is the 2009 recipient of UCEA’s Distinguished Service Award and has been active and assumed leadership roles in national professional organizations, including past editor of Educational Administration Quarterly, president of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), secretary of Division A of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and co-chair of the Joint UCEA, AERA-Division A, TEA-Sig Task Force on Leadership Preparation Effectiveness.  She participates actively in a variety of state and national education and policy initiatives, the most recent of which have focused largely on improving and assessing school teacher and leader preparation.  In recent years, she frequently serves on research advisory teams for various large-scale national research projects, including revision of the NCES SASS 2011 survey.  

Dr. Pounder’s scholarship focuses on building a more equitable and effective education profession to better serve all P-12 students.  Her scholarship includes largely empirical studies using correlational and quasi-experimental designs, survey methods, and multivariate quantitative data analysis techniques.  These works include empirical research on school leader preparation effectiveness, professor and principal shortages and job desirability, teacher work group effectiveness, distributed leadership, equity in personnel selection and compensation, and other interests related to attracting, retaining, motivating, and developing professional educators.  Her research awards include the 1996 Davis Award for Outstanding EAQ article (co-authored with Rod Ogawa and Ann Adams), and both the Department of Educational Leadership research award and the College of Education research award from the University of Utah.  Her scholarly publications appear in Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, the Australian Journal of Education, Educational Leadership, the School Administrator, and other prominent educational leadership publication outlets.  Congratulations, Dean Diana Pounder!