May 6, 2024
Dear Colleagues,
After a comprehensive national search, I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher has been named the new Renée and Richard Goldman Dean of the School of Education, effective May 1, 2024.
As you may know, since August 2023, Eboni has served as Interim Dean of the school, continuing its forward progress.
Prior to her role as Interim Dean, Eboni served as the School of Education’s Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Strategic Partnerships and a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy. She came to Pitt in July 2022 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education, where she was a professor and spent seven years as director of the Office for Community College Research and Leadership. While there, she also worked as associate head of the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, and as associate dean of the Graduate College.
An accomplished scholar whose research has secured nearly $10.5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation among others, Eboni’s scholarship focuses on equitable participation in higher education; transfer, access, and retention policies; minoritized student populations in marginalized institutional contexts; and racial equity and campus climate in postsecondary education pathways.
In addition to her work at Pitt, she is actively involved with a variety of professional organizations. She is currently executive director of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), President-Elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, a member of the Community College Review Editorial Board, an advisory board member for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and a committee member with the Black Learner Excellence Expert Advisory Committee.
Eboni has earned numerous notable recognitions, including being named an American College Personnel Association Senior Scholar, and is an American Educational Research Association Fellow. Other achievements include earning the CSCC Arthur M. Cohen and Florence B. Crawler Distinguished Service Award; DIVERSE: Issues in Higher Education Diverse Champions Award; National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Community College Research Award; and the Association for the Study of Higher Education Council on Ethnic Participation Mildred García Award for Exemplary Scholarship and the Founder’s Service Award, among others.
Eboni holds a PhD in educational organization and leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MS in general experimental psychology and BS in psychology from Western Illinois University.
Eboni’s exceptional experience and expertise—and her demonstrated and deep dedication to the mission-vision of the School of Education and the work of its faculty, students, staff, and alumni—make her the ideal choice for charting the course for the school’s next chapter.
I thank the search committee—co-chaired by Vice Provost Lu-in Wang and Dean of the School of Social Work Betsy Farmer—for their diligent efforts throughout the search process.
Please join me in congratulating Eboni on her appointment.
Regards,
Joe
Joseph J. McCarthy
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor
William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Chemical Engineering
University of Pittsburgh