Dean\'s Update – January 2025
01/14/2025, 05:15:01 PM
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Dean's Update: Information for Faculty and Staff: Image of the UHCOE Dean Cathy Horn and Associate Professor Vera Hutchison

Jan. 14, 2025

MESSAGE FROM DEAN HORN

Happy new year! I hope the winter break brought well-deserved restorative time and that the start to the semester has been smooth. For my first read of 2025, I’ve started Herod, Zora Neale Hurston’s last novel before she died (posthumously edited and just released). Connecting with her work took me to one of my favorite lines from another of her books, Their Eyes Were Watching God: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” As we look ahead to the coming months, I am excited for both the questions we will ask and the answers we will get from our work together.

In all our efforts this spring — admissions, hiring, preparation for the move to McElhinney, and continued good work across student success, research, service, and more — I am most grateful that they give us space to be in and build community. I hope to see everyone at our next collegewide gathering Jan. 29 for the “housewarming” at Science.

The grand challenge of striving to ensure a robust public education system and access to a healthy and thriving community for all kids and families can feel daunting as a singular enterprise. But when I consider the power of our diverse strengths represented in COE’s students, staff, faculty, and alumni knitted together, I am confident in our collective capacity to create positive, multi-generational impacts. Together, we’re unstoppable difference makers for good!

Best,
Cathy

Banner caption: Selfie time with advisors Emma Morales and Alex Vela!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

  • MLK Day (UH closed) – Monday, Jan. 20.
  • Webinar: AI as a Learning Tool – Monday, Jan. 27. 10:30 a.m. Presented by Kristi Santi (ELPS). Details and link to join.
  • Office Recycling/Clean Up – Monday, Jan. 27 through Friday, Jan. 31.
  • “Housewarming” at Science Building – Wednesday, Jan. 29. 9 to 10:30 a.m. Second floor.
  • COE Appreciation Breakfast for Staff – Wednesday, March 5. 8:30 to 10 a.m. Dean’s Suite. RSVP for staff.
  • Spring Social (Bowling) – Tuesday, May 6. 3 to 5 p.m. Student Center South. Please RSVP!
  • Spring 2025 Commencement – Thursday, May 8. 7 p.m. Fertitta Center.
  • Save the date: COE Fall 2025 Kickoff Breakfast – Friday, Aug. 22. 8:30 a.m. UH Hilton.
  • Save the date: Fall 2025 Commencement – Tentative for Dec. 18 or Dec. 19.

BUILDING TRANSITION

  • The moves to the Science Building and Melcher Life Sciences (former Charter School) have gone very well. A giant thank you to Tim Rosas and the CITE team for their work! Find a list of staff and labs located in Science and Melcher on the Building Transition page (see “Documents” headline). Room numbers are updated on the college directory as well.
  • The Jan. 27 recycle week is a great time to start cleaning offices before the move to McElhinney. The tentative packing deadline is May 15 for faculty; staff have more time over the summer. Stay tuned for the date boxes will arrive, but we can all start getting organized now to help ourselves later!
  • Have questions about furniture, classroom assignments, computer labs and more? Check out the FAQ section on the Building Transition page.

OFFICE OF THE DEAN

Advancement

  • Please encourage students to apply for COE scholarships by the Feb. 28 deadline. A Jan. 13 email from Ericka Mellon includes a PowerPoint to display in classes. For those submitting recommendations, thank you and please also note the deadline! 

ACES Institute

  • The Rockwell Fund awarded ACES (Anne McClellan, Teranda Donatto, Stephanie Perez-Gill and team) $100,000 for the Cougar Tutors Middle School Postsecondary Readiness Project. 

Associate Dean for Faculty and Staff Belonging and Success

  • Clinical Faculty (“NTT”) promotion review has started at the College level.
  • COE Faculty Search Committees have started their finalists’ on-campus visits, starting with AI, Teaching and Learning and School Psychology searches this week. We have four more coming up (HDFS/Health, Health, LDT, Math Education); stay tuned for details and please consider attending the job talk presentations.
  • The first session of the Staff Development series took place Dec. 17 with a lively discussion and good ideas for future sessions. Thank you for your attendance and interest. Please look out for more sessions this semester!
  • Interested in staff training? Consider submitting a request to the COE Staff Professional Development Fund. For UH opportunities, explore Catalyst Learning Programs.

Associate Dean for Student Belonging and Success

Celebrations

  • The Texas Education Agency has recommended an “Accredited” status for the College based on the 2023-24 Accountability System for Educator Preparation, which assesses teacher certification exam pass rates, student achievement data, and program quality factors. We scored 2 points higher than the prior year. Thank you to all staff and faculty who help to ensure our students are supported and successful. 
  • The COE Coog community grew by 153 students this spring! The Graduate and Undergraduate Success Teams oriented 33 graduate students and 120 undergraduates to begin spring 2025 during in person and virtual orientations.
  • Congrats to the 1,115 COE students who received Dean’s List designation for fall 2024.

Events

  • “What’s Poppin in Student Success” returns this Wednesday, Jan. 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in 160. COE students, faculty and staff are invited to pop in to connect with us. 

Staff Updates

  • We’re searching to fill two Teaching & Learning undergraduate advisor positions. All students in the T&L major and Education minor will be advised by Fernando Hernandez until new advisors are hired and successfully onboarded. Thanks for your patience during this transition.

Faculty Reminders

  • Curriculog is open for submitting proposals for graduate course creations, revisions and deletions for 2025-26 with a March 31 deadline. Learn more about the Curriculog process.

Faculty & Staff Guidance

  • Please remember to ask students and graduates to complete the FERPA Form for Letters of Recommendation (download via Shared Files / Faculty Information or Staff Information). Email completed forms to coelearn@uh.edu. Save as “FERPA 20XX - Student Name - Faculty Name.” (You do not need this specific form for the COE scholarship process.)

Business/Finance

  • Although the finance team has moved to the Science Building, continue to pick up mail/packages in the Dean’s Suite in Farish as usual. Please note that notification may take a few extra days (the CITE help desk is now the place receiving packages, but the finance team continues to log them for pick-up in the Dean’s Suite.)
  • Managers must complete the staff ePerformance process by Monday, Feb. 3.

CITE

  • To email all full-time faculty and staff in the College of Education, use this address only: mycoe1@UofH.UH.EDU.

Communications

  • If you plan to take photos of students: Find photo release and FERPA forms (as well as a new Photography Notice sign for events) on MyCOE (College Quick Links / Shared Files / Communications). For events, email coecomm@uh.edu for stickers to use with students who opt out of photography; departments should have plastic frames for the photo notice signage.

MEDIA RELEASES AND STORIES

DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s note: External grant awards are listed under Office of Research after they are officially logged in the UH system. For publications, additional authors are not included.

Curriculum & Instruction

Reporting will resume next month.

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Publications

  • Heather Dulas. “Increasing prosocial employment skills for adolescents with emotional behavioral disorders: A systematic literature review and quality review,” Behavioral Disorders. “Seclusion and restraint: A scoping review of the peer-reviewed published literature since the GAO congressional hearing of 2009,” Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals. “Perceptions of educators using job coaching to increase workplace social skills for individuals with disabilities,” DADD Online Journal.

Psychological, Health, & Learning Sciences

Reporting will resume next month.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH

Announcements

  • Please welcome Maira Gonzalez to the role of research administrator, where she will handle post-award support for CUIN and Dean’s Office faculty. Maira started working with grants in 2013 at UH and rejoins after almost three years at MD Anderson. She has engaged in the whole grant process from pre-award, post-award, departmental to closeout. One of her biggest accomplishments was being a co-author for an article submitted to NCURA in April 2024. In her personal time, she likes to exercise.
  • Please welcome Nicole Switzer back to the College as an OOR program director handling post-award support for ELPS and PHLS. Nicole rejoins us from Rice University, where she managed budgets, grants, endowments and HR functions. Nicole notes that working in higher ed is deeply fulfilling because she views education as the great equalizer. In her spare time, she likes reading dystopian novels and thrillers, traveling, listening to true crime podcasts, and spending quality time with family and friends. 
  • Thank you for your patience as our team is onboarded. Reporting of Awards and Submissions will resume as soon as possible.

Questions about the Dean’s Update? Email coecomm@uh.edu and emellon@uh.edu.

 
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