Three new Education department heads appointed

Professor Lawrence Aleamoni, head of the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation and School Psychology, is an internationally recognized scholar.	Patricia Fairchild now heads the Physical Education Program. She participated in the Commitment to Athletes' Total Success program as a counselor to injured UA athletes.	Associate professor Toni Griego Jones,head of the Department of Teaching and Teacher Education, researches urban school reform.

In an effort to recycle department resources, the UA College of Education appointed two department heads and a program head last week.

"It's a rotation of these people - we want to rotate in the department's tenured faculty," said John Taylor, dean of the college.

Taylor only looked for candidates already employed at University of Arizona.

"This was not an outside search," he said.

Annually appointed department heads perform administrative work while continuing to teach and conduct research.

If a department head should stay five years, the dean administers a performance review to determine whether a new head should be appointed.

Most people who hold the position, however, only stay a few years.

"You want to make sure these people don't jeopardize their careers - some of them are still working their way up to becoming professors." Taylor said. "We're very fortunate to have them. They are all respected by their counterparts, have strong leadership and are experienced."

Lawrence Aleamoni

Professor Lawrence Aleamoni, the newly appointed head of the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation and School Psychology, hopes to increase teacher awareness of students' special needs.

"There is a concern that there are more different types of disabilities," Aleamoni said. "Teachers should be more aware of this."

For example, more students are taking American Sign Language for language requirements.

Aleamoni was born in Salt Lake City and received his bachelor of science degree in psychology and mathematics from Westminister College in his home town.

He received his master's degree in psychology and mathematics from the University of Utah. In 1966, Aleamoni received his doctorate in measurement, evaluation, research design and statistics from Michigan State University.

Aleamoni has quite a few honors under his belt. He served as a visiting professor at both the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the National Academy for Agricultural Research Management in Hyderabad, India.

In 1994, he won the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust Visiting Professionalship from the Department of Education Technology and Science at Technion.

Aleamoni plans to use his experience to raise the department's standards.

"I'd like to help improve the program, continue research, improve learning and special education skills - also generate more training grants," Aleamoni said.

Patricia Fairchild

The new head of the Physical Education Program is associate professor Patricia Fairchild, replacing recently retired interim Department Administrator Boyd Baker.

She intends to help the program re-establish itself after nearly being shut down.

"We were slated for elimination a few years ago," Fairchild said. "The Physical Education Program was in moratorium, which meant we hadn't admitted students in two years."

Fairchild received her bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

She earned her doctorate degree in physical education from the University of Oklahoma in 1969.

Fairchild has held a number of UA positions since 1970. She is a licensed psychologist who headed the UA Cardiac Program.

Fairchild participated in the Commitment to Athletes' Total Success program, serving as a counselor to injured UA athletes.

Fairchild said she also would like to focus on community activities, promote physical education and work with public school teachers.

"We are in the process of revising curriculum," she said.

Toni Griego Jones

Associate professor Toni Griego Jones, the new Department of Teaching and Teacher Education head, hopes to improve the curriculum and structure.

"We're doing a review of our teacher preparation program, undergraduate and graduate program," Griego Jones said. "Our goal is to make it the best it can be."

Hailing from Trinidad, Colo., she graduated with a bachelor's degree in art education from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Griego Jones earned her master's degree in elementary education from Adams College in Alamosa, Colo. She also holds a doctorate from the University of Colorado in Social and Multicultural Foundations.

Prior to coming to the UA in the spring of 1996, Griego Jones was the associate dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She took over for associate professor Alice Paul, who decided to step down after a three-year reign. Paul was the first American Indian to head a UA department.

Griego Jones said she would like to see her students get more experience in the classroom.

"I hope to have more collaboration with colleagues in the K-12 public schools," Griego Jones said.

Irene Hsiao can be reached via e-mail at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.