Purdue leader named dean of WSU college

By Communications staff, Washington State University
Rud

PULLMAN – Anthony G. (A.G.) Rud Jr., head of Purdue University’s department of educational studies, has been named dean of WSU’s College of Education.

Rud will move from Indiana to start work in mid-August, said WSU Provost and Executive Vice President Warwick Bayly, who announced the appointment today.

 “A.G. has a very strong background in education and administration,” Bayly said. “He will bring excellent leadership and stability to the college.”

Rud will succeed Interim Dean Phyllis Erdman, who took the helm in July 2009 after the deaths of Dean Judy Mitchell and Interim Dean Len Foster. 


Bio of A. G. RUD
Spring 2010
(From posted bio at Purdue)

Purdue
I am head of the Department of Educational Studies, College of Education at Purdue University. I came to Purdue in 1994 as associate dean, and served in that role until 2001. From 2001-2002, I was interim head of my department, and returned to full time teaching and research until being appointed head in July 2008. I teach courses in the history and philosophy of education, higher education, and educational leadership, and advise master’s and doctoral students in the cultural foundations of education, P-12 educational leadership, higher education, as well as curriculum studies in our college’s other department. Since 2005, I have been an affiliated faculty member in Purdue’s top-ranked American Studies program in the College of Liberal Arts.
 
Research
My research interests focus upon the cultural foundations of education, with particular emphasis on the moral dimensions of teacher education, P-12 educational leadership, and higher education.
 
Writing
I regularly make presentations at major professional conferences and am the author of a number of articles and reviews. My book, Albert Schweitzer’s Legacy for Education: Reverence for Life, is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan and will be published in early 2011. I edited, with Jim Garrison and Lynda Stone, John Dewey at 150: Reflections for a New Century, published by Purdue University Press in 2009. I am developing another edited volume, with Jim Garrison, on reverence and education that includes noted authors Bill Ayers, Bill Schubert, and Dan Liston, among others. My recent work includes research with Alan M. Beck of Purdue’s Center for the Human-Animal Bond on the moral and cognitive aspects of human-animal interaction in schools; a book chapter on the moral dimensions of engineering education, co-authored with an engineering professor for Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; an essay on serving as an interim department head in the Chronicle of Higher Education; and two blogs: Moo2, on higher education that is on hiatus, and cofounder and participant in an award-winning and nationally recognized group blog on the cultural foundations of education, called Education Policy Blog. As part of my work in research ethics supported by the National Science Foundation, I collaborate on social networking activities with research ethics scholars. I am co-principal investigator on a NSF grant on preparing computer science teachers. I am also part of a group devoted to the philosophical study of “listening” represented by a special issue of the journal Learning Inquiry, as well as a forthcoming special issue of the journal Teachers College Record.
 
I was senior editor and contributor to A Place for Teacher Renewal: Challenging the Intellect, Creating Educational Reform (foreword by Maxine Greene of Teachers College, Columbia University, who compared the volume to Thoreau’s Walden), published by Teachers College Press in 1992 and now in print with Information Age Publishing. I joined my good friend Jim Garrison as co-editor and contributor to a volume of essays entitled The Educational Conversation: Closing the Gap (foreword by Nel Noddings of Stanford University), published by the State University of New York Press in 1995.
 
Service
I edit Education and Culture, the peer-reviewed international journal of the John Dewey Society; serve on the editorial boards of several other academic journals; and was chair of the editorial board of Purdue University Press, where I am now serving a second term. I am an advisor, with Gene Glass of Arizona State University, for Information Age Publishing and its education list.
 
I am a former member of the Committee on International Relations of the American Educational Research Association; a founding member and former officer of the Association for Philosophy of Education, and a former member of the Committee on Pre-College Instruction, both affiliated with the American Philosophical Association; a past Senior Associate of the Council for Basic Education; and a former committee chair of the Philosophy of Education Society.
 
Consulting
I have consulted for schools and organizations around the country on leadership, critical thinking, moral education, and school reform. I have worked with organizations as diverse as the National Paideia Center, the Boston University Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character, the Department of Special Education at the University of South Florida, and the Liberty Fund Inc. I developed and taught web based courses in educational ethics for teachers and administrators for Jones International University, the first fully online, accredited university. I am a member, and served from 1999 – 2003 as founding chair, of the Center Advisory Board of the Harmony Institute. As chair, I facilitated the board’s advice on the establishment of the Albert Schweitzer Center at the Institute, within the innovative and award-winning new community of Harmony, Fla.
 
Personal
I grew up, and attended public schools, in the beautiful Berkshires of western Massachusetts (Stockbridge, where Norman Rockwell painted my father for a Skippy peanut butter ad, and then Richmond and Pittsfield). I received an AB degree in religion cum laude from Dartmouth College, and MA and PhD degrees in philosophy from Northwestern University.
 
I came to Purdue from The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a nationally recognized program I helped to establish. I also worked at Dartmouth College as an administrator, adjunct faculty member in philosophy, and freshman advisor. Prior to graduate school, I taught humanities and social studies at a special needs high school in Massachusetts.
 
My wife
Rita and I live in West Lafayette, Indiana. Our daughter Rachel graduated in 2007 from Northwestern University in theatre and now lives in Los Angeles. Our family includes three or four cats (Gia, Hazel, Wendy, the critical pedagogue, and Rachel’s cat Emma from time to time). In June 2009, we got a new dog, Dorie, short for Eudora, named after the author Eudora Welty and not the email program, meaning “excellent gift” in Greek. My wife Rita wanted another Spitz mix, like our dear Pixie, who died in 2005. She found Dorie online being fostered in Longview, Texas. So we drove to Muskogee, Oklahoma (where even squares can have a ball) to pick her up, down and back in two exhilarating days of driving!

“Dr. Erdman has done an outstanding job of guiding the College of Education over the last 12 months.  Everyone at WSU is in her debt,” Bayly said. “I have no doubt that she will continue to be a great asset to the college and to Dr. Rud in his role as dean.”

Rud, one of three finalists for the position, visited the Pullman campus in April. He returned in June, when he also met with College of Education faculty in Spokane, Tri-Cities and Vancouver.

 “I’m especially excited by the dynamic, statewide WSU system,” Rud said. “The education programs on all four campuses have their own distinct strengths, and I very much look forward to working with them all.”

Rud’s collaborative style and experience developing partnerships will serve the college well, Erdman said. She noted that he is a well-established scholar known for his expertise in the philosophical dimensions of education.

Rud has led Purdue’s Department of Educational Studies, part of its College of Education, since July 2008.  He started at Purdue in 1994 as associate dean, and served in that role until 2001.  He taught courses in the history and philosophy of education, higher education, and educational leadership, and advised master’s and doctoral students in the cultural foundations of education, preschool-grade 12 educational leadership, higher education, as well as curriculum studies.

Before joining the Purdue faculty, he helped establish The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, where he was senior fellow.  He received an AB degree in religion from Dartmouth College, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from Northwestern University.
 
Rud’s research interests focus upon the cultural foundations of education, with particular emphasis on the moral dimensions of teacher education, P-12 educational leadership, and higher education.  His book, “Albert Schweitzer’s Legacy for Education: Reverence for Life” is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan and will be published in early 2011.  He will step down this summer after six years as editor of “Education and Culture,” the peer-reviewed international journal of the John Dewey Society.

Rud’s wife, Rita, is a writer and editor who taught writing at Purdue.  Their daughter, Rachel, lives in Los Angeles.

Bayly thanked members of the College of Education dean search committee, chaired by Eric Spangenberg, dean of the College of Business. Other committee members were College of Education faculty and staff Pamela Bettis, Brian French, Gail Furman, Kim Holapa, Stephen Kucer, Liza Nagel and Kelly Ward, and Pullman School District Superintendent Paul Sturm.
 
 
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