Ellen McIntyre, interim associate dean of academic affairs at N.C. State University, has been named dean of the UNC Charlotte College of Education. Her appointment is effective July 1.
In announcing McIntyre’s selection to succeed Mary Lynne Calhoun, who is retiring at the end of the fiscal year, Provost Joan Lorden said, “Ellen’s wealth of experience as a scholar, administrator and advocate for education will continue the tradition of strong leadership within the college.”
Calhoun’s departure in June is after more than 30 years of service to the University. She joined the University as assistant professor of special education in 1982. Following her appointment as dean of the College of Education in 1999, Calhoun oversaw expansion of graduate education by adding doctoral degrees in counseling, curriculum and instruction and special education and master’s degrees in teacher education and teaching English as a Second Language, which doubled graduate enrollment during her tenure.
UNC Charlotte is now the second largest producers of new teachers in the state, recommending more than 600 new teachers for North Carolina license each year, and under Calhoun’s leadership the College of Education received glowing reviews from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, serving as a national model for institutional organization and expectations. Most recently, as the college celebrated its 40th anniversary, Calhoun helped dedicate the Cato Teaching Discovery Mural that honors great educators and will serve as a teaching tool for the campus and the greater community. During a reception in Calhoun’s honor on April 9, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois announced the atrium of the College of Education would be named for Calhoun in recognition of her service to the University.
About coming to UNC Charlotte, McIntyre said she is enthusiastic about the College of Education’s emphasis on diversity. She also stressed a desire to “educate for the future” by stating, “We must base our practices on the research literature currently illustrating how people (children and adults) are learning differently through new technologies that did not exist even a decade ago.”
Prior to her July 2012 appointment as interim associate dean of academic affairs, McIntyre spent five and a half years as a leader and administrator in N.C. State’s College of Education, where she was influential in securing external funding and in developing new degree programs.
Before N.C. State, McIntyre was a professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. As a scholar, her research agenda focused on instruction for populations of students with a history of high failure rates in U.S. schools. She was appointed as University Scholar at the University of Louisville in recognition of her research productivity and ability to obtain external funding.
McIntyre received a Doctor of Education in Language and Literacy Education from the University of Cincinnati in 1990. She earned Master of Arts in Reading Education and Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Northern Kentucky University.