• School of Ed welcomes Baylor alum as new dean

    Dr. Michael McLendon

    Less than an hour after setting foot on campus for the first time as a Baylor freshman, Michael McLendon met the woman who would one day be his wife.

    That was in 1986. Almost 30 years later, McLendon (and that young lady, the former Kathy Coleman, BBA ’90) are returning to Waco.

    McLendon, BA ’91, was recently named dean of Baylor’s School of Education, succeeding Dr. Jon Engelhardt, who is retiring at the end of this school year. The former Phi Gamma Delta president and Baptist Student Union member is now Dr. McLendon, having earned his master’s in higher education studies from Florida State and his doctorate in higher education policy from Michigan.

    Since earning his Ph.D., McLendon has taught at Vanderbilt (1999-2012), where he oversaw undergraduate education for the nation’s top-ranked college of education, and SMU (2012-present), where he has been a professor and associate dean. Over the years, he has repeatedly been named one of the nation’s leading university-based academics whose research contributes most substantially to public debates around education in the United States.

    “Never before in our nation’s history has education mattered as much as it does today,” says McLendon. “Strengthening the educative capacity of our schools and colleges, improving learning for all students, overcoming deep disparities in outcomes that persist across our educational systems, and enhancing the effectiveness of our teachers and our educational leaders — all of these efforts are vital both to our civic health and our individual and collective prosperity.”

    The new dean will begin his service on July 1.

    Sic ’em, Dr. McLendon!