{"id":994,"date":"2019-07-26T14:28:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T21:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/?p=994"},"modified":"2019-08-09T16:55:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T23:55:36","slug":"not-done-making-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/not-done-making-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Done Making a Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean Gallagher to rejoin faculty in 2020<\/h1>\n
\n

The dean of USC Rossier decides not to seek fifth term<\/h2>\n
\"Karen<\/p>\n

Karen Symms Gallagher, Dean<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While leading USC Rossier\u2019s centennial celebrations this year, Karen Symms Gallagher was contemplating her own milestone: the 20th year, in 2020, of a transformative tenure as the Emory Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean.And she wrestled with a difficult decision: Did she want to go for 25 years?<\/p>\n

As is customary for a USC dean approaching the final year of a five-year term, she sat down with Provost Michael Quick in January to discuss whether she wanted another term. The school\u2019s ninth dean and first woman to hold the position, she could pursue a fifth term, unprecedented in the history of the 100-year-old school.<\/p>\n

Over the next months, she consulted close friends and colleagues, including other education deans and higher education leaders.<\/p>\n

Last week, at a family reunion at Western Washington University, her alma mater in Bellingham, Washington, where she was among a dozen alumni honored, she also discussed the matter with her husband, Pat Gallagher, son Sean and others she sees infrequently because of the demands of the deanship.<\/p>\n

They helped her settle the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unanimous,\u201d Gallagher recounted in an interview Monday. \u201cThey said, \u2018We would love to have you back.\u2019 My son said, \u2018Think about having more time to be a grandmother.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotionally, it\u2019s been really difficult,\u201d she added. \u201cBut my family and colleagues of mine outside USC \u2014 other deans and presidents \u2014 I talked to all of them and decided this would be a good time to transition to the faculty to have more balance in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After accepting her decision, Quick praised her as \u201can innovator in her field\u201d and \u201cstrong presence in the education profession nationally.\u201d In a letter to Rossier faculty and staff last week, he listed a number of her achievements as dean, including the redesign of the school\u2019s signature EdL program, the impact of the online MAT program and the launch of the Ednovate network of public charter high schools.<\/p>\n

The process of finding her successor will take a year \u2014 another reason for announcing her decision now. The provost will appoint a faculty committee in the fall to launch a national search.<\/p>\n

Gallagher said that announcing her decision not to seek a fifth term feels right, not only from a personal and professional standpoint, but in the context of the changes taking place at the university level: USC President-elect Carol Folt will take office on July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cit\u2019s the right time to announce [my decision],\u201d Gallagher reflected. \u201cOur new president is coming in, and whatever I can do to support Carol Folt I will do. She is going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gallagher steps down on June 30, 2020, she will take the sabbatical offered all departing deans, and then will transition to the position of senior research faculty. She hopes to develop a program to examine the obstacles facing women aiming for leadership roles in education. \u201cI want to look at the disconnect between who is in our programs \u2014 primarily women \u2014 and who are the principals, superintendents and community college chancellors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And, when she steps into her new role as a member of Rossier\u2019s faculty, she said she will continue to help the school fulfill its mission of advancing educational equity and diversity through practice, policy and research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not done,\u201d she said, \u201cmaking a difference in education.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean Gallagher to rejoin faculty in 2020 The dean of USC Rossier decides not to seek fifth term Karen Symms Gallagher, Dean While leading USC Rossier\u2019s centennial celebrations this year, Karen Symms Gallagher was contemplating her own milestone: the 20th year, in 2020, of a transformative tenure as the Emory Stoops and Joyce King Stoops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-events","9":"post-with-thumbnail","10":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.rossier.usc.edu\/edl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}