3:05 p.m., May 12, 2009----Michael Gamel-McCormick has been named dean of the University of Delaware's College of Education and Public Policy (CEPP), Provost Dan Rich announced Tuesday, May 12. His appointment is effective July 1.

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Gamel-McCormick had served as interim dean of the college since July 2008, when he replaced former dean Timothy K. Barnekov.

“Tom Apple and I are pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Gamel-McCormick as dean,” said Rich, who is retiring effective June 30 and will be replaced by Apple, currently dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Michael has done an outstanding job as interim dean, and he has established himself as a highly respected and effective academic leader in the college, across the campus, and in the wider community. We are confident that the College of Education and Public Policy will flourish under his leadership. We look forward to working with him to generate even higher levels of achievement in the future.”

“This is an especially exciting and challenging time to be a comprehensive research, training and public service college, and an especially important time to be able to take scholarship from the University to the community and for the community to inform our teaching and scholarship,” Gamel-McCormick said. “I have great confidence in the faculty and staff of the college to achieve even greater accomplishments over the coming years and look forward to being part of those continued accomplishments.”

Gamel-McCormick is professor of human development and family studies and associate director of the Center for Disabilities Studies. He had previously served as interim chairperson of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Gamel-McCormick received bachelor's degrees in child development and psychology from the University of Delaware. He received a master's degree in counseling from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a doctorate in education and human development from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Gamel-McCormick joined the faculty at UD in 1995. He was appointed director of the Center for Disabilities Studies in 2001.

He conducts research focusing on the quality of early care and education programs, families from lower socio-economic backgrounds and their perceptions of early intervention services, and families of children with disabilities. Also, he conducts research regarding the preparation of teachers and professionals to work with young children with disabilities.

As director of the Center for Disability Studies, Gamel-McCormick collaborated on issues of early childhood services for children with and without disabilities, families and disabilities, the use of technology by individuals with disabilities, and the impact of disabilities on service delivery systems.

He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in early childhood and early childhood special education, in disabilities across the life span and their impact on families, and in technology and its use with very young children with disabilities.

Honored for his work in the classroom, Gamel-McCormick has won departmental awards for outstanding work in both undergraduate and graduate education and in 1999 received a University-wide Excellence in Teaching Award.

He has written numerous articles and papers, and is co-author of the book Young Children with Special Needs: A Developmentally Appropriate Approach (1998, Allyn & Bacon).

Gamel-McCormick is president of the Association of University Center on Disabilities and a member of the Council for Exceptional Children, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and TASH (formerly the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps).

Also, he has served on the Vision 2015 Task Force, which is charting a course for the future of education in the state, the Delaware Early Care and Education Council, the Governor's Infant Mortality Task Force and the Governor's Commission on Community-Based Alternatives for Adults with Disabilities.

Gamel-McCormick is among a select group of national experts who have been advising the administration of President Barack Obama on national disabilities policies.

The College of Education and Public Policy has undergraduate and graduate programs across two departments and two schools: the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies and the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and the School of Education and the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.

The college also is home to 14 research and public service centers.

College enrollment is more than 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.

Article by Neil Thomas