Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to inform members of the Faculty of Education and the York University communitythat the Board of Governors’ Executive Committee has approved my recommendation that Professor Sharon Murphy be appointed Interim Dean of the Faculty of Education, effective July 1, 2020. Dean Lyndon Martin is taking up the role of Vice-Provost Academic in the Office of the Provost & Vice-President Academic. The search for his successor is under way.
Professor Murphy will be well known to members of the York community. She joined York's Faculty of Education in 1988, was promoted to Full Professor in 2002, and has held many significant administrative positions, both in the Faculty and beyond. Since October 2019, Professor Murphy has served as Associate Dean Academic in Education, responsible for the Faculty’s graduate and undergraduate programs. In this role, she provided crucial guidance during the transition to remote and online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Murphy previously served the Faculty as Graduate Program Director and Undergraduate Program Director. From 2000 to 2005, she served as Associate Dean, Students in the Faculty of Graduate Studies where she developed protocols for research ethics in response to Tri-Council policies, revised rules and protocols relating to petitions and academic honesty and participated in a review of the Faculty's standing within the University. She has also represented the Faculty of Education on Senate and University-level committees including Senate APPRC.
Professor Murphy holds a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. Her writing and interests are primarily focused on literacy and assessment. She is the author or co-author/editor of five books and numerous articles, conference papers, and other publications, with her most recent book, Sense-making and shared meaning in language and literacy education: Designing research-based literacy programs for children, to be published by Routledge Press in summer of 2020. Her teaching has included courses on language, literacy, and learning at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
I am grateful for Professor Murphy’s willingness to undertake this important role, and I look forward to working with her in collaboration with other colleagues in advancing the Faculty of Education’s priorities.
I also want to thank Professor Lyndon Martin for his exceptional contributions as Dean over the past four years. Under his leadership, among many other accomplishments, the Faculty of Education has achieved a significant complement renewal and expanded its innovative Indigenous programming. We will have a future opportunity to thank Professor Martin but for now please join me in wishing him all the best in his future endeavours.
Sincerely,
Rhonda L. Lenton
President & Vice-Chancellor
