Atlanta — May 29, 2008

Dr. E. Lynne Weisenbach, currently the dean of education and founding Executive Director of the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning at the University of Indianapolis, has been appointed vice chancellor for P-16 Initiatives for the University System of Georgia (USG), effective Aug. 1. Making today’s announcement was Dr. Susan Herbst, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

Weisenbach will succeed Dr. Jan Kettlewell, who will retire on Sept. 30 after 13 years of leadership of the University System’s P-16 initiatives. With Kettlewell’s guidance, the USG began working in 1995 with a variety of other partners in education on statewide P-16 (pre-school through college) initiatives. The goal of the effort is to improve the ability of students to move from pre-school through post-secondary education and into the workforce. Key to the P-16 effort are improvements in teacher preparation and in K-12 classrooms.

“Dr. Weisenbach will be an excellent addition to the University System Office,” said Herbst. “Her dean-level experience in teacher education, the years she has spent developing and implementing policies collaboratively with outside organizations, and her successful track record in fund raising and research and development make her an outstanding choice for this senior-level leadership position.”

Weisenbach has been dean of the College of Education and a professor at the University of Indianapolis since 1993. She has been affiliated with the university since 1988 and founded the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning (CELL) in 2001. Over the past 10 years, she has served in leadership roles at the national, regional, state and local levels for a variety of professional organizations across the P-16 spectrum, including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, on whose board of directors she served from 2002 to 2005; the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, where she has been a board member since 2002; and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, where she served as a member of the State Partnership Board (1998-2003).

Weisenbach has been directly responsible for securing more than $30 million in grants and contracts from major funding partners over the past 15 years, including $15 million from The Lilly Endowment in 2001 to create the center she founded and $11.3 million from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2003 to fund high-school reform efforts in Indianapolis.

Weisenbach earned her undergraduate degree and later a specialist in education degree from Butler University (1976 and 1982). She obtained a master’s degree and her doctor of education degree from Ball State University (1978 and 1988). She completed Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management in 2005.

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