MU's Dean of College of Education resigns

COLUMBIA — MU College of Education Dean Carolyn Herrington will resign effective Aug. 1, MU Provost Brian Foster announced Monday.

An internal process to name an interim dean will be immediately initiated, and a national search to fill the position will begin in the fall, Foster said.

“I’m really sorry to see her go,” he said. “She has been a wonderful dean and a great asset to Mizzou. We’ll be working on finding the best candidate to replace her right away.”

Although no timeline has been set to fill the dean’s position, Christian Basi, associate director of the MU News Bureau, said an interim dean should be in place by Aug. 1 so there will be “no gap in leadership.”

Herrington is leaving MU to move to Florida, where her husband and four adult children live.

“It has been an honor to serve as dean of such a great college of education,” Herrington said. “However, for some time, I have wanted to be closer to my family in Florida. I’m going to miss all of my colleagues here, and I’ll be working to help make the transition seamless.”

While Herrington is not sure of her future plans, she says that she is “focusing on one day at a time.”

Herrington has been at MU since 2005. Before coming to Missouri, she was associate dean of academic affairs for the College of Education at Florida State University, as well as a professor and chair of the department of educational leadership and policy studies, an MU news release said.

Herrington said she feels MU has met many of the goals she set for it when she first arrived, in particular helping to prepare teachers to work in more diverse settings.

“We worked to place more students in internships in St. Louis and Kansas City and also worked with charter schools in Kansas City,” she said.

The MU College of Education, celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2008, had a total of 3,395 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled during the 2006-07 school year.