Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Ph.D., dean of the UNC School of Education and Alumni Distinguished Professor, was announced as the next provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Thursday, April 4. The following message was shared with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community by Christopher Clemens, Ph.D., UNC-Chapel Hill provost and chief academic officer:
Dear Carolina Community,
I am writing to share that School of Education Dean Fouad Abd-El-Khalick has been named provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, effective July 1. During his eight-year tenure at Carolina, Abd-El-Khalick created an extraordinary legacy at the School of Education and significantly increased the school’s ability to change lives through its research, teaching and service.
Notably, the school has quadrupled its total ($5.7 to $22.2 million) and per faculty ($127,000 to $529,000) annual research expenditures, greatly expanding its ability to better serve the people of North Carolina and beyond. In U.S. News & World Report rankings, it rose 14 places to 21st among all, and 13th among public, schools of education across the nation. In addition, the school created and reimagined several undergraduate and graduate programs resulting in a 26% increase in residential student enrollment.
In 2022, Abd-El-Khalick oversaw the launch of the Carolina Community Academy, our K-2 laboratory school, in partnership with Person County Schools. The innovative school integrates evidence-based practices, an improved curriculum, social-emotional learning and robust wraparound services that have already transformed learning outcomes for students. As part of those efforts, he also has led a campus-wide coalition of University schools and units that have brought the best of what Carolina has to offer to both the school and Roxboro community.
Abd-El-Khalick has secured generous public and private support to help prepare teachers and school leaders through programs including the North Carolina Teaching Fellows, DREAM, UNC LEADS, Fellows for Inclusive Excellence and Helping Heels. He’s empowered his faculty members to collaborate with partners from across the state and globe to convene important conversations, including hosting the World Anti-Bullying Forum last year.
Abd-El-Khalick also launched Pathway to Practice NC, an online teacher licensure program, in partnership with NC State University to increase the pipeline of qualified educators in North Carolina. To date, nearly 500 residency license teachers across 84 North Carolina school districts have earned or are working toward licensures at their own pace. He also introduced other online and HyFlex programs, including two master’s programs and Carolina’s recently announced first fully online doctoral degree program in education.
To help support this work, Abd-El-Khalick actively engaged University donors, alumni and friends, raising $26.8 million in the Campaign for Carolina.
I am enormously grateful to Fouad and all that he has accomplished. When he leaves Carolina at the end of June, the school will be well poised for continued success.
In the coming weeks, I will announce an interim leader while we launch a national search for a new dean. Until then, please join me in congratulating and thanking Dean Fouad Abd-El-Khalick and wishing him well in his new role.
Sincerely,
Christopher Clemens, Provost
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Abd-El-Khalick has served as dean of the School since July 1, 2016.
Before coming to Carolina, Abd-El-Khalick was associate dean for research and research education in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was also the Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor of Education and had served on the faculty since 2000.
An elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Abd-El-Khalick is a leading international science education researcher whose scholarly contributions on teaching and learning about nature of science have earned him the National Association for Research in Science Teaching’s top lifetime achievement honor, the 2022 Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award.
He also was honored as the sole winner of the 2021 Kuwait Prize in economics and social sciences — specifically, in educational sciences — from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science, which recognizes the stellar scholarly contributions over 20 or more years of Arab scientists across the globe.
Of his time at Carolina, Abd-El-Khalick said:
“The past eight years at Carolina and the School of Education have been a highlight of my career. We have achieved much as a community of faculty, students, staff, and alumni — in partnership with leaders at Carolina and in school districts and with our state officials — to better serve learners and educators in our rural and urban communities across North Carolina and beyond. I am grateful for all the support and kindness that the Carolina community and the state have shown our family over these years. We will always have a special place in our hearts and minds for the memories, people, and place that is Carolina.”
Abd-El-Khalick’s final day as dean of the UNC School of Education will be June 30, 2024.