A professor of higher education and student affairs at Ohio University’s Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education will lead the UCCS College of Education.
Valerie Martin Conley, currently professor and chair of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Ohio University, was selected following a national search to be dean of the UCCS College of Education. She will begin her new position July 1, though she is expected to visit the campus throughout the spring to begin the transition.
“Dr. Conley brings more than 27 years of experience as a university administrator, researcher author and professor to our campus,” Mary Coussons-Read, executive vice chancellor, Academic Affairs, said. “I am pleased she has agreed to be part of the future of UCCS.”
Since 2002, Conley has served Ohio University, a 21,000 student public university based in Athens, Ohio. During her tenure at Ohio, she has served as director of the Center for Higher Education, as coordinator of the higher education and student affairs program, and as both associate and assistant professor.
Prior to joining Ohio University, she led her own education and computer consulting firm, worked as an administrator at Virginia Tech, and in private industry education research consulting firms.
She earned a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia. In addition, she completed the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Leadership Academy and the Higher Education Resource Services Bryn Mawr Summer Institute.
“I am delighted to join the UCCS community and to contribute to the mission and vision of the institution at such an exciting time in its history, Conley said. “I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students and alumni of the College of Education to engage the college in service and commitment to the positive changes necessary for our continued success. ”
Conley replaces Mary Snyder who retired Jan. 1 after serving as dean since 2011.
— Photo and video by Jeff Foster
Congrats Dr. Conley and UCCS! Dr. Conley was my dissertation director and mentor at OHIO. UCCS couldn’t have chosen a better person for the position!
Congratulations Dr. Conley on your new position! The UCCS College of Education is fortunate to have such an outstanding educator as their new dean. Best wishes!
I read the co-authored 2013 report of TIAA Institute’s senior economist and Dr. Conley, “Retirement Plans…in Higher Education”. The same TIAA Institute economist co-authored a paper with an executive of the anti-pension Arnold Foundation. That paper was “unceremoniously taken down from the TIAA website”, according to reports from a pension publication. Truthout published a story about the controversy involving the paper.
I take issue with the conclusion from Dr. Conley’s paper, “This makes plans in higher education, in particular, defined contribution (as opposed to defined benefit plans), models for consideration by public policy analysts”. The National Institute for Retirement Security provides objective information about the economic value of defined benefit pensions, to the states, employers and employees.
Wall Street financial firms,like TIAA-CREF, benefit from access to investors, including university employees.
The website, Consumerism TIAA, provides customer opinion and there is also customer-provided information, in the conversation threads, about the company’s viewpoint as expressed in its activities. Included is the make-up of the Overseer Board, which includes the President of the David Koch Theater.
The University of Colorado welcomes university privatization and places itself in position to be the first?
Employees who want to advocate for the privatization of education, prisons, pension funds…should do so from the private sector. For them to undermine the public sector, while receiving their livelihoods from taxpayers, is contemptible.
Does Dr. Conley advocate for pension privatization, as the “model for public policy analysts”?
Those who have studied the issue warn us that pension privatization creates the playbook for destruction of Social Security. The implications of Wall Street’s plots to take labor’s savings are huge. The U.S. financial sector drags down GDP while labor grows GDP. Yet, the political influence of Wall Street has denied, to workers, the benefits of their productivity over more than 30 years. Now, hedge funds strategize to take the workers’ savings.