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Dean's Welcome

Welcome to the website for the School of Education at Whitworth University. I hope that this site will provide you with helpful information about our programs, faculty, staff and students and that you’ll visit us often! The Whitworth University School of Education is characterized by several distinctive qualities that are guided by our conceptual framework, and we will continue to emphasize those qualities this year. Our graduates are well prepared, and they take seriously Whitworth's mission to provide "an education of mind and heart." We welcome several new people to the School of Education this year:

Brian Davenport is the new assistant director of the Master in Teaching Program. Immediately prior to moving into this position, Brian was assistant director of admissions at Whitworth. From 2003-08 Brian taught high school social studies at South Kitsap High School, where he was also actively involved with Young Life. He also served a year as a resident director at the University of Puget Sound. Brian earned his B.A. in history and social studies from Whitworth and his M.A. in teaching from UPS; he is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in leadership studies at Gonzaga.

Professor Suzie Henning is a visiting instructor this year in the School of Education, where she will oversee our intercultural field placements and teach our Intercultural Communication; Democracy, Leadership and Schools; and Educational Psychology courses. Suzie was a lecturer for us last year;she has also taught at Mount St. Mary’s University, in Maryland, and at Preston High School, in the Bronx. She earned her B.A. in history at Seattle University and her M.A. in teaching at Fordham University. She is a doctoral candidate at Durham University, in the U.K.

James Uhlenkott, Ph.D., is a visiting assistant professor in the School of Education this year. Prior to coming to Whitworth, Jim taught in the Mead school district for 17 years as well as at Eastern Washington University, where he was the undergraduate director in the department of education. Jim was the founder and director for Deaconess Hospital’s Camp Fun-in the Sun Diabetic Camp and a counselor and director of the YMCA camp, Camp Reed. He was also an instructor in and director of the Master’s Commission, a program for young adults in Spokane, Puyallup, and  Bratislava, Slovakia. Jim holds a B.A. and M.A. from Eastern Washington University, where he specialized in reading diagnosis and remediation. He earned his Ph.D. in educational leadership from Gonzaga.

The School of Education faculty and program directors continue to implement new state requirements for revised endorsements and standards. We are also working closely with our partner school districts in assessment, after-school programs and co-teaching.  This year will also find us preparing for state and national accreditation visits in 2011 and developing a program to offer the new specialty endorsement in environmental/sustainability education.

For more information about the Whitworth School of Education, please browse through our webpages at www.whitworth.edu/soe or contact us by e-mail at soe@whitworth.edu.

Dennis Sterner, Ed.D.
Dean of the Whitworth School of Education