Former New York City Board of Education member Irving Hamer, Jr., joined the TC faculty as Professor of Practice in Education in the Department of Organization and Leadership.

Hamer, who was appointed to the Board in 1998, has been an educator in various capacities. He taught for New York City Public Schools in the late 1960s through 1970, before working with the New York Urban League as Director of Education. As Director of the Street Academy of New York in the 1970s, he managed the administration and academic program of 12 secondary schools in New York. He went on to become Headmaster of the Maryland Park Heights Street Academy before being named Deputy Commissioner of Education for Comprehensive Social Improvement Planning In New York City with the New York State Education Department. As Deputy Commissioner, Hamer developed new programs and worked with schools determined to be in need of assistance by implementing the mandates for school improvement.

He added a new dimension to his educational influence when he became President of Globe Book Company, part of the Simon and Schuster School Group, and then Executive Vice President of the Secondary Education Group for Simon & Schuster. In that role, Hamer was responsible for strategic planning, product development, technology integration and communications, operations and new business development for a group of companies.

As a lifelong resident of Harlem, Hamer is an avid community participant and has a strong belief in the public school system, having been a teacher and a parent of children who attend public schools.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in Sociology from Ottawa University, Hamer went on to Harvard University where he received his M.Ed. in Administration and an Ed.D. in Learning Environment and Social Policy. He also spent three years as a Senior Research Affiliate at Yale University Institute for Social and Policy Studies.

Published Monday, May. 20, 2002