Dear Members of the TC Community:

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Celia Oyler, TC Professor of Education, as Vice Dean for Teacher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In her new role as Vice Dean, Celia will provide strategic leadership and advocacy for teacher education practice, policy and research at the College and oversee activities and initiatives of the Office of Teacher Education and other centers and offices which support teacher education. She will partner with stakeholders across the College to develop new directions for TC Teacher Education programs, spearhead a substantial re-thinking of the resource model and programmatic evaluation for teacher education at TC and take a leadership role in local and national partnerships, scholarly organizations, and education policy discussions.

Celia brings to this new role deep institutional knowledge, close working partnerships with districts and educational leaders across the country and a profound understanding of and expertise in our threefold commitment to teaching as inquiry, teaching as curriculum-making and teaching for social justice. Celia joined TC in 1997 as an assistant professor in the Curriculum and Teaching Department with an appointment to the Elementary Education program. Shortly after arriving, she worked with colleagues to design the College’s Elementary Inclusive Education Program which has been nationally recognized as exemplary by a Congressional Blue Ribbon Panel and was recently selected as the site for a Spencer Foundation-funded case study of outstanding inclusive pre-service dual certification programs. This year the program launched with a new curriculum and expanded reach; starting with the class entering in 2021, all pre-service teachers in the TC Elementary Education program are dual-certified in Childhood Education and Teaching Students with Disabilities.

Celia was also the founding Co-Director of the Teachers College Inclusive Classrooms Project. Alongside her long-standing work with the New York City Department of Education, she has advised and coached hundreds of educational leaders and teachers across the United States and the world on creating inclusive learning environments that support teachers to foster culturally sustaining and accessible curriculum and instruction. She will bring this lens as she places a central focus on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion at the College, through reimagining support for early-, mid- and late-career teachers, catalyzing innovations among our TC teacher educators and developing partnerships with New York City schools.

Celia has mentored generations of student teachers and university-based teacher educators and is an accomplished scholar who prioritizes close, collaborative research with practitioners. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters as well as three books—Actions Speak Louder than Words: Community Activism as Curriculum (2012), Making Room for Students: Sharing Teacher Authority in Room 104 (1996), and Learning to Teach Inclusively: Student Teachers’ Classroom Inquiries (with the Preservice Inclusion Study Group) (2006). From 2015 to 2019, she was a visiting Professor of Inclusive Education at the University of Edinburgh.

Please join me in congratulating Celia. I know all of us will benefit from her tremendous expertise and commitment to preparing outstanding educators and ensuring all students and families have access to high-quality, inclusive and culturally responsive-sustaining schools and classrooms. I look forward to partnering with her, and all of you, to ensure TC’s teacher education programs continue to lead the field in innovation, social justice, and transformation.

Stephanie J. Rowley
Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs