Elizabeth Kirby named associate dean of Education and Human Services

Elizabeth Kirby has been named the College of Education and Human Services’ new associate dean.

Kirby is currently the associate professor and chairperson of educational leadership and will begin her leadership duties Thursday with an annual salary of $112,000.

“I am honored to accept this new role in the College of Education and Human Services,” she said Tuesday afternoon in a university news release. “I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with the dynamic faculty, staff and students within each department and throughout the college.”

As the EHS associate dean, Kirby will help lead five academic departments, 13 educational centers and 185 faculty and staff. Her other duties will include providing support for the curriculum, budget and the developments of grants.

Kirby, who earned her masters degree in Arts and Reading at Drake University,  has 20 years of experience of curriculum development where she has designed online courses, rubrics and program reviews and evaluations.

“I think you will find that I will be a staunch advocate for all the programs and would like to use my energies, talents and time to help all of the departments advance,” Kirby told Central Michigan Life following an open forum discussing the position on Oct. 11.

Kirby stressed the importance of the department adding more classes online during the forum.

“We’ve talked about this, we’ve looked at this and we’ve felt a serious intention to creating the biggest capacity we could to deliver education anytime, anywhere and also being able to be portable and flexible,” she said.

With the losses in teaches in students in Michigan, Kirby said the department would have to change.

“We’ve lost 1,100 teachers in Michigan the past few years and we’ve lost 50,000 students. That all plays its way upward in terms of who is going to come to CMU,” Kirby said in early October. “The competition is immense. In essence, we want to be competitive and we want to attract audiences inside Michigan and outside.”

The main idea for Kirby is making a difference in the EHS department.

“I really believe in serving and using my strengths as a leader in any way I can to strengthen committee membership or whatever opportunities there may be,” she said during her forum.

Kirby was not able to be reached for comment at this time.