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We are pleased to announce that Dr. Ester de Jong has accepted the associate dean for research and academic affairs position in the School of Education & Human Development (SEHD.) She served as an interim associate dean during the Spring 2025 semester and will begin her new role on July 1, 2025. In this position, she will oversee academic programs and support tenure track faculty advancement with an emphasis on research.

"We were fortunate to have had two outstanding candidates for this position: Bud Talbot and Ester de Jong,” said Dr. Marvin Lynn, Dean of the School of Education & Human Development. Dr. de Jong was chosen for this role because she has an outstanding track record in leadership, scholarship, and teaching. Her work reflects a strong commitment to inclusive excellence at multiple levels. She also has an outstanding record of faculty mentoring and success. We are excited about having her join us in this important role this summer."

De Jong has shown immense success in areas central to her new role. She has been the program leader for the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education program and has served in multiple leadership roles in professional organizations, including serving on the Board and as president of TESOL International Association - the largest professional organization for English language teaching professionals in the world. Before joining SEHD in 2022 as a full professor, she was a K-12 administrator, moved through the academic ranks from assistant to full professor, and served for eight years as the director of the School of Teaching and Learning at the College of Education at the University of Florida. In her role at the University of Florida, she supervised more than 40 full-time faculty and staff. Her scholarly work has been published in key journals such as Bilingual Research Journal, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language Policy, TESOL Quarterly, Peabody Journal of Education, Urban Review, and Theory into Practice. She is one of the editors of the 2024 The Handbook of Dual Language Bilingual Education (Routledge) and currently serves as co-editor of the Bilingual Research Journal. In addition, she has been extraordinarily successful in securing multimillion dollar grants and participating in CU Denver’s Faculty Assembly as the representative for SEHD.

We would like to thank members of the search committee for their efforts in this search: Margarita Bianco (chair); Franci Crepeau-Hobson; Rashmi Gangamma; Rod Blunck; Carol Wahby; and Kelley Patient. The search process involved committee interviews with two internal candidates, Dean interviews, school-wide candidate presentations with questions and answers, and an anonymous survey to collect and analyze feedback.

Questions? Please reach out to Dean Marvin Lynn at marvin.lynn@ucdenver.edu.