We are pleased to announce that Cassie Scharber has been named Assistant Dean for Professional and Online Education. In this role, she will lead distributed education efforts and initiatives within the college specific to professional and online learning. She will provide support and guidance to the Office of Teacher Education and other units overseeing professional programs in the college.

Scharber has a passion for online teaching/learning as well as technology integration, particularly as to how they can be used to challenge current educational inequalities in schools.

She is presently an associate professor of learning technologies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is also the director of the L+T Collaborative, a research and professional development center. The collaborative engages in research-practice partnerships with school districts, libraries, universities, and other educational institutions in the areas of technology integration, computer science education, online learning, and more.

Scharber, a former K12 teacher, holds a PhD in education, learning technologies, and literacy from the U of M. She has been with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction since 2009, winning a Rising Star Faculty Award in 2012. She is also involved with CSforAll-MN, a collective effort committed to advancing equitable computer science education policies and opportunities for every K12 student in Minnesota.

“I am so happy that Cassie has accepted the invitation to take on this new role, bringing her scholarship and expertise in online learning to the arena of professional education, which we hope to leverage for growth in the near future to create greater access to the best CEHD has to offer,” said Dean Michael C. Rodriguez.

“Professional education is a cornerstone of our college, and I am committed to supporting our programs and the people involved with them,” Scharber said. “I am grateful and excited for this opportunity.”