Erica Lembke—alumni of the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education PhD program and now professor of special education at the University of Missouri (MU)—was named Interim Dean of the College of Education and MU on July 7, 2020.

Dean Lembke joined MU as special education faculty in 2003 and since has held several leadership roles. For the past five years, she served as chair of the Department of Special Education. Dean Lembke has also led MU’s College of Education’s policy committee and is a steering committee member of the Leadership Development Program at MU. Adding to her credentials, she graduated from the Harvard Management Development Program in 2019.

Dean Lembke’s research interests include data-based decision making for teachers through designing and implementing Curriculum-Based Measures in elementary and secondary grades. She has served as a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on nearly $10 million in federally funded projects.

Dean Lembke is a frequent research collaborator with faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota and co-Principal Investigator on the Early Writing Project with Professor and Chair Kristen McMaster. She serves as a senior advisor for the National Center on Intensive Intervention, is past-president of the national board of the Division for Learning Disabilities, and is editor of the journal Assessment for Effective Intervention.

Congratulations, Dean Lembke! We’re so proud to call you an Ed Psych alum!