MEDIA RELEASE
Michael Spagna to Lead CSUN’s Eisner College of Education
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., April 6, 2008) — Michael Spagna, the first Eisner chair and executive director of CSUN’s Center for Teaching and Learning, has accepted the position of dean of Cal State Northridge’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education.
A professor of special education and the current faculty president of his college, Spagna will assume his new duties in August.
"Cal State Northridge is fortunate to have within its education college a powerhouse of talent and leadership," said Northridge President Jolene Koester. "Michael is one of the leading lights of America’s educational spectrum. His stewardship will enhance the influence of a great college already recognized as one of the best in the nation in the field of education."
CSUN Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Harry Hellenbrand praised Spagna as a leader well equipped to succeed the "visionary" Philip Rusche, who will step down as dean this summer and assume directorship of the college’s Doctoral Program in Education Leadership.
Spagna, 46, of Cheviot Hills, is keen to guide the college as it launches the new doctoral program. "For the first time," he said, "we’ll be able to establish and support a doctoral program that fulfills the university mission of ‘regionally focused, nationally recognized’ by preparing future educational leaders that the community so desperately needs.
"We are developing a doctoral culture, setting a standard for research and excellence not just within the college but also by working hand-in-hand with faculty partners across the university," said Spagna. "By fostering research-based best practices, and studying the impact of these practices on student learning, our faculty embrace what President Koester and Provost Hellenbrand have identified as the values of a learning-centered university."
The new appointee’s path to leadership of the college began in 1991, when he joined the CSUN faculty as an assistant professor in its Department of Special Education. Assignments as associate professor, teacher education coordinator, acting department chair and full professor soon followed.
During his early years at CSUN, Spagna began to lay the conceptual groundwork for the highly respected Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides national leadership in preparing educators to support the success of all types of learners through cutting-edge innovations in teacher training. In 2003, a gift from The Eisner Foundation—established by entertainment trailblazer Michael D. Eisner and his wife Jane—funded the center and endowed the Eisner Chair in Teaching and Learning.
Before coming to CSUN, Spagna taught students with special needs, served as a demonstration teacher at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and helped coordinate UC Berkeley’s Services to Students with Learning Disabilities Program. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders at Northwestern University, his master’s from UCLA, and his doctorate from UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University.
A recipient of CSUN’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999, the incoming dean said the education college "has some of the best, most energetic and productive faculty at CSUN, who have dedicated careers to making a difference in the lives of children, adolescents, adults and their families.
"We pride ourselves on designing programs that are responsive to community needs by preparing teachers, counselors, administrators, and other professionals to serve the greater San Fernando Valley area."
California State University, Northridge has 35,200 full- and part-time students and offers 64 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.