Richard I. Arends is Professor of Educational Leadership and Dean Emeritus at Connecticut State University where he served as Dean of the School of Education and Interim Provost of Academic Affair from 1991-2004. Before going to Connecticut he was on the faculty and chair of the department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland, College Park. Richard Arends received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon where he was on the faculty from 1975 to 1983. A former elementary, middle school, and high school teacher, his special interests are teaching, teacher education, organization development and school improvement. He has worked widely with schools and universities throughout North America, in Jamaica, and in the Pacific Rim, including Australia, Samoa, Palau, and Saipan. Professor Arends has authored or contributed to over a dozen books on education including the Second Handbook or Organization Development in Schools, Systems Change Strategies in Education, Exploring Teaching, and Learning to Teach. The latter is now in its 8th edition and has been translated into several foreign languages. The recipient of numerous awards, he was selected in 1989 as the outstanding teacher educator in the state of Maryland and in 1990 received the Judith Ruskin Award for outstanding research in education given by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). From 1995-97 Professor Arends held the William Allen (Boeing) Endowed Chair Boeing in the School of Education at Seattle University. Currently, he is retired in Portland, Oregon where he pursues favorite projects and continues to write.
