Three colleagues from the School of Education celebrated their retirement this month with a reception in their honor. Sally Gaskill, Russ Skiba and Karen Hallet-Rupp were recognized for the outstanding services they provided to students, faculty, staff and the community during their tenure at Indiana University. We wish them all the best as they journey into retirement and thank them for their services to the school!
Russ Skiba
Russ started at the School of Education in 1987 in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. He is currently a professor in CEP and Director of the Equity Project at Indiana University, a consortium of federal, state, and foundation-funded grants providing evidence to practitioners and policymakers in the areas of school violence, zero tolerance, and equity in education. His teaching focuses on overcoming educational inequity in schools, and in practical application of evidence-based social and behavioral interventions. His research focuses on the overuse of exclusionary discipline, and in particular factors that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in exclusionary school discipline. Skiba has testified before the United States Civil Rights Commission, spoken before both Houses of Congress on issues of school discipline and school violence, and in 2008, acted as a special consultant to OSEP on issues of disproportionality and equity in special education.
Sally Gaskill
Sally managed the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), the annual survey of arts graduates at the Indiana University School of Education from 2008 until this year, serving as director since 2012. SNAAP investigates the educational experiences and career paths of arts graduates nationally. Sally’s career in arts administration and arts education spans more than three decades. She served as executive director of the arts councils of Rochester, NY and Bloomington, IN and managed grant-making programs for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. She led the Greater Boston Youth Symphony and Indiana Coalition for the Arts. As a consultant, she developed cultural plans for a number of communities and evaluated over 100 nonprofit arts organizations as a site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts. She chairs the City of Bloomington Arts Commission, serves as vice president of Cardinal Stage Company, and is a board member of Arts Schools Network and the Bloomington Early Music Festival.
Karen Hallett-Rupp
Karen joined the School of Education in 1993 as Director of Instructional Consulting. In this role, Karen has worked with faculty and staff to provide instructional consulting, design and curriculum development guidance. She has been instrumental in helping to create a climate where our faculty are supported and encouraged to integrate distance education, online learning opportunities and web-based course instruction into their proposals, coursework and programs. Karen has been recognized with several awards, including the TERA Distance Teaching Program Award, an IU Professional Council Staff Development Award and a School of Education Faculty Development Award. She has also served as an instructor and adjunct faculty member for numerous classes over the years, sharing her expertise and passion with many, many students, and has been involved in several international projects to improve instructional consulting at universities around the world.