Joy Mosher Named Interim Director of Graduate Studies at SUNY Cortland

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Joy Mosher

CORTLAND, NY (07/29/2008)(readMedia)-- Joy Mosher of Cortland, N.Y., the interim chair of the Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department, has been appointed interim director of graduate studies at the College. She began her duties on July 1.

Mosher, who was honored with a 2007 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, replaces Yvonne Murnane, who has taken a position as dean of the Graduate School Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.

SUNY Cortland currently has 1,016 students pursuing master's degrees in 17 areas, including English, history, childhood education, adolescence education, health education, physical education, literacy education, recreation and kinesiology.

Until a permanent director is selected, Mosher will provide leadership in graduate affairs at the College, serving as a spokesperson for the graduate community. She will participate in the development, review, approval and implementation of new and revised graduate programming; encourage curriculum and faculty development; ensure the incorporation of State Education Department regulations into the College's education programs; and promote community outreach.

Mosher, who joined the College's Education Department in 1987, has taught more than 125 courses to undergraduate and graduate students in what became the Childhood/Early Childhood Department. She has supervised hundreds of student teachers, coordinated elementary education practicum courses and mentored students through independent study projects.

She began her career at SUNY Cortland as an adjunct supervisor before being promoted to assistant professor in 1990 and associate professor in 2002.

An involved member of the campus community, Mosher chaired the Academic Grievance Tribunal from 2005-08 and has served as a mentor to new faculty. She served as a member of the SUNY Cortland Teacher Education Council Review Committee, the Affirmative Action Tripartite Committee, the SUNY Cortland Honorary Degree Executive Committee and the Native American Studies Committee. She chaired the Cortland Childcare Center Board of Directors in 2005-06.

Beyond the SUNY Cortland campus, she has served as a chair and member of a statewide accreditation organization, the Regents Accreditation of Teacher Education (RATE).

In 1994 she began co-editing, with colleague Ellen Jampole, the Yellow Brick Road, a bi-monthly children's literature newsletter that circulates nationally and internationally. Mosher became editor in 1996. She currently writes for each edition an author or illustrator feature accompanied by 70-75 thumbnail descriptions of thematically related books.

Since 2004, she has edited the English-Version Korean Journal of Human Development. She is the co-author with Louis Larson, assistant director of career services, of Becoming a Teacher in New York State (2003). She and Larson are contributing editors of Becoming a Teacher in Florida (2005). She has written articles published in scholarly journals and presented papers at conferences across the country.

Her research has focused in recent years on examining pre-service teachers' beliefs about classroom discipline and citizenship and identifying effective instructional strategies to help teachers approach classroom discipline as a curriculum of democratic citizenship.

She was honored with the 2007 Philip Martin Educator of Excellence Award during the Central New York Education Consortium 15th annual Professional Partnerships Conference.

In the summer of 1976, Mosher was selected as a fellow in the Institute in Critical and Creative Thinking in the Classroom, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the University of Massachusetts School of Education, Amherst and Boston.

Mosher is a member of the Association for Childhood Education International, Association of Teacher Educators, International Peace Research Association and the National Association of Migrant Educators.

Before joining SUNY Cortland, she taught at two elementary schools in Amherst, Mass., and was an adjunct lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

A native of Peoria, Ill., Mosher earned her bachelor's degree in English literature at the University of California at Los Angeles. She earned her master's degree in teaching and her doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

She resides in Cortland and is married to Stephen Mosher, a professor in Ithaca College's Sport Management and Media Program. They have four children, David Current, John Current, Chasity Mosher and Edmund Mosher.

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