The New Mexico State University College of Education has selected AzadehOsanloo to serve as the Stan Fulton Chair for the Improvement of Border and Rural Schools. The Stan Fulton Chair was established to enhance communication among NMSU faculty, staff and students and pre-kindergarten through 12th grade constituents to improve border and rural schools.
In this capacity, the chair works to expand, improve and coordinate existing outreach programs and research activities. The chair was established in 2005 and is funded in part by an endowed gift from Stan Fulton, a benefactor to the university and owner of Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino.
"Dr. Osanloo is an outstanding educator who continues to work tirelessly for students and our educational community. Her continuous effort to successfully coordinate outreach initiatives and educational research in our region make her the ideal individual to appoint as the Stan Fulton Chair in the College of Education," said NMSU College of Education Dean Michael Morehead.
Osanloo said she wants her work during the three-year appointment as the Fulton Chair to be driven by the college and community as much as possible. She plans to continue working with the Alliance for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning as her predecessors have done and also plans to work closely with the Border Center for Educational Studies.
Osanloo said she expects to examine the impacts of poverty on New Mexico school children either through the lens of technology or health. She will meet with area school districts to determine the best path. Ideally, she would like to host a conference at the end of her appointment that showcases the work that has been done.
"I am very excited and honored to be selected as the Fulton Chair. Social justice has been imbedded in me since I was a kid. It's part of who I am," she said.
Before joining the faculty of the Department of Educational Management and Development at NMSU, Osanloo received her doctorate from Arizona State University. Her research addressed civic education in a post 9/11 climate focusing on the concepts of democracy, cosmopolitanism, leadership and citizenship from theory to practice. She has merged her work in civics with her new research agenda on collaborative systemic diversity-based interventions for bullying.
She has taught in the New York City public schools working primarily with junior high school students in the South Bronx and jointly was a program director at the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, a not-for-profit that specialized in closing the gap between educational attainment and disenfranchised students.