SHREVEPORT – When Dr. Allen Grant set foot onto the LSUS campus as the new dean of the College of Education and Human Development, one wouldn’t expect the Maryland native who’s coming from a New York university to have much knowledge of Louisiana.
But Grant knows the state quite well.
He’s traveled to high schools in all 64 Louisiana parishes as the director of the Louisiana Virtual School in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which placed him on the front lines of online education.
That connection drew Grant back to the Pelican State where he assumed the dean position July 1 in the college, which oversees programs in education, psychology, sociology, public health, occupational physiology, and the doctoral program in leadership studies among other degrees.
“I learned how to teach here and learned how to be an administrator here – I’ve always had an eye to come back to the state,” said Grant, who earned his doctorate from LSU Baton Rouge in educational leadership and research in 2006. “When I worked for the Department of Education and ran the Louisiana Virtual School, I’ve been on every back road and every major road visiting high schools around the state.
“I spent a lot of time in Shreveport-Bossier at high schools like Captain Shreve, Evangel and Airline, and I’ve always liked this area of the state.”
Something else Grant has experience with – being a dean.
He spent the past six years as dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies at SUNY Potsdam in upstate New York.
“Dr. Grant is an experienced and seasoned dean and knows what it takes to make a complex college like the College of Education and Human Development function smoothly,” said LSUS Provost Dr. Helen Taylor. “He’s experienced with personnel, and he brings substantial experience in educational leadership, strategic planning, innovative programming, and accreditation.
“We always need people who are willing to have serious conversations about what the college needs to do to move forward.”
Grant exercised that particular muscle upon his arrival to SUNY Potsdam, leading the historic college (founded in 1812) to include robust online education offerings.
He leaned on his experience at Drexel University as the inaugural Online Learning Council Fellow among his other administrative and teaching responsibilities, which included program directorships over master’s and doctoral education programs and chair of the Department of Policy, Organization and Leadership.
He said that LSUS’s online delivery platform is already working well, which includes a sizable Master of Education program online that educates professionals across the country.
“It’s attractive coming here because the online enterprise is already in place, although we’ll look to make little tweaks here and there,” Grant said. “This college is unique in terms of it being outward facing for the community and for workforce development as we train teachers and healthcare professionals.
“A big part of what I do is community school strategies, which is wraparound services for kids in schools, typically low-performing schools. We want to give people the tools to educate the whole child, and that is what we’re injecting into everything we do from mental health counseling to our education and health and wellness programs to workforce development for parents. Everything is about how we can get kids into schools and raise everyone up.”
Community partnerships and outreach will be one of Grant’s major initiatives at LSUS.
“Having been on the ground and meeting people across campus, there seems to be a high level of interest from faculty and staff in these areas,” Grant said. “If you look at these programs that we have across the board, all of them help kids and adults who are in need of a chance to do something incredible.
“It’s a big reason why I came here, and there’s great opportunity for that.”
Creating advisory and alumni boards within each program is something Grant’s done in his past stops, and he’ll explore that concept at LSUS.
Grant is a veteran fundraiser and manager of capital projects at SUNY Potsdam, which didn’t have much in the way of state funds.
“We want to bridge the theory and practice environments and raise up our programs that way,” Grant said. “We want to make sure that what we’re doing and the outcomes of our students are meeting the needs of the workforce and our community.
“The best way to do that is to ask them and connect with them.”
Before earning his doctorate at LSU Baton Rouge, Grant completed a bachelor’s in history from The College of William and Mary and a master’s in curriculum and instruction from George Mason.
