Dr. Don Schillinger, dean of Louisiana Tech University’s College of Education, has been elected to serve as president of the Louisiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (LACTE). “I am very honored and humbled to be entrusted with this leadership role by representatives of the higher education teaching programs throughout Louisiana and I will earnestly strive to function as a collaborative catalyst for raising the level of achievement, productivity and prestige of teacher education,” said Schillinger of his election as president of the LACTE. In addition to his leadership of LACTE, Schillinger serves as the Louisiana representative to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, which represents more than 800 postsecondary institutions across the nation. As President of LACTE, Schillinger represents other educational leaders from Louisiana institutes of higher education that offer teacher preparation programs. Prior to becoming dean of the College of Education at Louisiana Tech, Schillinger had served as an associate professor in the College since 2006.  He also served as associate dean of undergraduate studies and director of clinical and field experiences in the College of Education from 2009 to 2012, and director of assessment and accreditation (IT supervision) from 2012 until he assumed the COE interim deanship in 2014.  Schillinger took over the role of permanent dean on July 1, 2015. During his tenure at Louisiana Tech, Schillinger has been honored with the College of Education’s Outstanding Service Award (2009) and Outstanding Faculty Grants Award (2008) as well as the College’s Outstanding Grantsmanship Award in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (2008.) He is a member of the State of Louisiana ACT Council and the Advisory Board for L-STEM: The Louisiana STEM Initiative. Prior to joining the faculty at Louisiana Tech, Schillinger was a department head in McNeese State University’s Burton College of Education. He came to Louisiana from Mississippi where he served as co-director for assessment for the Center for Educational Research and Evaluation at the University of Mississippi, and director of the Teach Mississippi Institute. Schillinger also serves as a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Contemporary Research in Education and reviewer for National Programs for the National Science Teacher Association. Written by T. Scott Boatright – boat@latech.edu