Stafford L. Hood recently took the post of associate dean at NIU’s graduate school, where he will try to strengthen minority representation.

“I will try to maintain the work that has been done up to this point, and try to increase the number of minority graduate students,” he said.

Among Hood’s duties are recruiting graduate students and fellowships, with an emphasis on minorities, and managing the graduate assistantship process.

ood was previously positioned as an assistant professor in the department of educational psychology, counseling and special education.

Hood replaces Joye L. Bowman, who was associate dean for one year. Bowman’s departure resulted from her acceptance of a position in the University of Massachusetts’ history department.

He was chosen out of six candidates for the assistant dean position. NIU Graduate School Dean Jerold Zar said, “Hood’s experience as an administrator and his work with graduate students and minorities is a good combination for this position.”

ood’s previous accomplishments include a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in counseling and guidance from the University of Wisconsin, and a doctorate in education, with an emphasis in education administration from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

The newly appointed associate dean has been a consultant on program evaluation and testing procedures (such as possibilties of bias in testing), and has taught graduate courses at NIU and U of I.

In addition, Hood worked as a social worker in Chicago, was a researcher at U of I’s Bureau of Educational Research and served as evaluation and assessment staffer for the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Hood came to NIU in 1988 as a teacher with specializations in measurement, evaluation and testing.