Dr. Meredith Critchfield

Teachers have a lot on their plate. They’re challenged not just by teaching Shakespeare and algebra, but by students’ behavioral problems, their social-emotional concerns and more. So even before the pandemic, schools could not find enough educators to fill their classrooms. Same for hospitals, which cannot find enough nurses to meet the need as the industry anticipates the retirement of a “silver tsunami” of nurses and serves an aging population. Those nursing and teaching shortfalls have been magnified over the past two years by the global pandemic. But instead of throwing up its hands in defeat, GCU got to work to try and solve those problems, from arranging emergency certifications for students to be substitute teachers, to helping working professionals earn an alternative route to teaching, to building the University’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program to move students into the nursing pipeline faster. Reprinted from the April issue of GCU Magazine.

Dr. Meredith Critchfield is the new College of Education dean, succeeding Dr. Kimberly LaPrade, who is retiring in August. Critchfield said she will focus on strategies to stay on the cutting edge of changes in education after the pandemic and explore innovative ways to tell the story of COE and the teaching profession, among other initiatives. The former college rower, who joined GCU’s faculty in 2013, will bring to COE the teamwork she learned on the water. “To this day I really try to embrace that in my leadership style,” she said. “How can we all be working in a cohesive unit so no one is flipping the boat and we are all moving forward?”

What makes a great teacher? It starts with a great education, and Aimee Frank, Victoria Monk and Jessica Gajewski all spoke highly of their experience at Grand Canyon University. They were three of the College of Education graduates Friday in winter commencement.