Balanced Man Scholarship Banquet

Jennifer Mueller

Dean of the College of Education

DePaul University

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Jennifer Mueller was appointed dean of the College of Education in August 2023, coming with thirty-five years of service as an education professional.  Previously she served as the Dean of the College of Education and Learning Design at St. Cloud State University (SCSU) since 2017, and associate professor and program chair of early childhood education at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. In her new position, Mueller will oversee one of the largest preparers of teachers, leaders, and counselors in the Chicago area.

DePaul’s College of Education offers degree programs in early childhood education; elementary and secondary education; art education; physical education; special education; world language education; bilingual/bicultural education; curriculum studies; value creating education; educational leadership, human services and counseling; and language, literacy and specialized instruction.  The College is also home to the Stockyard Institute and the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education.

A professor of teacher education and early childhood education, Mueller is the co-author or editor of three books and several articles and chapters.  She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally.  She has been the principal or co-investigator on fifteen grants including two federal Department of Education grants (Office of Indian Education and Office of English Language Acquisition professional development grants). Her research interests include identity development of teacher candidates particularly related to equity and social justice approaches, teacher preparation design, and early childhood curriculum.  During her time in Minnesota Mueller co-facilitated the Minnesota State Education Dean Alliance, served on the governor’s appointed Advisory Council for Early Care and Education, and served as the Executive Director of the Lindgren Early Learning Center on the SCSU campus.  She was very active with community collaborations and founded the Future Teacher Academy in partnership with the local school district.

Mueller began her career as a classroom teacher in Madison, WI.  She earned her doctoral degree in Educational Studies/Teacher Education from the University of Michigan in 2004.​

Lucia Dettori

Interim Dean of the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

DePaul University

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Dr. Lucia Dettori became Interim Dean of the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) in July 2022. An Associate Professor in CDM’s College of Computing, she joined DePaul in 2000 and has served as an Associate Dean at CDM since 2007. Before joining CDM, Dettori held visiting positions at Brown University and Southern Methodist University. Born and raised in Italy, Dettori earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in applied mathematics from the University of Parma. She has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Paris XI in France. Her research interests span from computational fluid dynamics to medical image processing and computer science education. She has published extensively in those areas and is the recipient of multimillion-dollar in grants from federal agencies and private companies, including the National Science Foundation, CME Foundation, IBM and Google. A recognized national leader in computer science education, Dettori has made it a priority throughout her career to make computing accessible to all. She is a co-founder of the Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science, also known as CAFÉCS. This collaboration between DePaul, University of Illinois, Loyola University, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Learning Partnership aims to give all Chicago students access to a high-quality computer science education. True to her passion, Dettori helped spread equity-focused, inquiry-based introductory computer science curriculum throughout the Chicago Public Schools district. In 2018, Dettori took a sabbatical from teaching at DePaul to serve as the director of the Office of Computer Science at Chicago Public Schools. In the first 10 years of the project more than 90,000 CPS high school students have taken the introductory computer science course, and more than 200 CPS teachers also have received training. As a result of CAFÉCS' efforts, computer science is now a high school graduation requirement for all CPS students.