Job description
Saint Mary’s College of California invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the Kalmanovitz School of Education (KSOE).
The next Dean of KSOE will join Saint Mary’s at a transformative time, with new institutional leadership and a renewed commitment to mission-driven, Lasallian-centered education. In July 2024, the College welcomed President Roger Thompson, Ed.D. and in July 2025 appointed Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Carol Ann Gittens, Ph.D.
Renowned for the beauty of its campus, Saint Mary’s College is located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area in Moraga, California, a suburban community about 10 miles east of Berkeley and 20 miles east of San Francisco. From its earliest days, Saint Mary’s has been committed to making exemplary education accessible to all. For 160 years, Saint Mary’s has emphasized service, pursued justice-social, economic, and racial-and developed respectful partnerships with underserved communities. Saint Mary’s has engaged tens of thousands of students in an intellectually rigorous, transformative, and whole-person experience. Each generation of faculty and staff has encouraged a culture of collective inquiry and innovative thinking that has an impact beyond its East Bay classrooms and into the wider world. The Lasallian Catholic heritage supports a truly transformative education and is part of the essential nature of Saint Mary’s.
Today, approximately 1,900 undergraduate, 600 graduate students, and 54,620 living alumni call themselves Gaels. Saint Mary’s has proudly been classified as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) since 2015, with more than 30% of students identifying as Latinx. In its deep commitment to the Lasallian tradition of inclusive communities, Saint Mary’s is creating a community that goes beyond the tolerance of differences to one guided by the call to love, which is expressed in social justice, cultural competence, and engaged citizenship.
The School enrolls nearly 300 students in degree-granting programs, with 200 in credential and certificate programs, and includes 77 faculty and 12 staff. KSOE’s four academic departments, Counseling, Teacher Education, Leadership, and Forensic Psychology, offer a comprehensive range of programs that bridge theory and practice. Each department is designed to prepare professionals for meaningful, impactful work, whether in classrooms, clinical settings, or leadership roles.
The next Dean of the KSOE will step into Saint Mary’s at a moment of both stability and possibility. With a strong reputation for preparing teachers, counselors, and leaders who serve California’s diverse communities, KSOE is ready to build on its mission-driven foundation and embrace bold new opportunities. The Dean will be charged with uniting a deeply committed faculty and staff, collaboratively identifying opportunities for enrollment growth, and extending its reach and reputation at the local, state, and national levels. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of KSOE, strengthen its academic reputation, and deepen its impact on students, communities, and the broader educational landscape.
Saint Mary’s seeks a dean who will elevate the KOSE through strategic vision, academic excellence, collaborative leadership, and attentiveness to its Lasallian mission. This individual will be deeply relational, transparent, and committed to shared governance, fostering a culture of trust and collaboration across the School and broader campus. Candidates must provide evidence of a strong record of academic administrative experience with outstanding leadership and oversight of faculty, accreditation, curriculum, budget, and planning. Candidates must possess the academic credentials and experience that qualify them for appointment as a full professor with tenure at the College and enable them to be eminent leaders of the School’s faculty.
Saint Mary’s reasonably expects to pay in the range of $250,000-$275,000.
How to apply
All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the profile.
For fullest consideration, candidate materials should be received by October 31, 2025.
Application materials should be submitted using WittKieffer’s candidate portal.
Nominations and inquiries can be directed to Alejandra Gillette-Teran and Bree Liddell at:
In compliance with applicable law and its own policy, Saint Mary’s College of California is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse student and employee population and does not discriminate in its admission of students, hiring of employees, or in the provision of its employment benefits to its employees and its educational programs, activities, benefits and services to its students, including but not limited to scholarship and loan programs, on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability.
