Janeil Rey to return to College of Education as interim dean

Dr. Janeil C. Rey, whose tenure at SUNY Fredonia began more than 30 years ago in the Educational Development Program (EDP), has been appointed interim dean of the university’s College of Education, effective Aug. 16.

For the past five years, Dr. Rey has been the director of workforce development at Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES, where she directs career and technical education, P-TECH and adult education programs.

“Dr. Rey’s combination of leadership skills and experience, content expertise, teaching experience and her intimate knowledge of local and regional schools and their administrators make her uniquely qualified to provide interim leadership for the College of Education,” said Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kevin Kearns, who announced the appointment after close consultation with President Stephen H. Kolison Jr.

Rey succeeds Dr. Anna Thibodeau, an associate professor and department chair currently serving as the interim dean of the College of Education, who will retire at the end of August after a long and distinguished career at Fredonia.

Dr. Thibodeau has been instrumental in shaping the direction of the college over the years, Dr. Kearns indicated, and has provided steady leadership during arguably Fredonia’s most challenging academic year.

“At this critical time of enrollment challenges and change it is clear that we need to continue Anna’s legacy of leadership in the College of Education. Along with leadership changes, the college is challenged by a change in accrediting bodies, new curricular initiatives – including the online Education Leadership program – and a pressing need to nurture relationships with our school partners,” Kearns said.

“I am enormously grateful to Dr. Thibodeau for her long history of contributions to Fredonia, especially for her stellar work as interim dean during this past year,” Kearns said.

A search for a permanent dean will be conducted by Dr. David Starrett, who joined Fredonia as executive vice president and provost in mid-August.

In a career in education that spans more than 35 years, Rey has been a teacher, professor and administrator.

For over 18 years, Rey held positions as adjunct professor, visiting professor, assistant professor and co-coordinator of Fredonia’s EDP program and also taught the master’s proposal and thesis writing courses and leadership courses for aspiring school principals and superintendents. Rey also led the Belize Service Learning Project, a short-term study abroad program that places Fredonia students as volunteer teachers in Belize schools during the J-Term.

Positions Rey has held elsewhere include assistant superintendent for instruction at Fredonia Central Schools and special projects manager, a part-time position, at Erie 2 BOCES following the birth of her first child. She also served as superintendent and K-12 principal at Ripley Central School. Rey joined Fredonia’s EDP program as an academic counselor in 1989.

Prior to relocating to Western New York, Rey was an academic counselor for the Watermark Program of Landmark School and also taught reading and English to dyslexic students.

Rey holds permanent New York State Certification as a School Administrator/Supervisor and as a School District Administrator. She has an undergraduate degree in American Studies with New York State certification to teach Social Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and a master’s degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her doctoral dissertation on rural school superintendents was through the University at Buffalo.