About the Dean: Joan DeGuire North
Joan DeGuire North has served as Dean of the College of Professional Studies at the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point since 1985.
With a bachelor's and master's in English and a Ph.D. in educational administration, Dr. North has taught English, education and management. Her administrative positions have focused on academic administration and faculty development. She was the founding Executive Director of the national organization for campus professionals in faculty development in 1974. She has worked at the University of Alabama and two private colleges in Iowa and Pennsylvania. She served a four- year stint in Washington, D.C. as a project director and resource consultant in faculty and administrative development under a federal grant to 50 private colleges. In the sixties, she directed the first Head Start Program in Alabama, and in the mid-seventies, she also served as Senior Consultant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).
She has presented papers and written on a variety of topics, including: faculty development and evaluation, post-tenure review, faculty vitality and stress, women in administration, administrative responsibility for supporting a teaching culture, evaluating the complexities of teaching (administrative perspectives), using meetings to create cohesion, faculty evaluation, systemic change, group dynamics and management styles, women finding their own working style and a case study on technology in the classroom. For more complete information about her scholarship, see her vita.
As one of the four college deans at UWSP, North has been examining her own and her College's commitments to teaching and maintaining a positive work environment.
She is an artist-in-infancy (jewelry, painting, gardening), an addicted tennis player and an avid golfer who does not keep score. She is married to Storm North, an independent Mac computer consultant.