Martinez Named Goizueta Chair

Alejandro Jose Gallard Martinez has been named Georgia Southern’s new Goizueta Chair in Educational Administration.

The Goizueta Chair’s primary duties are in the area of research, said College of Education Dean Tom Koballa. Martinez will assume a leadership role in developing collaborative initiatives to conduct research and develop funded projects that support improvement in educational settings – both K-12 and higher education, with direct ties to Hispanic and Latino learners.

“Dr. Gallard is most interested in collaborative projects that address the need for increasing numbers of Hispanic and Latino students entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and wishes to develop empirically-based models to explain how contextual factors that promote participation in STEM fields in Latin American counties can be leveraged to support the participation of Hispanic and Latino students in the U.S. Teaching opportunities, primarily at the graduate level, will evolve from Dr. Gallard’s involvement in collaborative initiatives.”

As the Goizueta Chair, Gallard will also support efforts to recruit Hispanic and Latino students to Georgia Southern and work with staff in the University’s student services office to develop understandings about effective strategies for recruiting and retaining Hispanic and Latino students.

The Goizueta Endowed Chair in Educational Administration was established in 2001 by a grant from the Goizueta Foundation.

Gallard comes to Georgia Southern from the Science Education program at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Science Education and has taught science at the primary, secondary and university levels. He also consults, conducts evaluations, and teaches at the national level in many Spanish-speaking countries.

—David Thompson