In 2006-07, the Department of Educational Leadership at Florida Atlantic University celebrates forty years of service to the South Florida region.

The first 58 Masters degree in Administration and Supervision graduates occurred in 1965-66 before a specific department had been formed. At that stage the College of Education offered graduate programs in conjunction with the Florida Universities Continuing Education program.

In 1966 John Kirby became the first chair of the Department of Administration and Supervision and since that time nearly 4000 people have graduated from the department with a Masters, Specialist or Doctoral degree.

Two different tracks for Educational Leadership were formed, one for those who worked in or for schools, the K-12 School Leadership track and one for those that didn’t, the Adult and Community Education track, which included studies for those who worked in higher education.

In 1972-73 Leroy Arthur Church became the first graduate of the department’s doctoral program, graduating with an EdD after successfully defending a dissertation entitled ‘A Study of Personal-Social Development Programs for Disadvantaged Students in the Community-Junior College’.

In 1986, the department changed its name to the Department of Educational Leadership and Daniel Weppner was the first chair of the newly named department. In all there have been thirteen chairs in the department.

In 2001, the department split the Adult and Community Education track into two tracks, one which continued with the name Adult and Community Education, and a second, which was called Higher Education Administration.

Commencing in fall 2005, the department changed the name of its doctoral program from an EdD to a PhD in Educational Leadership.

Up until spring of 2006, there have been 2486 masters’ graduates, 655 Specialists’ graduates and 367 EdD and 12 PhD graduates at the doctoral level. In fact nearly one third of all doctoral graduates at FAU have come from this department.

The department is proud that over 300 of its graduates have taken out two degrees with the department and that over 50 have taken out all three degrees that the department offers.

As we reflect on our first forty years of service, we can say we are looking forward to the students we will support and the challenges that we will face in the future.