LaFetra College of Education Dean Kimberly White-Smith Elected to WestEd Board

Kimberly White-Smith, dean of the University of La Verne’s LaFetra College of Education, has been elected to serve on the board of directors for WestEd, a San Francisco-based education research and development agency.

White-Smith joins a roster of public and private education leaders, including superintendents, state board of education members, and college presidents from across the nation.

“It is an honor to be elected to serve on the board of WestEd, representing private Southern California colleges and universities,” White-Smith said. “The agency’s mission to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults is perfectly aligned with the work of the LaFetra College of Education at the University of La Verne and I look forward to contributing my efforts and expertise to the cause.”

WestEd provides services to improve learning for children and adults. Its initiatives include the Reading Apprenticeship program, used in community colleges across the country to improve literacy skills, and the Completion by Design program, which has boosted college graduation rates.

The organization provides professional development for educators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), special education, and bilingual education, among other areas.

It collaborates with state agencies, school districts, foundations, and others while conducting case studies related to teaching, learning, and human development. WestEd researchers have studied issues such as teacher demographics and evaluation, high school graduation rates among English learners, and Common Core.

WestEd serves foundations, businesses, counties, and states in the U.S. and abroad. Its clients include U.S. Department of Education, the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom, the California Department of Education, Google, Inc., and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

White-Smith has written numerous scholarly articles on teaching and learning, and among other professional organizations, she is a member of the American Educational Research Association and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She joined the University of La Verne as dean in 2016.

The LaFetra College of Education prepares students for careers in child development, teaching, special education, counseling, higher education, health care family advocacy, and school psychology. The college has one of the largest and most successful programs in the country for training executive leaders at the doctoral level in organizational leadership.