Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Ani Yazedjian has named Todd McLoda as interim dean of the College of Education at Illinois State University. He will begin this two-year appointment on July 1, replacing Dean Francis Godwyll, who is returning to faculty.
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“I am grateful to Dr. McLoda for his willingness to serve the College of Education and Illinois State in this capacity,” said Acting Provost Yazedjian. “I have every confidence he will be the kind of leader the college is looking for during this time of transition.”
The decision came after Yazedjian met with the College Council and leadership team of the College of Education and reviewed the feedback submitted by faculty and staff through the College Council.
“I am delighted to serve the outstanding faculty and staff in the College of Education,” said McLoda. “There is tremendous respect for the College statewide and nationally and I look forward to hearing from stakeholders regarding recommended priorities to advance the mission of the College.”
McLoda is currently Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST) where he also serves as a professor. He joined Illinois State in 2000 as a faculty member and director of the athletic training program in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation. From 2009 to 2016, he was an associate dean/senior associate dean of CAST. In January 2017, he began his appointment as Dean of the college. In Fall 2022, he announced he would be returning to faculty.
As dean, McLoda welcomed the addition of the undergraduate major in cybersecurity in the School of Information Technology, the graduate distance dietetic internship program in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the Master of Public Health degree in the Department of Health Sciences. He launched the CAST Persistence Fund to assist students experiencing temporary financial hardship. The targeted support helps students remain enrolled and on track to graduate. McLoda also developed CAST Connections, a college-level student success initiative aimed at enhancing support services for students and increasing the sense of belongingness among participating students. During his time as dean, the college endowment grew from $6.2 million to more than $19 million. CAST enrollment is at its highest in the history of the college and faculty research outcomes have increased to 3.3 annual outcomes per TT faculty member. McLoda has also served on several task forces and committees related to development of the College of Engineering and the curricula for the programs in mechanical, electrical, and general engineering.
McLoda primarily studies the etiology and care of injuries to the lower extremities, particularly the ankle. His scholarly work has appeared in such scholarly journals as Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the Journal of Athletic Training, the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, and the Athletic Training Education Journal. He has served on more than 35 graduate thesis and dissertation committees and serves on the editorial board of the Athletic Training Education Journal.
He earned a doctorate from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He participated in the Harvard Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2016 and Crisis Leadership in Higher Education from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2020.
