Brad Portin, associate professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, has been named the new director of the Education Program at UW Bothell. He will succeed Linda Watts in that position as of July 1.

Portin is on the faculty of the UW College of Education at the Seattle campus. He is also a former public school principal whose research and publications over the last decade have centered in the areas of school leadership and school improvement. His scholarship focuses on the current roles of school principals and how they can be prepared effectively for school leadership, and Portin also has strong interests in international policy trends in educational reform.

In addition to his many publications, Portin was project leader and principal author for the Wallace-funded study, "Making Sense of Leading Schools: A Study of the Principalship" (2003), with Paul Hill and the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Also in 2003, he edited a book with Michael Knapp, Joe Murphy, and Lynn Beck titled Self-Reflective Renewal in Schools.

Currently, Portin is a national investigator for a seven-nation research project based at Cambridge University exploring the links between leadership and student learning in middle schools. He maintains extensive links with researchers in the United Kingdom in their efforts to expand preparation, support, and research for school leaders through the National College for School Leadership.