Brother John Paige, dean of the School of Education at St. Edward's University in Austin, was elected to the board of directors of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). His election was announced at SEDL headquarters in Austin following the regular fall meeting of the board November 7–9, 2001.

Brother Paige held faculty positions in science, math, and theology and served as chief executive officer at high schools in Connecticut and Maryland from the 1970s through the early 1990s. In the 1980s, he directed a Holy Cross novitiate program in Albany, New York, and earned a master's degree in applied theology from Berkeley. In 1997, Brother Paige traveled to Uganda, East Africa, as a visiting professor of social sciences-a time he ranks as one of his most rewarding experiences in education.

"Educational opportunities are very limited in the developing world, so students in Africa are highly motivated and committed to learning-a teacher's delight," Brother Paige said.

He added that teaching anthropology in Uganda was especially exciting. "The students needed only to learn the format for academic discussion and presentation in the discipline, and they were able to document meaningfully and eloquently their lived experiences of ‘patterned behaviors' from their own tribal and ethnic cultures."

After earning a doctorate in education policy and leadership from the University
of Maryland in 1998, Brother Paige joined the St. Edward's faculty as assistant professor of education and director and supervisor of secondary education teacher preparation in 1999. In March 2001, he was appointed dean.

Brother Paige said the impact his teachers made on his life definitely led him toward a career in education. So did a war. "I admired my high school teachers for a start. And as a physics major graduating from Notre Dame in 1968, I did not want to make bombs for the Vietnam War," Brother Paige said. "So teaching beckoned as a more meaningful first career choice, and I found out that I loved it."

As a member of SEDL's board, Brother Paige will contribute to the organization's efforts to help improve low-performing schools. Pursuing board-established goals, SEDL operates research, development, and dissemination programs focused on improving school performance; involving family and community in student learning; strengthening reading, mathematics, and science education; conducting policy research; putting disability research into practice; and teaching and learning with technology.

SEDL's funds largely come from awards of competitive grants and contracts to continue operations of the regional educational laboratory, the mathematics and science consortium, and the regional technology consortium serving Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The company also won funding to continue operations of the Southeast Comprehensive Assistance Center serving Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and the National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research, based in Austin.

Brother Paige will serve with three other Texans on the 20-member SEDL board: Dr. Arturo Almendarez, deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency in Austin; Imelda Guerra, principal of East Elementary School in Calallen; and Dr. Rosa Maria Vida, newly elected SEDL board secretary and dean of the College of Education at Texas A&M International University in Laredo.