“Thanks to the support of our benefactors, the Neag School is very pleased to bestow this honor to Dr. Green for his exceptional ongoing work. Dr. Green serves as a leading, highly sought-after expert and speaker, a prolific and pioneering researcher, and an innovative faculty scholar.” — Dr. Gladis Kersaint - Dean, Neag School of Education
Dr. Preston Green Receives Named Professorship
The University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education is pleased to announce that on August 14, 2019, Preston Green, JD, EdD, was formally appointed the John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education. Dr. Green joined the Neag School’s Department of Educational Leadership in 2013. He also holds a joint appointment in UConn’s School of Law.
“Thanks to the support of our benefactors, the Neag School is very pleased to bestow this honor to Dr. Green for his exceptional ongoing work,” says Dr. Gladis Kersaint, Dean, Neag School of Education. “Dr. Green serves as a leading, highly sought-after expert and speaker, a prolific and pioneering researcher, and an innovative faculty scholar.”
As a renowned expert in education law, Dr. Green was especially interested in offering a graduate certificate program to enable school administrators, educators, and policy makers to update and round out their understanding of the intricacies of school law. Toward this end, in 2015, Dr. Green developed UConn’s School Law Online Graduate Certificate, one of approximately 30 graduate online and low-residency hybrid programs offered by UConn. He continues to direct the program and teaches the 4-course 12-credit program together with his colleague Alison Lombardi, PhD.
Since the program’s implementation, a wide range of professionals, including educators, administrators, and policymakers, have expanded their knowledge and expertise in the legal dimension of K-12 education. Peter Diplock, Assistant Vice Provost for Excellence in Teaching and Learning says: “We are most fortunate to have someone with Dr. Green’s expertise and reputation leading this program. I join my colleagues in congratulating him on this recent named professorship. He’s been instrumental in the success of the School Law certificate program. One of our students, Kelly Melzer, called Dr. Green ‘an amazing force in the world of educational law.’ We couldn’t agree more.”
In addition to Dr. Green’s expertise on the areas in which education and law intersect, he has become one of the go-to experts in the nation on the oversight of charter schools. In 2017, he co-authored a publication, “Are Charter Schools the Second Coming of Enron? In this article, the authors discuss how some charter school officials have engaged in Enron-like related-party transactions. They also identify several measures that can be taken to strengthen the ability of charter school gatekeepers to protect against this danger.
A nationally recognized education law expert, Dr. Preston Green is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Law in the Department of Educational Leadership at UConn's Neag School of Education and the John and Carla Klein Endowed Professor of Urban Education. He holds a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law and an Ed.D. from the Teachers College at Columbia and has written four books and numerous articles and book chapters pertaining to educational law. In 2019, he was formally appointed the John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education.
Prior to joining UConn, he was the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair Professor of Educational Administration at Penn State, where he was also a professor of education and law and the program coordinator of Penn State's educational leadership program. Dr. Green was the creator of Penn State's joint degree program in law and education, and ran the Penn State Law and Education Institute, a professional development program for teachers, administrators, and attorneys. He was an associate professor of education at the University of Massachusetts, where he also served as the program coordinator of educational administration and Assistant Dean of Pre-Major Advising Services.