College of Health and Human Services makes personnel moves

Contact: Mark Schwerin

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The Western Michigan University College of Health and Human Services has made two administrative appointments, naming a veteran nursing professor as nursing school director and a longtime chair as associate dean.

Dr. Mary D. Lagerwey has been appointed director of the WMU Bronson School of Nursing, while Dr. Ann Tyler, chair of and professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, has been named associate dean of the college. Both appointments were approved by the WMU Board of Trustees and were effective July 1.

Mary Lagerwey

Lagerwey has served as interim director of the Bronson School of Nursing since Jan. 1. She replaced Dr. Shaké Ketefian, who had served as interim director of the nursing school since 2013 and who has retired. Lagerway is the school's longest-serving traditional faculty member, joining the nursing school in 1995. She holds the rank of professor and has taught health care ethics, nursing history and qualitative methodology. She also has led a study abroad program in the Netherlands for the past five years.

Lagerwey's publications and areas of research focus on ethical concerns in historical contexts, particularly for vulnerable populations. She has conducted extensive research on women and health care under the Third Reich, and her book "Reading Auschwitz" was published as part of AltaMira's Ethnographic Series. She is currently studying women in the United States eugenics movement of the early 20th century. Lagerwey earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Calvin College, a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Grand Valley State University, a Master of Science in nursing from Michigan State University, and a doctoral degree in sociology from WMU.

Ann Tyler

Tyler has served as s chair and professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology since coming to WMU in 2007. She has guided numerous curricular changes, led strategic planning and policy development, and fostered community partnerships and increases in scholarship giving. She replaces Dr. Richard Long, who has returned to the faculty.

Tyler earned a bachelor's degree in speech pathology from the University of New Hampshire in 1975, a master's degree in 1978 and a doctoral degree in 1988 in the same discipline from Syracuse University.

Tyler is a Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association and has been a faculty member for 35 years in comprehensive university systems, where she has directed an on-campus clinic, taught undergraduate and graduate courses, and mentored doctoral and master's students.

An active scholar, Tyler has presented and published extensively on childhood speech sound disorders. Her research, which focuses on intervention effectiveness for different populations of children with speech and co-occurring language difficulties, represents rigorous levels of treatment evidence. It has been supported by internal, foundation and external competitive funding, including a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Previously a Visiting Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, she currently serves on two international editorial boards and is serving a second term as associate editor for the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. She is a frequent member of Speech Sound Disorders and Academic and Clinical Education subcommittees of the Convention Program Committee for the American Speech Language and Hearing Association. In addition, she is completing a second term on the Centralized Application Service Advisory Board of the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

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