Penelope PetersonPenelope Peterson was appointed as Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy in 1997. Prior to this, Penelope held the post of University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University and before that, of Sears-Bascom Profesor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Peterson was awarded the Raymond B. Cattell Early Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 1986 for her programmatic research on effective teaching and learning. She went on to serve as president of AERA from 1996-1997, and is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. As AERA president, Penelope led initiatives to reform the organization and to synthesize research-based knowledge, making it more useful to policy makers and practitioners. More recently, Peterson has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Study Panel on the "Science of Learning," which produced the volume, How People Learn-a comprehensive study of learning, based on a synthesis of the research on cognition, cognitive neuroscience, learning, and the design of educational environments that foster effective learning.Peterson’s current research interests are in learning and teaching in schools and classrooms, particularly in literacy and mathematics; student and teacher learning in reform contexts; and relations among educational research, policy, and practice. Read More Read Less