UNF Dean of the College of Education and Human Services named a 2020 Women of Influence

Diane Yendol-Hoppey, UNF professor and dean of the College of Education and Human Services, has been named a 2020 Women of Influence by the Jacksonville Business Journal. The award recognizes women leaders in Northeast Florida whose leadership has helped their organizations grow and has shaped the next generation by providing a model for the community.

Nominated by her colleagues within the College of Education and Human Services, Yendol-Hoppey has been a strong leader and mentor at the University. 

In the past three years, she helped secure funding and place quality personnel to reopen and sustain the Center for Urban Education and Policy and the Northeast Florida Center for STEM Education. She also launched the Urban Scholars’ programs that are designed to recruit students from underrepresented groups into education and diversify the local educator pipeline. She is currently bringing talented stakeholders together to develop the UNF Preschool as a Model School to support early childhood educator development across Northeast Florida and beyond.

Throughout her career, Yendol-Hoppey has championed the importance of education by developing strong relationships with school districts, non-profits and higher education institutions, and representing the importance of education to policy makers and researchers by building quality educator pipelines to support PK-12 student learning.

“We need to develop opportunities for authentic institutional and organizational collaboration,” said Yendol-Hoppey. “Too often we inhibit collaboration because we create barriers or competition between organizations.  The problems that need to be solved on the First Coast will require business, industry, non-profits, and education sectors to work differently together. The transformation that needs to occur to truly make our community special will require us to work smarter, not harder, favoring shared success over the success of any individual or single organization.”

Yendol-Hoppey is very involved in the community as she serves as a member of the advocacy committee for the Women’s Giving Alliance and the executive committee chair for the Ed White Community School. She has also co-authored four books and published over 50 articles. Her work has appeared in such journals as Teachers College Record, Educational Researcher, and Journal of Teacher Education.