Diana Pounder is Professor Emeritus, Educational Leadership and Policy Department, University of Utah-Salt Lake City, and retired College of Education Dean, University of Central Arkansas.  She earned her PhD in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She has worked as a university professor and researcher for over 30 years, after working in public schools for 10 years as a high school math teacher, a secondary guidance counselor, and a middle school principal. 

Dr. Pounder has been active and assumed leadership roles in national professional organizations, including past Educational Administration Quarterly Editor, President of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), Secretary of Division A of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and Co-Chair of the Joint UCEA, AERA-Division A, TEA-Sig Task Force on Leadership Preparation Effectiveness.  She has also been awarded three of UCEA’s most prominent awards --- the UCEA Distinguished Service Award, the UCEA Master Professor Award, and the UCEA Bridges Award for contributions to leadership preparation and development.  She participates actively in a variety of state and national education and policy initiatives, the most recent of which have focused largely on improving and assessing leader preparation. 

Her scholarship includes largely empirical research on school leader preparation effectiveness, professor and principal shortages and job desirability, teacher work group effectiveness, distributed leadership, equity in personnel selection and compensation, and other interests related to attracting, retaining, and developing professional educators.