DALLAS TWP. — Misericordia University recently named Barbara Schwartz-Bechet, Ed.D., as the dean of the College of Health Sciences and Education.
Schwartz-Bechet joins Misericordia after serving as the interim dean and professor in the College of Education and Rehabilitation at Salus University. While at Salus University, she was actively engaged in an interprofessional education-forward culture that included programs in low vision, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and education, special education and rehabilitation.
Her experience in higher education also extends to Northern Illinois University and the University of Maryland University College. At Northern Illinois University, she was the chairperson of the Department of Special Education and Early Education, and interim chairperson of the Department of Literacy and Elementary Education. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet was the program director for certification programs and a graduate professor at the University of Maryland, where she was also responsible for management and development of the online Master of Arts in teaching program-secondary education and other online program development.
Dr. Schwartz-Bechet’s scholarly research is wide ranging, as it includes research articles on recreational opportunities for students with disabilities, internationalization in higher education, and the use of technologies in learning. Most recently, she has published a series of manuscripts that address emotional and behavioral disorders and absenteeism, motherhood in precarious times, and perceptions of mothers’ talks and actions with children during and following periods of civil and social unrest in the United States.
She also has served her profession in numerous ways. From 2015-18, she was a member of the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education Standards Committee. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet completed her second Fulbright Scholar training assignment in Riga, Latvia, where she trained graduate applied behavior analysis and psychology students and faculty on the use of applied behavior analysis with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her first Fulbright assignment was in Doha, Qatar. In 2018, she was an invited researcher, lecturer and consultant to Oldenburg University’s School of Education and Rehabilitation in Germany.
Schwartz-Bechet earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Brooklyn College and her Master of Science in education with a specialization in special education from the College of Staten Island. She received her Doctor of Education with specializations in emotional disturbance and applied behavior analysis from Columbia University Teachers College. In addition, she has completed the international leadership program at the University of Maryland University College and Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Management Development Program.
