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Michael K. McLendon, Ph.D.
Dean of the School of Education, 2015-2017
Michael K. McLendon, Ph.D., served as dean of Baylor’s School of Education from July 2015 until July 2017.
McLendon served as dean while holding a faculty appointment as the Fred and Edith Hale Endowed Professor in Higher Education Leadership and Policy.
McLendon taught undergraduate and graduate courses on American public policy, education politics and policy, college and university governance, and finance of higher education and leadership.
A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, McLendon earned his Bachelor’s degree in political science from Baylor, his Master’s degree in Higher Education from Florida State University and his Ph.D. in Higher Education Policy from the University of Michigan. He received Baylor’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award in 2007.
Early in his career he served as an aide to a member of the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., and as a policy analyst with the Higher Education Committee of the Florida House of Representatives.
McLendon is recognized as a national scholar in the study of higher education policy and leadership. His research contributes substantially to public debates on education in America. A gubernatorial appointee to the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability, he regularly advises governors, legislatures and national and state groups on topics ranging from governance and college costs to ways of improving student success, financial sustainability and institutional effectiveness.
McLendon held the inaugural Harold and Annette Simmons Endowed Centennial Chair and served as the academic associate dean at Southern Methodist University’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Previously, he was the executive associate dean, undergraduate dean and chief of staff at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, where he was recognized for outstanding teaching and mentoring.
McLendon’s work has appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Teachers College Record, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and Educational Policy. Further, his work has been reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Tribune and elsewhere.
