University of Iowa Executive Vice President and Provost P. Barry Butler has appointed Nicholas Colangelo as interim dean of the College of Education, effective Dec. 15.

Colangelo is Myron and Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education and professor of counselor education in the College of Education’s Department of Rehabilitation and Counselor Education. He also directs the Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, which he co-founded and has directed since 1988.

Over the past 25 years, Colangelo has overseen the Belin-Blank Center’s growth into a national and international model of success in research, training, and service in the field. He recently announced his plans to step down as director of the center at the end of this month.

“I am grateful to Professor Colangelo for agreeing to take on this important role,” says Butler. “He is a proven leader who is deeply committed to the college’s success and its national and international profile. I know he will do an excellent job keeping the college moving forward during this interim period.”

Internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in the field of gifted education and academic acceleration, Colangelo is senior editor of the Handbook of Gifted Education, currently in its third edition, and has published numerous articles in professional journals on various topics related to gifted education.

With colleagues at the Belin-Blank Center, in 2004 he produced the internationally acclaimed report A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, which has had a major impact on state policies regarding the education of academically advanced students.

To read a related story on Colangelo, visit now.uiowa.edu/2012/12/entrepreneurial-educator.