Lee V. Stiff ’78 PHD Named Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs

Lee V. Stiff ’78 PHD has been named NC State College of Education’s associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, effective May 4th. Stiff is a professor of mathematics education who has been on the College of Education’s faculty since 1983. He also has been the college’s interim associate dean for academic affairs since July 2017.
As associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, Stiff oversees curriculum and academic programs, as well as faculty matters.

“Dr. Stiff has done an exemplary job as the interim associate dean,” said College of Education Dean Mary Ann Danowitz. “As the permanent associate dean, he will help us in building programs and supporting our faculty in ways that further elevate the college and strengthen our land-grant mission to ensure the educational success of all North Carolinians.

“In addition to being a gifted researcher, communicator, and problem solver, Dr. Stiff has an institutional knowledge of NC State and the college matched by few.”

A native of North Carolina, Stiff holds a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s in mathematics from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the NC State College of Education.

Since 1989, he has been a co-author of elementary, middle grades, and high school textbooks in mathematics, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Holt McDougal. From 2000 to 2002, he served as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Stiff has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including the Blackmon Award for Excellence in Teaching while on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Rankin Memorial Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education from the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and a Fulbright Scholar Award to the University of Ghana. He was named the College of Education’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2010 and received the Benjamin Banneker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and the TODOS Iris M. Carl Leadership and Equity Award in 2017.

His publications have appeared in the top-ranked journals in his field, and he is a much sought-after speaker on issues of equity and mathematics education.