Graduate and Professional Studies is delighted to welcome our new Washington Semester Program Director, Dr. Deborah Curry.
After many years of leadership from Dr. Tom Bohn, who will retire from Ithaca College this summer, the Washington Semester Program will continue under the guidance of its new Director. Leading the program from her DC office, Dr. Curry will capitalize on her deep connections to the Washington community, which she has known and loved for many years. As she enters this new role, Dr. Curry is already generating many wonderful ideas for internship placements, new courses, teaching opportunities, local partnerships, and ways to make the program even more viable and attractive to students from a wide variety of Ithaca’s schools and majors.
Dr. Curry’s Washington DC experience includes service as an information specialist at the Library of Congress and as an attorney and EEO counselor for the Federal Election Commission. Having been a Washington intern herself, at the American Council on Education, Dr. Curry looks forward to creating similar opportunities for Ithaca students, sharing with them the many challenges and delights of our nation’s capital city.
Dr. Curry commented that “without a doubt, a Washinton internship will get students out of their comfort zones, challenging them to grow personally, socially, academically and professionally.” She is “excited to join Ithaca College, where experiential education is so highly valued and so much a part of the institution’s essential character.”
Dr. Curry brings to IC a strong record of academic achievement and community engagement, having served for many years as a faculty member, administrator and consultant, including teaching appointments at the University of South Carolina, Morgan State University, University of Maryland (Eastern Shore), and Millersville University. She has provided leadership to McNair Scholars programs at both Westminster College and the University of Maryland College Park. Dr. Curry holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Maryland. She also attended Rutgers University, where earned a J.D. (Law) and a Masters in Political Science and Public Policy; her BA is in Liberal Arts, from Sarah Lawrence College.
