Rattigan-Rohr named Faculty Administrative Fellow

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President Leo M. Lambert has appointed Jean Rattigan-Rohr, associate professor of education, to a two-year term as Faculty Administrative Fellow and Assistant to the President. She will begin her duties June 1.

Rattigan-Rohr will be a member of President Lambert’s senior staff and focus on coordinating and integrating Elon’s many college access and success programs, which are among the priorities of the Elon Commitment strategic plan.

Rattigan-Rohr founded the “It Takes a Village” project, a literacy tutoring project that assists struggling young readers in the local community through the involvement of their parents and Elon students. The project takes place at May Memorial Library in downtown Burlington, N.C., and now includes office space in the university’s new Downtown Center for Community Engagement.

While continuing her work with “It Takes a Village,” Rattigan-Rohr will expand her involvement with the Elon Academy, the university’s renowned college access and success program for high school students in Alamance County. She will also work to enhance the university’s development of the Watson and Odyssey programs, which target need-based financial aid and academic support programs for talented first-generation college students and those who have overcome hardship to attend college.

Rattigan-Rohr grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and developed her passion for teaching as a youngster. She began her career as a broadcast journalist for Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation before moving to New York City as part of a desktop publishing team for Blair Television. When her family moved to North Carolina, she completed a bachelor’s degree in speech language pathology and audiology, a master’s degree in special education and a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She joined the faculty in Elon’s School of Education in 2007 and has been an active scholar on topics related to education. She has received several grants, including two awards totaling more than $900,000 to fund her research and teaching and expand the “It Takes a Village” project.

Rattigan-Rohr is also active in creative pursuits and has written an original play performed by The North Carolina Black Repertory Theater Company, and has performed with the company and with the OTESHA Creative Arts Ensemble.

Rattigan-Rohr will serve as the sixth Faculty Administrative Fellow, a position created by President Lambert in 2004. Previous Fellows include professors Tim Peeples, Constance Ledoux Book, Deborah Long, Charity Johansson and Brooke Barnett.