Mary Ann Rafoth, Ph.D. (University of Georgia) is Dean of the School of Education and Social Sciences and Professor of Education at Robert Morris University. She previously served as Dean of the College of Education and Educational Technology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 2005 until 2011. Dr. Rafoth served as chairperson of the Educational and School Psychology Department at IUP from1999 to 2005.

She was also the Director of the Center for Educational and Program Evaluation and coordinated the Educational Psychology Master’s degree program and the School Psychology Certificate program and directed the department’s Child Study Center. As director of the Child Study Center she coordinated assessment and intervention services at no cost to children and families throughout western Pennsylvania and worked on a number of grant initiatives to provide early intervention services to children and families, particularly those struggling with poverty and educational inequality, in Pittsburgh and in Indiana and Armstrong counties.

A frequent consultant to schools and agencies, her research interests involve strengthening independent learning skills in students, alternatives to retaining students, school readiness issues, and program . student learning outcomes evaluation, and training teachers to foster deep learning in students. Dr. Rafoth has authored several chapters in the frequently referenced Best Practices in School Psychology and Children’s Needs volumes published by the National Association of School Psychologists. She is first author of Strategies for learning and remembering: Study skills across the curriculum (NEA Professional Library, 1993) and the author of, Inspiring independent learning: Successful classroom strategies (1999, NEA Professional Library). Dr. Rafoth has published over thirty publications and made over fifty presentations at state, national, and international conferences.