Mark Merickel, Dean of the School of Extended and Internation Education
Dr. Merickel is the Dean of the School of Extended and International Education, the Senior International Officer, the SSU-CSU Online liaison, and Professor of Curriculum Studies at Sonoma State University. Dr.Merickel comes to Sonoma from Oregon State University where over the last 20 years he served as a Professor of Education (tenured in 1998) in the College of Education and Associate Dean-Administrative Lead for the OSU Extended Campus (Ecampus).
Dr. Merickel’s background as an educator covers forty-five years, and several levels, of education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology (minor in Ethnic Studies) and a master’s degree in Technology in Education from California State University Fresno, and a Ph.D. in Education from Oregon State University. He also holds California lifetime community college teaching credentials in the disciplines of Science, Engineering, and Architecture, which he applied teaching extended community college courses for San Joaquin Delta Community College and Columbia Community College, both in California. Dr. Merickel also holds a California secondary lifetime teaching credential and taught secondary level drafting, computer aided design, and architecture for 16 years.
During his academic tenure at OSU, Dr. Merickel taught, served as a faculty advisor, and led academic programs that prepared and licensed Oregon teachers and offered Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), Ed.M., M.A., M.S., Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Throughout his career Dr. Merickel has focused his teaching and leadership on four essential goals: understanding how students learn in order to improve the practice of teaching; exploring the use of new and emerging instructional systems for life-long learning; disseminating the knowledge gained through his work and the work of others; and providing leadership of productive, diverse and successful community organizations. Dr. Merickel received one of six Outstanding Online Course Awards from the Paul Allen Virtual Education Foundation for the best online courses worldwide. Dr. Merickel also received the 2002 Oregon State University Faculty Achievement Award and the 1996 Oregon Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award for Oregon Higher Education.
During his tenure at OSU, Dr. Merickel had international experience as an invited speaker, consultant, teacher, and visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong; the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico; and Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Additionally, Dr. Merickel has delivered research papers in Portugal, Turkey, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, and Taiwan.
As Administrative Lead and Associate Dean of Ecampus, Dr. Merickel managed the operations of the OSU Extended Campus and supervised the organization’s five unit directors and Continuing Education Program manager. He oversaw the Extended Campus staff of 40 and more than 1638 instructors. He works collaboratively with the Director of Business Services to manage Extended Campus’ annual $15 million dollar budget. During his tenure at OSU, Dr. Merickel was the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator for research grants, contracts, and special projects totaling over $6 million dollars. Dr. Merickel has served on the national board of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA). He facilitated educational policy development as a member, or past member, of the Blackboard Review Committee, University Degree Partnership Program Planning Taskforce, University Natural Resources Interdisciplinary Program Committee, Faculty Senate Neighborhood Planning Committee, Provost’s Task Force on Program Collaboration, Task Force "Strengthening Washington D.C. Presence", University Academic Regulations Committee, University Curriculum Council, and the Distance Education Dean’s Council.
A commitment to serving his community has always been an essential part of Dr. Merickel’s personal and professional life. In 1974, his wife Colleen and he established the three-county Sierra Mountain Special Olympics Program in California (Calaveras County, Amador County, and Alpine County) and served as its coordinators and development officers for seven years. In Corvallis, Dr. Merickel volunteers at the local community meal site, Stone Soup, for meal preparations and fundraising events and Linn-Benton Food Share, the local food bank.
Dr. Merickel has published 7 books on the subject of Automated Design, AutoCAD design, and 2-D/3-D Drafting. Dr. Merickel has also published 3 software packages on design and drafting, published over two dozen articles and peer reviewed papers, and has presented AutoCAD training of trainers in over 25 countries around the world. Dr. Merickel’s scholarly research was focused on "Virtual Systems and Virtual Reality."
Over the past few years, Dr. Merickel has led the reorganization of Extended Education at Sonoma State University. He provided leadership in developing campus teams to create Extended Education’s new strategic plan and business plan. Under Dr Merickel’s lead are the SSU grades 4-8 Excel for youth program, the Osher Lifelong Learning Program, SSU workforce development programs, and academic degree programs, Study Abroad program, and International Services. Dr. Merickel is also working across the campus in planning the next steps for internationalization of SSU.