Dana Fusco

Dr. Dana Fusco is Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. She comes to Lesley from the School of Education at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she was interim dean and a professor in the Department of Secondary Education & Youth Services. There, she led the School of Education at Queens College to a successful accreditation, initiated policy revisions to support student success, created a lecture series called the Will to Change that orients DEI work within a broader social justice framework, and launched the First Gen Scholars Initiative.

Prior to Queens College, Dr. Fusco spent twenty-one years at York College, where she held positions as clinical coordinator, department chair, dean of the School of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and professor. She has also held the position of the Howland Endowed Chair at the University of Minnesota and Visiting Professor at the University of Tampere in Finland. Dr. Fusco currently serves as dissertation advisor and examiner at the University of Malta, Department of Youth and Community Studies and the Cardiff Metropolitan University, School of Education & Social Policy.

She is an active member of the American Educational Research Association and the International Sociological Association and is often called upon to serve as a peer reviewer for books, journal articles and tenure and promotion cases in the areas of afterschool education, out of school time, youth development, and youth work both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Fusco’s work crosses boundaries of P-12 education, social work, youth studies, and sociology to improve the professional education of teachers through strong community and school partnerships, culturally relevant educational theories that position social justice and relational care at the heart of teaching and learning, and ongoing faculty and student development and engagement. She has published 16 peer reviewed journal articles, written 7 book chapters, edited 3 academic books, and produced a video documentary titled, When School Is Not Enough. Dr. Fusco’s work has international acclaim, and she has been invited by Ministries of Youth Affairs to deliver keynotes in England, Ireland, Canada, and Finland, and the 3rd Commonwealth conference on youth work.