Faculty | Educational Administration | SIU

Gary Kelly, a 38-year career educator in K-12 and Higher Education, retired in 2019 as the Superintendent of DuQuoin CUSD #300. Kelly is a student-focused leader who served as President of the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) in 2011, was an 8-year member of the IASA Board of Directors, and was named Illinois Superintendent of the Year in 2019. At the national level, he has served on both the AASA Governing Board and AASA Executive Committee, and in 2021, received the AASA Distinguished Service Award. Presently, he serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice at SIUC and IASA Field Service Director, where he works with both aspiring and experienced school leaders. His teaching interest in higher education includes the areas of leadership, curriculum development, program and personnel evaluation, and school-community relations.

• Director, College Student Personnel Program

Education

• Ph.D., Higher Education Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• A. M., History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• B. A., Secondary Education, University of Arizona

Minghui (Hannah) Hou joined the SOE faculty in 2023. She holds Ph.D. in Higher Education from Old Dominion University, M.Ed. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Innovation from Northwest Nazarene University, and B.A. in English from Xi’an Eurasia University in China. Her research focuses on international and comparative higher education, student mobility, racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and student development. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education.

Jason Leahy joined the SIU faculty in 2013.  He has served as an educator for almost 20 years as a chemistry and physics teacher, high school principal, and Executive Director of the Illinois Principals Association (IPA).  He has led the development and implementation of the Illinois New Principal Mentoring program which provided mentoring and induction support to all new principals in Illinois, sat in an advisory capacity for the redesign of Illinois’ principal preparation programs, was a member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards design team for the National Board Standards for Accomplished Principals, and has been a member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals State Executives Advisory Committee.