Deborah Bial
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Deborah Bial (born 1965) is an education strategist, the founder and president of the
Posse Foundation The Posse Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that partners with select colleges and universities in the United States to provide student scholarships and leadership training. Posse connects a network of more than 10,000 scholars and ...
and a trustee of Brandeis University. Bial is known for the concept of her foundation, which is to send groups of around ten students to collaborating colleges so that they can support each other and achieve a greater success rate. She is also known for the Bial–Dale College Adaptability Index, an activity-based test of college readiness that incorporates
Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
play. She was one of the 2007 winners of the MacArthur "Genius" awards and is a frequent speaker at college graduations.


Life

Bial was born in Manhattan and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. Her father played bassoon and contrabassoon with the New York Philharmonic and her mother worked as a public relations professional for the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She describes her younger self as shy and not standing out in any way: "There was nothing remarkable about me growing up." Her childhood ambition was to become a writer and illustrator of children's books. She attended Brandeis University, graduating in 1987. She worked briefly as a
paralegal A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant, or paralegal specialist is a professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with a license to practice law. The market for paralegals i ...
, and then became a counselor for the CityKids Foundation in New York. After starting Posse, she returned to graduate school, and earned master's and Ed.D. degrees from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
in 1996 and 2004, respectively. She delivered the 2012 commencement speech at her alma mater, Brandeis University. She has also been chosen as a commencement speaker at numerous colleges and universities including at DePauw University (2008), at the University of Rochester (2015), at Vassar College (2017), , Kalamazoo College (2018). and at
The College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...
(2019).


Contributions

Bial's Posse Foundation sends talented young people from diverse backgrounds in "posses" of approximately ten students at a time to cooperating universities, with the intention that the students in each posse will support each other. The idea for the foundation came to Bial in 1989 when she was working as a youth counselor in New York City. One student had dropped out of college; when she asked why, he told her that he would have stayed in school if only he had his posse to support him. Based on this experience, she started her foundation as a way to create these posses as support groups for students. As well, she designed the selection process of the foundation to focus on urban students who might otherwise be overlooked by traditional college admissions processes. As well as being known for this concept for the foundation, Bial is known for developing the Bial–Dale College Adaptability Index, a method for determining whether students are ready for college that avoids written testing in favor of interviews and activity-based assessment. It has been dubbed "the Lego test" because of its incorporation of play with Lego bricks as one of its components.


Awards

Besides winning a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007, Bial has been given honorary degrees from many institutions of higher education including Brandeis University (2012), Hamilton College (2014), Colby College (2015),
Agnes Scott College Agnes Scott College is a private women's liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. The college enrolls approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The college is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and is considered one of the ...
(2017),
Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges are Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from 45 maj ...
(2017). and The College of Wooster (2019). She was one of the 2013 winners of the
Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education is awarded annually by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) to recognize outstanding individuals who have dedicated themse ...
. In 2013, the
Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
gave her their Anne Roe Award.


References


External links


Deborah Bial, president of Posse Foundation, to speak at Founders Day

2007 MacArthur Fellow: Deborah Bial


{{DEFAULTSORT:Bial, Deborah 1965 births American educators American women educators Brandeis University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Living people MacArthur Fellows