Penelope L. Peterson is Eleanor R. Baldwin Professor and former Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) at Northwestern University. Prior to her appointment as Dean in September 1997, she served as University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University and Sears-Bascom Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her BS degree in psychology and philosophy from Iowa State University and her MA and PhD from Stanford University. Under Peterson’s leadership, SESP has moved to being ranked seventh among the top education schools nationally by U.S. News and World Report. Despite its small size, SESP has achieved numerous distinctions both on campus and nationally. SESP faculty members have gone from bringing in a total of approximately $400,000 of external research funding to more than $700,000 of external funding per SESP faculty member. A past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Peterson is also a member of the National Academy of Education; a fellow of AERA, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society; and a member of the Advisory Board of the Adler Planetarium.