Paul L. Beare, dean of the College of Education at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., will become dean of Fresno State's Kremen School of Education and Human Development on Aug. 1.

Beare will replace Dean Paul Shaker, who has accepted a position as dean of education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Beare has worked in education for 30 years. He has taught junior high and high school in Missouri and was professor and chairman of the education department and the special education and counseling department at Minnesota State University in Moorhead.

He helped develop the first "supported employment" program for adults with severe disabilities in Minnesota, and served as a due process hearing officer in special education.

He also has served as director of teacher education at Minnesota State and as coordinator of the emotional and behavioral disorders program there.

He moved from Minnesota to Georgia in 2000 to become dean at Armstrong Atlantic, a university with 42 full-time faculty and 1,226 students.

The Kremen School at California State University, Fresno, has 75 full-time faculty members and about 2,500 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate students.

Beare has focused his research on services for people with behavioral disorders.

He is president of the Georgia Association of College of Teacher Education.

He and his wife, Jane, have four children.

The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or at 441-6311.