Donna Rhodes, a Washington education consultant and former foundation program officer, died Dec. 24 of cancer. She was 57.
Ms. Rhodes was the executive director of the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education, the grantmaking arm of the National Education Association, from 1985 to 1994. She later served as an education program officer for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and as the deputy director of the now-defunct National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching, a federally financed effort to bring current research to bear on the problems of teaching.
At the time of her death, Ms. Rhodes was a partner with d2r2, an education consulting firm, and the International Center for Collaboration.
—Ann Bradley
Margaret C. Wang, a prominent education researcher and innovator, has died of lung cancer. She was 62.
Ms. Wang was the founder and director of the Center for Research in Human Development and Education, a federally financed center based at Temple University in Philadelphia. An author or co-author of 19 books and dozens of articles, she was known for her work on accommodations for diverse learners in the classroom and resiliency among students in troubled urban communities, as well as for her school improvement programs. One such approach, the Community for Learning Model, is used by 200 schools across the country.
A native of China, Ms. Wang joined the Temple faculty in 1986. Last year, the school named her a distinguished university professor, its highest distinction. She died at her home in Gladwyne, Pa., on Nov. 22.
—Debra Viadero