Jane Stallings

Jane Ainel Smith Stallings (January 10, 1929 – January 31, 2016) was an American educational researcher and academic. She was the 1994–95 president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the first female to become a dean at Texas A&M University.

Early life and career Jane Smith was born in Indiana; her parents were Indiana natives Howard and Ruth Pinkerton Smith. After earning an undergraduate degree at Ball State University, she worked as a teacher in Long Beach, California. She met Harold Stallings in Long Beach. The couple married and then had four children before they were divorced. She later married David Markham; she was predeceased by him in 2011. After her teaching stint in Long Beach, she earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Stallings was the 1994–95 AERA president. She was known as an authority on the measurement of teaching time in the classroom and had a special interest in teaching strategies directed toward inner-city youth.

Later life After retiring in 1999, Stallings pursued an interest in fiction writing. In 2011, she published a novel, Bridge to Survival. On January 13, 2016, Stallings died unexpectedly due to an aneurysm.