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Senior Vice President of Education Outreach
Sylvan Learning Center
Richard E. Bavaria, Ph.D., Sylvan Learning’s Senior Vice President for Education Outreach, has nearly forty years of education experience, in both the public and private sectors, including classroom teaching, administration and more than a decade with Sylvan. Dr. Bavaria is committed to excellence in teaching and success in learning, and he seeks to continue Sylvan's position as the leader of supplemental instruction. He believes -- through his own experiences and research -- that overworked, dedicated teachers and occasionally struggling students often need the little extra help that can come from a caring, competent tutor. A helping hand at the right moment can make a world of difference.
Dr. Bavaria began his professional career with the Baltimore County, Maryland, Public Schools as a high school English teacher, where he saw first-hand the power of literature and language arts to influence and elevate students' thoughts. He had the timely advantage of working with gifted veteran teachers from whom he learned the benefits of the mentor-protege relationship, not unlike the one between tutor and student. Before joining Sylvan, he was executive director for the school system's department of curriculum and instruction, where he oversaw the development of all instructional programs for the 25th largest public school system in the United States.
Over the years, Dr. Bavaria has dealt with the issues that are important to parents, students and teachers -- instruction that makes a difference in students' lives, assessment that measures students' progress fairly and guides instruction, the content and skills that teachers teach and students learn and the daily issues that have an impact on families, including the role of homework, the skills students need to be successful in school and beyond and, of course, the basics -- the three R's.
He has made numerous presentations and educational television and radio appearances on topics ranging from elementary and secondary school curriculum to character and arts education. He is a frequent interview guest on practical ways students -- and their parents -- can prepare for school success.
Dr. Bavaria holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in English Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland. He serves on the Education Advisory Board of Villa Julie College, a four-year liberal arts college, and the Board of Directors of The Grace and St. Peter's School, an independent elementary school in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an associate of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award of Towson University's College of Liberal Arts.
