Dr. Ruth Best is the Assistant Dean for the California School of Education, Alliant International University. She formerly served as Assistant Dean of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships and Assistant Professor at Touro University, Graduate School of Education in New York. In 2007, she was recruited to work as Director of Induction, New Teacher Residency Program at Mercy University. Prior to transitioning to higher education, she was a New York City Teaching Fellow who taught and later mentored new special education teachers.
As founding Dean of Faculty Development and Instructional Design, Dr. Best was instrumental in launching the online program at The College of Westchester in 2010. She also worked as a Course Developer, and an Adjunct Online Group Facilitator for graduate level courses in Management and Leadership at the University of the West Indies, Open Campus.
An advocate for equity and access, her research interests are varied, including competency-based learning, differentiated instruction, special education, universal design for learning and instruction, data driven decision making, and distance education. Dr. Best is a Clinical Practice Fellow (Association of Teacher Education, 2020), who also participated in the Dr. W. Robert Houston Leadership Academy (Jacksonville, 2023), Inquiry Initiative 2 (Washington, DC), and currently serves on the Governance Committee (2025-2026).
An advocate for equity and access, her research interests are varied, including competency-based learning, differentiated instruction, special education, universal design for learning and instruction, data driven decision making, and distance education.
Dr. Best is an active member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated and participates in various service projects that benefit those who are less fortunate in her local community
- Doctor of Education with a concentration in Teacher Leadership from Walden University
- Master of Science in Education (Honors) from City College of New York
- Master of Business Administration, Financial Management from Pace University
- Bachelor of Science from Concordia College
- Associate in Occupational Studies in Accounting & Business Administration from The College of Westchester
- New York State Teacher Certification, Special Education
Dr. Best has presented at several education conferences including the Online Learning Consortium International Conference, The Association of Teacher Educators Annual Meeting, American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, The International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Quality Matters Regional Conference, and International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation.
She recently contributed chapters in two books: ""Sticky Cases in Higher Education Leadership: Addressing Innovation, Challenges & Conflict"" and "" Collaborating for Transformative Change in Education.""