Dr. Szabi Ishtai Zee: The Passing of a True Scholar, Educator, Artist, and Activist

In Memory of Dr. Szabi Ishtai Zee

We are saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Szabi Ishtai Zee, Educational Leadership for Change Faculty Emeritus.

Dr. Szabi Ishtai Zee

Since coming to Fielding, Dr. Zee has served the School of Educational Leadership for Change (now incorporated into the School of Leadership Studies) from its inception and for more than twenty-four years. He was an exemplary scholar, faculty member, leader, and friend. He has served us as Mentor to and Chair of two hundred doctoral students, a member of three-hundred dissertation committees as Faculty Reader or Research Faculty. Most of his Mentees have successfully graduated.

Dr. Zee has served on the Institutional Review Board. He contributed to several Information Sessions and New Student Orientations and has been instrumental in the recruitment of many students, particularly from Lincoln University and the greater Philadelphia/New Jersey region. Dr. Zee has served as Faculty Coordinator of the Philadelphia regional cluster. In addition, he has served Fielding as a trusted friend, colleague, and ambassador for our university.

Dr. Zee was a faculty member at Lincoln University for thirty-five years as a Professor of Counseling and Human Services. He also served as Board President of the Temple University Institute for Diversity and Intercultural Training and Research, and the Delaware Valley Council for Christians and Jews. Additionally, Dr. Zee served on the Boards of the Philadelphia Chapter of Concerned Black Men, the Institute for the Development of African American Youth, and the Association of Black Sociologists. He was a member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research and the Interdisciplinary Action Research Council and an advisor to the Institute for Liberatory Innovation.

In addition, Dr. Zee has produced the scholarship in several journals and has continued his research on issues facing K-12 education. He contributed to research on educational leadership for change programs, systems thinking, the philosophical and theological foundations of educational change, and strategies for many public school districts and postsecondary institutions. Dr. Zee participated in civic and community life of the greater Philadelphia and Delaware Valley regions. For example, he co-authored an award-winning, 130-page, Police Orientation Manual on Citizens with Disability.

Above all, he was a man of profound spirituality, a phenomenologist, and a student of mysticism from a variety of faiths.

As eloquently stated by Fielding alum and educational leader, Dr. Lucinda Garthwaite:

Szabi insisted on the possibility of a more just world, and at the same time, unstintingly facing its ongoing violence and injustice. He held these two realities with equal insistent grace.”

With gratitude, respect, and enthusiasm,
The Faculty of the Educational Leadership for Change Faculty School of Leadership Studies