Ron Iannone

Ron Iannone was inducted into the inaugural College of Applied Human Sciences Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. He was previously inducted into the College of Education and Human Services Hall of Fame in 2015.

Iannone earned degrees from St. Bonaventure University and the University of Rochester, completed a doctorate at Syracuse University, and pursued post-doctoral studies at Harvard University. He served on the faculty at West Virginia University for 35 years, during which time he chaired more than 120 doctoral committees and taught several thousand students.

His academic work includes authorship of books such as School Ain’t No Way/Appalachian Consciousness and Alternatives to the Coming Death of Schooling, as well as plays, screenplays, and journal articles. In 2017, he established the Ron V. Iannone and Family Keynote Speaker Endowment to support WVU’s Celebration of Scholars event.

He founded the West Virginia Public Theatre and produced more than 260 theatrical productions. He developed holiday performances with instructional packets for teachers and brought educational programming to more than 150,000 students in the tri-state area. He also created TARGET, an anti-drug education program for middle school students, and wrote and produced an educational play on the Monongah Mining Disaster.

He was given two lifetime achievement awards for his contributions as a writer, educator, poet, artist, and as an outstanding Italian-American in West Virginia. He holds faculty emeritus status at West Virginia University.