ACUE mourns the loss of our dear colleague, Dr. Jerome D. Williams, who made lasting contributions to higher education.

Dr. Williams was the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of Rutgers University-Newark. He was also a Distinguished Professor and the Prudential Chair in Business (Marketing Department), and Fellow of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (Management and Global Business Department) in the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick (RBS). He formerly served as the RBS PhD Program Director.

Prior to joining Rutgers, he held endowed chair positions at four different universities, including the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor in the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Anheuser-Busch/John E. Jacob Professor at Howard University, the F. J. Heyne Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Wee Kim Wee Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Prior to being on the Howard faculty, he was on the Penn State University Marketing Department faculty for 14 years.

Williams has published extensively in the areas of multicultural marketing, Internet privacy, and public health communication. He was a member of an Institute of Medicine Committee that authored the landmark report Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? and appointed by the US Census Bureau to Chair the 2010 Communications Contract Academic Assessment Team. He is co-author of Diversity in Advertising: Broadening the Scope of Research Directions, Consumer Equality: Race and the American Marketplace (forthcoming), Advances in Communication Research to Reduce Childhood Obesity, and two edited volumes on marketing and public policy issues.

He has been named as an expert witness in over 100 court cases on consumer racial profiling. He formerly served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Marketing Association Foundation (AMAF). The AMAF’s Williams-Qualls-Spratlen award is named in his honor to recognize marketing scholars for mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds. In 2009 he received the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Marketing Teaching Award. He currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. In 2014 he was inducted into the PhD Project Hall of Fame for his efforts in promoting greater faculty diversity in schools of business.

Williams received his PhD from the University of Colorado in Marketing, with a minor in Social Psychology. He also holds an MS from Union College and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Stevens’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• The Most Important Audience in Writing a Teaching Philosophy: You

Stevens is a full professor at Portland State University. Her interest in rubrics and assessment comes from her desire to help faculty save time in grading and engage students in learning. She co-authored Introduction To Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning, that is in its second edition. She has also co-authored two other books, Tenure in the Sacred Grove and Journal Keeping as well as numerous articles on teaching and learning in higher education.

At Portland State University, Stevens was the Faculty-in-Residence for Assessment. Currently, she is the Faculty-in-Residence for Academic Writing and is working on her next sole-authored book, Write More! Publish More! Stress Less! Her research revolves around ways to assist faculty to manage and succeed in their complex roles as teachers and researchers. She regularly consults nationally and internationally with university faculty on ways to effectively assess student learning through rubrics and to improve programs.

Stevens received her PhD in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University.

Dr. Prather’s recent publications include:

• Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, 3rd Edition (Pearson 2012)

Prather is an internationally recognized STEM educator and researcher. He directs one of the nation’s leading research, curriculum development, assessment, and professional development groups in STEM education, which specializes in studying teaching and learning issues in Astronomy, Physics, and Space Science.

For more than 20 years, Prather has focused his scholarly efforts on conducting fundamental research on the improvement of STEM education. He is an award-winning teacher who has pioneered several innovative instructional methods in his courses, which have been taught to approximately 6,000 students in classes ranging from small-enrollment, seminar-style graduate courses to large-enrollment, introductory science courses with more than 800 students. The majority of Prather’s teaching has focused on creating inclusive and collaborative learning environments in large-enrollment, introductory general education Astronomy courses. These courses reach approximately 250,000 students nationally each year and often serve as the final science course in life for the predominantly non-science major population of students enrolled. These students go on to be our nation’s teachers, political and business leaders, artists, journalists, lawyers, parents, taxpayers, and voters. Stemming from his strong commitment to helping these students meaningfully contribute to shaping our society, Prather has dedicated the past decade to investigating unique classroom practices designed explicitly to promote students’ discourse, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities, along with enhancing their self-efficacy and understanding of the role science plays in society.

Prather has led several national research programs to develop and validate active learning instructional strategies and new assessment instruments. These multi-institutional research projects have involved the collaborative efforts of hundreds of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students leading to nearly a dozen PhDs in discipline-based science education research and more than 60 peer-reviewed publications disseminating this work. In addition to authoring a series of books on active learning strategies and making contributions to scholarly books on STEM teaching and learning, Prather has given over 250 invited talks, colloquia, seminars, and workshops on STEM education. Within the Physics and Astronomy teaching community, Prather is best known for facilitating interactive professional development workshops designed to help college faculty better implement research-based active learning instructional strategies into their classrooms. Prather has led hundreds of these workshops across the globe, reaching more than 3,000 college faculty and instructors, resulting in sustained adoptions into hundreds of STEM courses that have reached hundreds of thousands of students over the past decade.

Edward Prather began his STEM career path at the University of Washington, where he worked with the Physics Education Group (PEG) and earned a BS in Physics and Astronomy. Upon completing his undergraduate studies, he accepted a Research Assistantship with the University of Maine – Orono where he completed his PhD in Physics with a dissertation focusing on Physics Education Research.

Dr. Pollard is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arizona and co-author of the Chemical Thinking curriculum and supporting e-book.

Besides his interests in transforming the General Chemistry course at the university level, Pollard has expertise in the design and implementation of active engagement pedagogical approaches for small and large classrooms. He recently spearheaded the Collaborative Learning Space Project at the University of Arizona where traditional classrooms and library spaces are transformed into learning environments suited for classes centered on active learning approaches.

Pollard holds a PhD from the University of Arizona. His current research interests are centered on understanding how student meta-cognitive patterns relate to their engagement in the classroom and learning outcomes in his Chemical Thinking course.

Dr. Nilson’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• Linda Nilson Talks Teaching and Learning With ACUE
• Linda Nilson: Leading the First Day of Class
• Change Magazine: “ACUE Makes the Link”

Her recent publications include:

• Creating Engaging Discussions: Strategies for “Avoiding Crickets” in Any Size Classroom and Online (Stylus 2018)
• Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research (Jossey-Bass 2017)

Nilson is Founding Director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson University. She has held leadership positions in the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network, Toastmasters International, Mensa, and the Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium.

In her career as a full-time faculty development director, she authored publications including Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course, Creating Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students’ Self-Awareness and Learning Skills, and Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time. Nilson co-edited Enhancing Learning with Laptops in the Classroom and Volumes 25 through 28 of To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development. To Improve the Academy is the major publication of the POD Network in Higher Education.

In addition, Nilson has published many articles and book chapters and has given well over 400 keynotes, webinars, and live workshops at conferences, colleges, and universities both nationally and internationally. She has spoken on dozens of topics related to course design, best teaching practices, assessment, scholarly productivity, and academic career matters. Most popular among her current presentation topics are critical thinking, self-regulated learning, specifications grading, and the effectiveness of various instructional technologies. In her recent articles, she documents the instability of faculty development careers, raises serious questions about the validity of student ratings, and describes instructor-friendly ways to measure learning at the course level.

Before coming to Clemson University, Nilson directed teaching centers at Vanderbilt University and the University of California, Riverside and taught graduate courses on college teaching. She entered the area of educational development while she was on the sociology faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles. After distinguishing herself as an excellent instructor, her department selected her to establish and supervise its Teaching Assistant Training Program. In sociology, her research focused on occupations and work, social stratification, political sociology, and disaster behavior.

Nilson was a National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she earned her MS and PhD in Sociology. She completed her undergraduate work in three years at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Dr. Howard’s recent publications include:

• Discussion in the College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online (Wiley 2015)
• First Contact: Teaching and Learning in Introductory Sociology (Rowman & Littlefield 2011)

Howard is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University in Indianapolis where he teaches classes on Sociology. He is a Fellow of the P.A. Mack Center at Indiana University for Inquiry on Teaching and Learning.

Previously, Dr. Howard served as Interim Vice Chancellor and Dean, Assistant Dean for Budget and Planning, Head of the Division of Liberal Arts, and Professor of Sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. He also served as Deputy Editor of the American Sociological Association Journal: Teaching Sociology. He served as the 2006-07 President of the North Central Sociological Association and as an elected member of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Board of Trustees.

Howard earned his BA in Sociology from Indiana University South Bend. He holds an MA and PhD in Sociology from University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Frey is the Instructional Design Manager for Pitt Online where she provides support to instructional designers and faculty on a variety of teaching and learning topics. As a mentor and project manager, she has collaborated with faculty, instructional technologists, graphic designers, librarians, and videographers to develop dozens of online and massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Frey has over 25 years of teaching experience from K-12 to higher education classrooms. She is co-author of the book, Distinctive Distance Education Design: Models for Differentiated Instruction (IGI Global, 2011). In addition, she is a Facilitator and Master Reviewer for the non-profit organization Quality Matters™. Her research interests include classroom civility, online learning, instructional design and technology, and human resource development.

Frey holds an MEd from the University of Pittsburgh and a DEd from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Bruff’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• Connecting the Dots: Visual Learning in an Election Year
• Video: Derek Bruff Talks Visual Learning Tools

Bruff is director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and a senior lecturer in the Vanderbilt Department of Mathematics. As director, he oversees the Center’s programming and offerings for faculty and graduate students, helping them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching and learning.

Seeking to foster a university culture that supports effective teaching, Bruff consults regularly with campus leaders about pedagogical issues. His research interests include educational technology, visual thinking, and social pedagogies. He blogs on these topics and his book, Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments, was published by Jossey-Bass in 2009.

Bruff holds a PhD in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University. He previously taught at Harvard University.

Dr. Brookfield’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• Delivering an Effective College Lecture Through a Student’s Lens
• Stephen Brookfield’s Advice on Teaching From the Back Row

His recent publications include:

• Teaching Race: How to Help Students Unmask and Challenge Racism (Jossey-Bass 2018, forthcoming)
• Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd Edition (Jossey-Bass 2017)
• The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking (Jossey-Bass 2016)

Brookfield holds the John Ireland Endowed Chair at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota where he won the university’s Diversity Leadership Teaching & Research Award and the John Ireland Presidential Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Teacher/Scholar. He serves on the editorial boards of educational journals in Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as in the United States.

Since beginning his teaching career in 1970, Brookfield has worked in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States, teaching in a variety of college settings. In 2002, he was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He has written, co-written, or edited 17 books on adult learning, teaching, critical thinking, discussion methods and critical theory, six of which have won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education. His work has been translated into German, Korean, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Farsi, and Albanian.

Brookfield also won the 1986 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education, the 2013 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in Continuing Higher Education awarded by the University Professional Continuing Education Association, the 2001 Leadership Award from the Association for Continuing Higher Education for extraordinary contributions to the general field of continuing education on a national and international level, and the 2008 Morris T. Keeton Award of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning for significant contributions to the field of adult and experiential learning. In 2009, he was inducted into the international Adult Education Hall of Fame, and in 2010 he received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Muhlenberg College. He was also awarded the Coin of Excellence from the General Army Staff Command College.

Brookfield earned his BA from Lanchester Polytechnic Institute. He holds an MA from Reading College and a PhD from the University of Leicester. In 1991, he was awarded an honorary DLit from the University System of New Hampshire for his contributions to understanding adult learning. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary DLit from Concordia University.

Dr. Bowen’s contributions to ACUE’s Community of Professional Practice include:

• José Bowen: Using Feedback From Students to Improve Your Teaching
• Change Magazine: “ACUE Makes the Link”

His recent publications include:

• Teaching Naked Techniques: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Classes (Jossey-Bass 2017)

Bowen is the 11th President of Goucher College. He began his teaching career at Stanford University in 1982 as the Director of Jazz Ensembles. In 1994, he became the Founding Director of the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music at the University of Southampton, England. Bowen returned to America in 1999 as the first holder of the endowed Caestecker Chair of Music at Georgetown University where he created and directed the Program (now Department) in Performing Arts. He was Dean of Fine Arts at Miami University, before moving to SMU in Dallas in 2006 to become Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts and Algur H. Meadows Chair for eight years ending with a number one ranking for the School of Music in USA Today in 2014.

Bowen has written over 100 scholarly articles for the Journal of Musicology, the Journal of the Society for American Music, The Journal of Musicological Research, Performance Practice Review, 19th-century Music, Notes, Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of the Royal Musical Associations, Studi Musicali, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and in books from Oxford and Princeton University Presses. He is the editor of the Cambridge Companion to Conducting (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. He contributed to Discover Jazz (Pearson, 2011) and is an editor (along with David Baker, Dan Morgenstern, John Hasse, and Alyn Shipton) of the six-CD set, Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (2011). He has a TED talk on Beethoven as Bill Gates.

Bowen has also been a pioneer in active learning and the use of technology in the classroom, including podcasts and online games, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, US News and World Report, and on NPR for his book Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2012; winner of the Ness Award for Best Book on Higher Education 2013 from the American Association of Colleges and Universities). He is currently working on Transforming the University: Learning for Change (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), a comprehensive approach to integrating campus life with massively better classrooms and using the latest research on learning and adolescent development to focus college on opening minds in the post-technology era. Bowen has been honored by students and colleagues for his teaching at SMU, Miami, and Georgetown and he received a Stanford Centennial Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 1990. He is currently serving on the Digital Working Group of the Association of American Colleges & Universities General Education Maps and Markers program.

In over 35 years as a jazz performer, he has appeared in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dave Brubeck, Liberace, and many others. His compositions, conducting and playing are featured on numerous recordings and he currently performs with the jazz collective, Jampact. His latest CD, Uncrowded Night, features his playing with the José Bowen Quartet. He has written a Pulitzer Prize-nominated symphony, a film score, and music for Hubert Laws, Jerry Garcia, and many others. His Jewish music is also widely performed and includes a Jazz Shabbat Service. Other awards for his compositions include the Hubbell, Popular, and Standard Awards, the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, the Bell T. Richie Prize, and the Koret Israel Prize.

He has served on the Editorial Boards for Jazz Research Journal, the Journal of the Society for American Music, the Journal of Music History Pedagogy, and Per Musi: Revista Acadêmica de Música. He is also on the Advisory Board for The New Grove Dictionary of American Music and is a Founding Board Member of the National Recording Preservation Board for the Library of Congress. In 1996, Bowen was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England.

Bowen holds four degrees from Stanford University: a BS in Chemistry, an MA in Music Composition, an MA in Humanities, and a joint PhD in Musicology and Humanities. In 2010, Stanford honored him as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar.