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Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D. - Paul A. Hummel

My name is Paul Hummel, and learning has been a life-long pursuit of mine. I began post secondary quest in 1965, and it earned me three college degrees:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Illinois Institute of Technology);
• Master’s Degree in Engineering Management (Illinois Institute of Technology);and
• Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology.(Northern Illinois University).

And, while I continuously draw on that education, I would like to think that my experience is what my readers benefit from most.

In 1996, I made a significant, if not radical, career change. I left the manufacturing industry that had been good to me for so long. There had been promotions, patents, and good pay. But there is more to life than all that. I assumed my first of four full-time college positions. Since January, 2006, I have served as an academic dean at a Midwestern community college. My division enrolls over 3,500 students each semester and I oversee 17 full-time faculty plus no less than 75 adjuncts.

My passion is college education! More specifically, I love to work with and help both college students and the faculty members who teach them. With years of industry quality improvement experience behind me, my desire is to contribute to the improvement of educational practices at colleges and universities. In 2004, I began a research project which culminated in my doctoral dissertation, “An Explanation of Continuous Quality Improvement Practices by College Faculty.”

Since early in my industrial career, I have enjoyed teaching, speaking and writing, I have taught a variety of college courses, which include an undergraduate course on quality and a graduate course on managerial statistics and quality. I have also taught freshman courses in business math and statistics. However, what I enjoyed most was the 3 credit-hour reading and study skills course I taught at my previous college.

Relative to my other interests, I have made presentations at a number of conferences, both industrial and academic in nature. On two occasions I delivered lectures that were viewed around the country via live satellite feeds for what was National Technological University, more commonly known as NTU. My writing accomplishments include a Technical Paper published by the Society of Automotive Engineers, free lance work for the U.S. Department of Commerce, and articles in two magazines - Educational Technology and The Journal of the International Society for Performance Improvement.

It is my most recent writing that I have enjoyed most. I have published more than 60 articles on my first blog, AdjunctAssistance.com, and am having fun delivering what I believe is useful advice in an informal, personal and hopefully entertaining style. Recently, I started writing shorter pieces of advice on my second blog, CollegeTeachingTips.com. Now, it is with great pleasure that I am starting to write for Suite101. I hope you enjoy my articles! I would love to hear from you. You can e-mail me at HummelPaul@aol.com . You can also learn more about me on LinkedIn.