The School of Education is celebrating two faculty members who received tenure this spring, with promotion to associate professor status in the fall:
Dr. Brooke Blevins, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Dr. Mar Magnusen, Department of Educational Leadership
Blevins, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin after bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Trinity University and four years of classroom teaching, is coordinator of the School of Education’s Social Studies Education program. She also serves as the co-director for the iEngage Summer Civics Institute, for which she and co-founder Dr. Karon LeCompte have raised more than $150,000 in grant funding.
Blevins has amassed an impressive body of scholarship in the area of citizenship education, having published 20 journal articles and book chapters, with several more in press. Her scholarship appears in the main social studies journals, including Theory and Research in Social Education, Journal of Social Studies Research, Democracy and Education, Social Studies Research and Practice and Social Education, as well as in other well-regarded outlets of her field. Blevins also serves as the media and book review editor for Theory and Research in Social Education.
Blevins has won awards for her research including the 2013 Jon Laska Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Association of Curriculum and Teaching and the 2011 Best Paper Award from the AERA Research in Social Studies Education SIG for her work with SSIRC.
In 2016, she served as the program chair for the annual conference of The College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, the leading professional association in social studies education, and a body on whose board of directors Brooke also serves.
“In Brooke, the School of Education, has found a generous, enthusiastic and highly esteemed colleague, who has distinguished herself at Baylor as a gifted and effective teacher and whose scholarly productivity and promise have marked her as a ‘rising star’ in her field nationally,” said Dr. Michael McLendon, Dean of the School of Education. “Her pioneering work with the iCivics curriculum has benefitted school children throughout Central Texas and has been widely lauded in the region by schools, teachers and families.”
Magnusen, who teaches in the Department of Educational Leadership, is a scholar in the field of Sport Management. With an impressive record of peer reviewed scholarship marked by high quality and growing visibility, he has emerged as a nationally prominent young scholar in the field.
A Ph.D. graduate of Florida State in Sport Management, Magnusen earned his M.S. from Texas Christian University and B.S. in kinesiology and English literature from Wheaton College.
Magnusen has co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles on important questions in the field of sport management, notably in the areas of organizational behavior and sport consumer behavior. He has developed and taught eight different courses in Baylor’s master’s program in Sport Management and serves as the faculty advisor to the Baylor Sport Management Association.
Magnusen is currently Associate Editor of the Sport Management Education Journal, and he serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Applied Sport Management, Journal of Amateur Sport, and the Journal of Global Sport Management. Additionally, he served as a co-editor for a 2016 special issue of the Journal of Applied Sport Management entitled, “The Political Arena: Power and Political Behavior in Sport Organizations.”
Baylor University’s Department of Athletics has recognized Magnusen as an exceptional teacher, bestowing Outstanding Professor awards in 2014 and 2016.
“More important than the sheer output of his research production over these past six years are the markers of high quality that attend Mar’s scholarship,” Dean McLendon said. “In having arrayed his research around enduring questions of his field, as well distinctively newer lines of work (e.g., the role of political skill in the effectiveness of sport administrators), Mar has clearly shown his ability to contribute both to the core of his field and at its creative margins.”
For more news from Baylor School of Education, visit the Instant Impact home page.
ABOUT BAYLOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Founded in 1919, Baylor School of Education ranks among the nation’s top 20 education schools located at private universities. The School’s research portfolio complements its long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and student mentoring. Baylor’s undergraduate program in teacher education has earned national distinction for innovative partnerships with local schools that provide future teachers deep clinical preparation, while graduate programs culminating in both the Ed.D. and Ph.D. prepare outstanding leaders, teachers and clinicians through an intentional blend of theory and practice.
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.