TROY News Center

TROY – A Troy University professor and associate dean has been awarded the Sport Management Outstanding Achievement Award by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Dr. John Miller, a professor of sport management and associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services, earned the accolade for outstanding contributions and leadership in the field during the 128^th National Convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).

“Since it has been suggested that AAHPERD was the first place that Sport Management academicians could present pertinent research a number of years ago, I am humbled and honored to have been selected for this award,” Dr. Miller said. “I am especially pleased to be included with past recipients such as David Stotlar, Janet Parks, and Herb Appenzeller who are recognized as the foremost authorities in their areas of sport management. “

Dr. Miller has been a coach, professor, researcher and author for more than 30 years. In addition to Troy University, he has been a faculty member at Texas Tech University, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Western New Mexico, and Willamette (Ore.) University. He has also held the position of Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach at University of Wisconsin – Stout, Willamette University, and St. Mary’s University in Minnesota. He was selected as coach of the year five times and served as president of the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Association.

In addition to his coaching responsibilities, he was an associate athletic director for facilities at several universities. He has authored over 20 chapters, conducted more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences, and is the co-author of the book, A Practical Guide to Sport Management Internships. Dr. Miller has published more than 55 articles in peer-reviewed journals including the International Journal of Sport Management, Journal of Contemporary Athletics, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, and the Journal of Sport Administration & Supervision. He is a member of the review boards for the Journal of Applied Sport Management, Journal of Sport Management, Applied Recreation Research and Programming Annual Journal, the Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual Journal, and the Journal of Venue and Event Management. He currently serves as the editor of the Journal of the Legal Aspects of Sport.

An AAHPERD member for 21 years, Miller was inducted as a Research Consortium Fellow in 2005 and has served on the NASPE Sport Management Council and the Safety and Risk Management Council as well as Marketing and Promotion Committee for AAHPERD. He has also served on the NAPSE Sport Steering Committee as sport management chair since 2011. Over the years, Miller has worked closely with the state AHPERD, and as vice-president of Physical Education for New Mexico Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

“His coaching and administrative background helps him immensely in understanding the real issues and problems faced by practitioners in our field,” said Todd Seidler, professor of Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences at the University of New Mexico, who introduced Dr. Miller at the banquet. “This insight allows him to identify and carry out meaningful research that has a positive impact on sport.”

Dr. Miller earned his doctorate at the University of New Mexico, a master’s degree in sport psychology from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. 

Troy University journalism students get a dose of the real thing in Steve Stewart’s advanced reporting class.

Their assignment: write a legislative story for an Alabama newspaper.

Sponsored by the Alabama Press Association Journalism Foundation, the third-year program includes taking students from the Hall School of Journalism and Communication to the State House on a legislative committee day. There the student journalists attend committee meetings and hearings, and meet with Capitol reporters, lobbyists, legislators and legislative staffers.

The hook is that each student has to select an Alabama newspaper, contact its editor and offer to write the story as assigned. They then have to deal with the editor through the publishing process.

“As a student, you learn a lot by actually going outside the classroom and seeing the ‘real world,’ instead of just reading textbooks and sitting in class every day,” said Cecilia Thorngren, a print journalism major with a creative writing minor from Floda, Sweden.

Thorngren worked with editors at “The Southeast Sun” newspaper in Enterprise.

“I got to experience what it’s like to work under a deadline and what it’s like to work with an editor. That’s something I couldn’t have learned in the classroom,” she said.

Stewart said that experience was precisely the point of the exercise.

“Students learn a lot from this project, including how the Legislature works, the difficulty of contacting and working with editors and legislators, and the need to keep working on a story until it’s ready to publish,” said Stewart, himself a long-time newspaper editor and publisher.

Some students even get follow-up assignments and internships from editors, and all get news clippings they can use in job hunts.

“It gives us visibility with the public and goodwill with the Press Association,” Stewart said. “For the APA Journalism Foundation, it’s a small expense with a high return.”

The Alabama Press Association Journalism Foundation began in 1968, and from its beginnings, has supported journalism education in the state. The Foundation’s board meets annually to select grants that support college journalism programs, workshops, an annual job fair, scholarships and internships.

TROY – Dr. John R. Dew will provide the keynote address at Troy University’s commencement exercises Sunday, May 19 on Saint Simons Island.

About 50 students from Brunswick and Savannah sites will participate in the event, which begins at 3 p.m. at Strickland Auditorium, Epworth By-the-Sea.

Dr. Dew serves as Senior Vice Chancellor of Student Services and Administration at the University, after having served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness from 2007 until 2010.

Prior to joining the University, he was Director for Continuous Quality Improvement and Planning at the University of Alabama. From 1974 until 1998, he worked for Lockheed Martin Corp. as a quality and strategic planning professional in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Paducah, Kent., including work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

He earned his Doctorate in Education from the University of Tennessee and is the author of five books, including co-authoring Continuous Quality Improvement in Higher Education with Molly McGowan Nearing, published by the American Council on Education and Praeger Press in 2004. His scholarly publications include Managing in a Team Environment and Empowerment and Democracy in the Workplace, both published by Greenwood Press. In 1997 he published a trade book on strategic planning with Quality Resources Press, Quality-Centered Strategic Planning. In 2001 he co-authored Diagnosing and Preventing Adverse and Sentinel Events, a handbook on preventing and investigating medical errors, with Meri Curtis, published by Opus Press.

Dr. Dew was appointed by the Undersecretary of Education to serve on the Department of Education’s Rulemaking Process in 2006. He was a founding member and chair of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education, and has served as the Chair of the Education Division and the Energy and Environmental Division of the American Society for Quality. Dr. Dew is a Fellow in the American Society for Quality and held an appointment from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve as one of the twelve Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program for 2008-2011. In 2009 Dr. Dew was elected to membership in the International Academy for Quality, which is the international body of academics engaged in research and publication related to quality sciences.  In 2011 Dr. Dew was named to the Board of Directors of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education (NCCI). 

Dr. John Dew