WILMINGTON — Wilmington College promoted three faculty members and granted them tenure effective this summer with the start of the 2022-23 academic year.
Dr. Anne Daniels, Dr. Alan Ledford and Dr. Chad McKay all received promotions from assistant to associate professor. Provost Dr. Erika Goodwin extended her congratulations to the trio.
“While Wilmington College places its primary emphasis on teaching, both scholarship and service are also components reviewed for tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor,” she said. “These three are to be commended for making this milestone in their academic careers.”
Daniels, associate professor of history, has served on the faculty since 2016.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and Hispanic studies from Lewis & Clark College; a Master of Arts in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin; and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. She teaches a wide variety of world history courses on topics ranging from the world wars to Latin American agricultural history to the history of education, while also contributing to the Global Studies and Race, Gender, and Ethnicity Studies curricula.
Daniels is fluent in three languages, reads five languages and serves as the coordinator of the College’s Peace Corps Prep Program. Her most recent publication, “Teenagers in Development: The Economic and Cultural Power of Brazilian Youth in the 1950s and ‘60s,” is forthcoming this year in the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. Also, “Membership Required: Juventude Brasileira and Fascist Education in Brazil’s Estado Novo Dictatorship” is featured in Social and Education History 9, no. 1 (2020).
Ledford, an associate professor of sports management and its program director, has served at the College since 2016. He is a WC alumnus.
He uses a “student first” approach to his teaching with an emphasis on complementing classroom learning with opportunities for networking in a professional environment and gaining real-world experience. Indeed, sport management students have opportunities to work at such pinnacles of American sport as the Super Bowl, NCAA Division I Football Championship, NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I Basketball Final Four, college bowl games and the National Basketball Assn. All Star Game.
Ledford followed his Bachelor of Science degree in sport management at Wilmington College with a Master of Arts in Physical Education, sport management concentration, from East Tennessee State University and his Doctor of Education in Sport Management from the United States Sports Academy.
He previously taught at Harrisburg Area Community College (PA), Miami Jacobs Career College (OH), Miller-Motte College (NC), U.S. Sports Academy in Malaysia, Southern New Hampshire University, University of Northwestern Ohio (OH), Arkansas State University (AK), Linfield University (OR) and Saint Thomas University (FL).
McKay is an associate professor of agriculture and has served at WC since 2015. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from WC, a Master of Science in agribusiness economics from Southern Illinois University and his Doctor of Education in leadership studies with an emphasis on agriculture from Xavier University.
He has designed and implemented seven new courses, including Sustainable Agricultural Leadership and Exploring Agriculture. The former teaches students how to become advocates for agriculture — what they call “agvocates.” Exploring Agriculture is a collective effort within the department to bring all first semester agriculture students together and expose to all the facets of agriculture, including agricultural business, agricultural communications, agronomy and animal science.
McKay has taken over a project started by a former, long-time professor, Harold Thirey, involving the collection and analysis of data associated with the backgrounds of all freshmen agriculture students, including their education, farm experience and personal agricultural preferences. McKay credits Thirey and a trio of other former professors, Monte Anderson, Don Chafin and Tom Stilwell, for both his success and that of the program.
“These gentlemen built and molded the program into what it is today,” he said. “They are the reason that we have over 2,500 successful agriculture graduates. It is my hope that the current team within the Agriculture Dept. can live up to their standards and continue to make this program thrive.”
