Jocelyn Crowley wins NASPAA national teaching award

September 6, 2018

Professor of Public Policy Jocelyn Crowley is the recipient of the 2018 Leslie A Whittington Excellence in Teaching Award bestowed by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA).

The NASPAA Excellence in Teaching Award, first presented in 1993, recognizes faculty members at NASPAA institutions who make outstanding contributions to public service education through excellence in teaching over a sustained period of time. In 2001, this award was renamed in honor of the 2000 recipient, Leslie A. Whittington of Georgetown University, who perished at the Pentagon on American Flight 77, on September 11, 2001.

Dr. Crowley was nominated for the award by fellow colleagues and previous students, who were impressed with her scholarship of teaching and praise from other colleagues and students. Professor Andrea Hetling, director of the school’s Program in Public Policy noted that “Professor Crowley has perfected a pedagogical approach that incorporates what appears to be a nearly magical concoction of challenge and support that gets even the most math-phobic or writing fearing student to substantially improve her or his skills.” One of her students also said, “she challenged me to stretch my definition of what was possible and find the courage to apply myself to greater opportunities in life.”

Earlier this year, Dr. Crowley was the recipient of the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, Rutgers University’s highest honor for innovative teaching and mentoring, and received the 2018 Jerome Rose Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the Bloustein School. Her recent book, Gray Divorce: What We Lose and Gain from Mid-Life Splits (University of California Press, 2018), was nominated for the Richard M. Kalish Innovative Publication Award by The Gerontological Society of America, which recognizes original and innovative publications in aging and life course research in the behavioral and social sciences. The book was also nominated for the Reuben Hill Award by The National Council on Family Relations.

Recently named to the editorial board of Gender & Society for a three year term beginning in 2018. (2018-2020), her most recent research has been the impact of “gray divorce”—divorce at or after the age of 50—on the lives of men and women across the United States. Several of her previous research projects, including those on mothers’ organizations in the United States, parenting challenges and public policy, and workplace flexibility, were funded by  the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her book, Mothers Unite! Organizing for Workplace Flexibility and the Transformation of Family Life, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013. She has also written extensively on the topic of family law and public policy, including her books The Politics of Child Support in America (2003; Cambridge University Press) and Defiant Dads: Fathers’ Rights Activists in America (2008; Cornell University Press.

At Rutgers, she is also a member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Political Science, an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, and a Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at the Bloustein School.

The award will be presented at a luncheon on Thursday, October 11 at the NASPAA Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA.

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