Press Release

Contact: Debra Humphreys
202-387-3760 ext. 422
Humphreys@aacu.org

National Scholar and Award-Winning Teacher to Join Association of American Colleges and Universities as Senior Scholar

Professor L. Lee Knefelkamp Will Help AAC&U Members Engage with Latest Research on Student Intellectual and Ethical Development

Washington, DC—September 15, 2004—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the appointment of Dr. L. Lee Knefelkamp, professor of education and psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, as a senior scholar. Dr. Knefelkamp will help AAC&U engage campus faculty and academic leaders with the latest research and practice on student intellectual and ethical development, and with building the new intercultural campus.

"AAC&U's members could not be more fortunate than to have Dr. Knefelkamp as AAC&U's newest senior scholar," said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. "She has a long history of involvement in AAC&U projects and is also one of the nation's leading scholars of student intellectual development and the impact of diversity on student learning and our nation's college campuses. Dr. Knefelkamp's guidance will enable AAC&U to bring this scholarship to our members as they work to educate all students for an era of greater expectations, make their increasingly diverse campuses effective learning environments, and teach the arts of democracy so important in today's world."

Dr. Knefelkamp is widely known as a speaker and scholar on higher education and has been a leader in several of AAC&U's recent national initiatives. She is playing a leading role in one of AAC&U's newest initiatives, Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility. Dr. Knefelkamp served on the national panel that authored AAC&U's recent influential report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. She also served on the national panel of an earlier initiative, American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy, and Liberal Learning, and contributed to its publications, The Drama of Diversity and Democracy and American Pluralism and the College Curriculum.

Dr. Knefelkamp has written widely on college students' intellectual and identity development, intercultural issues on campus, multicultural curricular transformation, and moral and ethical development in the context of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Several of her books, including Applying New Developmental Findings and The Practice-to-Theory-to-Practice Model, are standard texts in graduate programs in counseling psychology and higher education. She also coauthored with AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider the article "Educating for a World Lived in Common with Others" in the College Board anthology Education and Democracy.

Dr. Knefelkamp received her BA from Macalester College and her MA and PhD from the University of Minnesota. She has also received several honorary doctorates. Her many honors include a Distinguished Scholar Award from Lesley College; the College of St. Catherine's Medal for Distinguished Scholarship; a Teaching Faculty Salute Award for distinguished scholarship and teaching from the Carnegie Foundation; the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award from the University of Maryland, College Park; and the Macalester College Distinguished Alumni Award for contributions to scholarship and social justice.

Dr. Knefelkamp has taught at the University of Maryland (where she was director of the student personnel graduate program), American University (where she was dean of the School of Education), and Macalester College (where she was academic dean of the faculty). She was also the chairperson of the Department of Adult and Higher Education at Teachers College. She is a former Peace Corps volunteer and currently is a professor of psychology and education in the Program in Social-Organizational Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University.

For more information about AAC&U, visit www.aacu.org. For information about Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility, see www.aacu.org/templeton.

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.