Clarksville, TN – An Austin Peay State University academic administrator has been named an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for the 2012-13 academic year.
Dr. Brian Johnson, assistant provost/assistant vice president of academic affairs at APSU, is one of 57 Fellows selected this year. He will spend the next academic year working with a college or university president and other senior officers at a host institution during periodic visits. While doing so, Johnson will focus on an issue of concern to APSU.
Fellows attend three weeklong retreats on higher education issues organized by the ACE, read extensively in the field and engage in other activities to enhance their knowledge about the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education today.
The ACE Fellows program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, campus visits and placement at another school to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single semester or year. The Fellows are included in the highest level of decision making while participating in administrative activities and learning about an issue to benefit their home institution.
Before coming to APSU in January 2010, Johnson was associate professor of English at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC, where he also had served as associate vice president of academic affairs and chief of staff in the president’s office.
Johnson is known for his scholarship on W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent intellectual leader and civil rights activist on behalf of blacks in the first half of the 20th century, and is the author of two books on Du Bois. His more recent book, titled “William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, Toward Agnosticism (1868-1934),” was published in 2008 by Rowman and Littlefield, New York. His other book, titled “Du Bois on Reform: Periodical-Based Leadership for African Americans,” was released in 2005 by the same publisher.
Johnson earned a Ph.D. in English in 2003 from the USC. He received his M.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His bachelor’s degree in English is from Johnson C. Smith University.
