Awards

Fulbright Award - 1999

Kazakhstan

About Michael Parsons

Michael Parsons served on the faculty at IU from 1979 to 2001. He received a B.S. in Industrial Relations and Labor Studies from West Virginia University Institute of Technology in 1975, a M.S. in Industrial Relations from West Virginia University Institute of Technology in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University Bloomington in 1994. He started at IU as a visiting assistant professor of labor studies in the School of Continuing Studies on the Bloomington campus in 1979. He was appointed as assistant professor of labor studies in 1984 and associate professor in 1988. In 1995, Parsons moved to the School of Education at IUPUI to serve as an associate professor of education and also served as Chair of Education. During this time at IU, Parsons received a Fulbright award to lecture in higher education administration, leadership, and policy at Karaganda State University in Karaganda, Kazakhstan in 1999.

In August 2001, Parsons left IUPUI for an appointment as chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida International University where he served until 2005. From 2005 to 2007, he was the Dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Minnesota State University and executive vice president of academic affairs at the University of South Carolina Beaufort from 2008 to 2011. He then served as an associate director of Abu Dhabi Women’s College in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2010 to 2011 and as a visiting researcher at the University of Kassel in Germany in 2011. In 2012, Parsons accepted the position of associate vice president of graduate and professional studies at Averett University in Danville, VA where he served until his retirement in 2014. He currently runs the blog, Get My Traveling Shoes, which showcases his adventures of cycling, art, and travel.