H. Richard Milner: professional biography
H. Richard Milner
Professional Biography
H. Richard (Rich) Milner IV is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. He also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt. He earned the Doctor of Philosophy degree and Master of Arts degree in educational policy and leadership from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He also earned the Master of Arts degree in teaching and the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. During his doctoral studies at Ohio State, he worked as an adjunct instructor at Columbus State Community College, where he taught Reading and Writing courses in the Department of Developmental Studies.
Dr. Milner taught high school English in Columbia, South Carolina after earning his master’s degree from South Carolina State University.
Professor Milner’s research, teaching and policy interests are urban education, teacher education, African American literature, and race and equity in society and education.
In 2007, Dr. Milner was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure at Vanderbilt University. Beginning in the spring of 2008, he became a faculty affiliate in the teacher education program at Nashville's Fisk University.
During the summer of 2010, Professor Milner was honored with a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at York University in Toronto, Canada, where he taught in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program. In summer 2010, he served as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Policy and Leadership at the University of Texas-Austin, where he taught aspiring principals.
Dr. Milner has published more than seventy (60) journal articles and book chapters, and he has published five books. His most recent book, published in 2010 by Harvard Education Press, is: Start where you are but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms.
Dr. Milner’s research and service have been recognized with the Carl A Grant Multicultural Research Award (2010) from the National Association for Multicultural Education, an Early Career Award (2006) of the American Educational Research Association and a Vanderbilt University Affirmative Action and Diversity Initiative Certificate (2005). In January 2009, Professor Milner received the Distinguished Faculty Game Ball Award at the Vanderbilt vs. University of Georgia basketball game at Vanderbilt University in front of approximately 14,000 attendees.
Professor Milner is the incoming senior editor of the journal, Urban Education, a leading journal in the field. He is scheduled to assume the role of editor of the journal over the next five (5) years beginning in spring 2012. Professor Milner was selected to assume the role succeeding the current editor who held the position for 18 years.