COLLEGE OF EDUCATION & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M's HRD Program In Top Five Nationally

2/24/06

By Jenna Smith

Over the past seven years, the Human Resource Development (HRD) program in Texas A&M University's College of Education and Human Development has gone from un-noticed to being a top five program nationally.

Larry Dooley, associate professor and HRD program chair, credits the program's affiliation and involvement in the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) with its success.

"When AHRD was established as our professional organization in 1993, we weren't on the map as being a top-ranked HRD program. I knew that the academy was the premier professional organization in our field and that in order for Texas A&M to be the best, we had to associate with the best," Dooley said. "There is no question that our involvement in the academy has put us on the map, and our faculty are setting the bar high."

Dooley said he knew the program had to be engaged in both research and scholarship to be considered a top program in the field. In 2004, Texas A&M was ranked in the top five HRD programs nationally, according to a national benchmark study.

Dooley explained how Texas A&M's HRD program moved up in the rankings so quickly.

Since the University of Minnesota has held the position as the top-ranked HRD program in the nation for many years, Dooley says it just made sense to recruit top-notch professionals from its program as the beginning of his building plan. Susan Lynham, who currently serves as assistant professor in the HRD program at Texas A&M, was the first of these hires in 1999.

"Susan was one of the most sought-after professionals in our field at that time," Dooley said. "It only made sense to recruit her to join our team. Susan was instrumental in helping me build our program in those first years."

The following year, Dooley took 10 graduate students to the Tulsa conference and has continued the practice of taking students to conferences.

"The conference was a great place for our students to meet students from across the country and participate in the premier research course," Dooley said. "It was a big deal for us as a program to contribute leading graduate students to an international conference setting."

In 2003, Dooley was elected president-elect of AHRD and agreed to a six-year term commitment. To date, a greater percentage of faculty at Texas A&M have served on the board of directors than any other university program in the country, including Jamie Callahan in 1999-2000, Susan Lynham in 2001-2003 and Toby Egan in 2006.

"We have done a better job in pushing for editorship of journals, editorial board memberships and an overall increase in journal publications, and our ranking shows it," Dooley said.

Unlike some other professional organizations, the academy is global, with conferences being held in the U.S., Europe and Asia each year. In 2005, Texas A&M had more students with presentations at all three conferences than any other university. In addition, in a recent publication of Advances in Developing Human Resources, all articles were written by either faculty or students from Texas A&M.

"With the reputation we've gained in the last few years, people know that Texas A&M's program is on the rise," Dooley said. "My vision when I hired Susan was to become the top HRD program in the country, and we're almost there."

At the February 2006 conference in Ohio, Dooley stepped down as president and began his two-year term as past president. Two Texas A&M faculty, Toby Egan and Jamie Callahan, assistant professors in human resource development, were honored at the conference. Egan was elected to a three-year term on the board and Callahan was awarded the Early Career Scholar Award.

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