IDentity Series : Finding Success As a Returning Veteran or Military Student

Active duty military and veterans face special challenges in dealing with Higher Education. Written by those who have both served and taught, this text provides invaluable information, Web pointers, and insights. It is designed to help those serving and veterans–but also professors, advisors, and administrations. Treatment provides unique considerations for both campus-based and online education. 

Infuse student success into any program with our “IDentity” Series booklets.  Written by national subject matter experts, the material contains strategies and activities for immediate application.  If you like this IDentity Series: Finding

Finding Success as a Returning Veteran or Military Student, you will love the other options available: Financial Responsibility (Clearpoint Financial), Now You’re Thinking about College (Judy Chartrand et.al.), Now You’re Thinking about Your Career (Judy Chartrand et.al.), Ownership (Megan Stone), and Financial Literacy (Farnoosh Torabi).

AVAILABILITY: It is available via our Pearson Custom Library program as a standalone product or as part of a custom text.  Go to http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/custom-library/pearson-custom-student-success-and-career-development  to view the content and build your book! 

Phil McNair and Fred Stielow are dedicated military educators who work together at the online American Public University System with its flagship American Military University (AMU), the leading university for today’s military. They also collaborate on PTSD scholarship; Sloan Consortium workshops on “Serving Military Students” and “PTSD and Stress in the Online Classroom;” and founding a Military Research Institute. 

Phil McNair, retired Army colonel and VP for Strategic Initiatives, was a principle architect behind AMU’s sector-leading military outreach program. He has also headed programs in Marketing, Student Retention, and Academic Services.

McNair served as company commander in the 25^th Infantry Division (Light), assistant professor of military science at the University of Texas at El Paso, battalion commander in the 101^st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and executive officer to the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel.  His office was at ground zero in the Pentagon on 9/11. Phil was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained and the Soldier’s Medal for heroism in rescuing others in the aftermath of the plane crash.  At his retirement ceremony, Colonel McNair was presented the Army’s highest decoration for military service―the Distinguished Service Medal.  His service has been chronicled on television and in such books as The Pentagon by Steve Vogel and Heroes of 9/11 by Allan Zullo.

An ROTC Cadet Corps Commander, Phil earned his bachelor’s in Political Science at Louisiana State University. His master’s in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College is joined by graduate work at Central Michigan University, University of Texas, El Paso, and Harvard’s Management and Leadership in Education program. He teaches in management and leadership and was nationally recognized by the Distance Learning Administration with 2009’s Wagner Educational Leadership Award.

Fred Stielow, Vice President/Dean of Libraries, represents the enlisted side.  Son of a disabled veteran from World War II, Fred volunteered for the U.S. Army during Vietnam. He served in Germany as an NCO. With GI-Bill help, Stielow earned a bachelor’s, masters, and dual Doctorate from Indiana University before an M.L.S. from the University of Rhode Island.

Dr. Stielow worked for the New England Library Board and University of Louisiana Lafayette, where he helped organize the Archives of Acadian and Creole Folklore. Stielow also directed the Amistad Research Center at Tulane, Reuther Labor Library at Wayne State, and New York’s Mid-Hudson Public Library System.  Consultancies range from Bowie State University and National Agricultural Library to New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Festival, Vermont Folklife Center, and World Bank. He has been a professor at the University of Maryland and Catholic University and an adjunct at the Universities of Illinois, Puerto Rico, and Perugia, Italy. 

Stielow has contributed over 100 Web sites, chaired ALA’s Web Advisory Committee and Intellectual Freedom Roundtable, and sits on numerous advisory boards. He has contributed to over 100 scholarly articles and 11 books, including the forthcoming Reinventing the Academic Library for the Web.  Awards include a Fulbright Fellowship, Etter Prize for Creativity, Library of Congress’s Jameson Fellowship, MCI Cybrarian of the Year, and alumnus of the year from the URI Library School.