Rick McCown

Rick McCown is Professor of Education, Program Director of the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership program, and the Pierre Schouver, C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Mission at Duquesne University where he has served as Department Chair and Interim Dean. He serves currently as Duquesne's Principal Investigator for the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). He is Co-Editor of the CPED White Paper Forum and served as Senior Improvement Research Fellow for CPED. He earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology at Indiana University where he received the Maris and Mary Higgins Proffitt Award for the Outstanding Dissertation and, more recently, an Outstanding Alumni Award. 

Dr. McCown has published nine books focused on the teaching-learning process in schools as well as numerous articles, papers, technical reports, curriculum materials and teaching manuals. His work in educational leadership is informed by his study of educational psychology as it bears on the scholarship of teaching and learning, design-based research and development, improvement inquiry, collaboration across the boundaries of school, academy and community, and of the nexus of research, advocacy, and policy as it bears on matters of social justice. He worked as developer for the Leaders Supporting Diverse Learners project of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) and is active in the UCEA Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice. He has received an AERA Presidential Citation Award for his contributions to educational research.

He was elected, as a faculty member, to Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, to the Pennsylvania Society of Teaching Scholars, and has been cited for Educational Excellence by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. At Duquesne, he has been inducted into the Office of Research Hall of Fame and has received several teaching awards, including his university's highest teaching award: the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

• Ph.D., Educational Psychology, Indiana University, 1980
• A.B., Psychology, Indiana University, 1974