Dr. Randy M. Brooks is the former Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor of English at Millikin University. He received the Community Solutions for Education National Award sponsored by the Coalition on Educational Initiatives and USA Today. He also has received international recognition for his writing, editing and publishing of haiku poetry. At Millikin he received the Faculty Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership award at Millikin in 2007 and was named the James Millikin Scholars Outstanding Educator of the Year for 2013. He has developed and taught a wide range of courses on writing, rhetoric, poetry, teaching writing and publishing. He is a leader in curriculum design of professional writing programs, emphasizing the integration of performance learning, community service, technology and publishing.
Before becoming the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, he served as Acting Dean from 2008-2010 and as Chair of the English Department from 2003-2008. As Dean of Teaching and Learning from 2006-2008, he coordinated the assessment of student learning at Millikin and led faculty development programs. Drawing on his years of experience as an editor and publisher, Dr. Brooks collaborated with Edwin Walker, Associate Professor of Art to establish a book-publishing performance learning curriculum—blending instruction in a co-taught course, the Art of Publishing, with the business of a student-run book publishing company, Bronze Man Books.
Dr. Brooks has four decades of literary editing experience and has published over 70 books and four literary serial publications. He and his wife, Shirley Brooks, are co-editors and publishers of Brooks Books, (formerly High/Coo Press) and editors of Mayfly, a biannual magazine featuring haiku. Dr. Brooks is also web editor for Modern Haiku magazine and the Electronic Media Officer (web editor) for the Haiku Society of America. Hundreds of his poems have been published in journals and anthologies including a book of his selected haiku, School’s Out.