Janet H. Lawrence, PhD, Professor of Emerita of Education, retired from the Marsal School's Higher Education faculty in 2017.
Professor Lawrence received her B.S. degree from Tufts University in 1966, her M.S. degree from Smith College in 1969, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1972. She joined the University of Michigan faculty as an assistant research scientist in the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in 1975. She was appointed assistant professor in 1975, and was promoted to associate professor in 1978, and professor in 2013.
An outstanding teacher and mentor, Professor Lawrence was a leader in the study of higher education faculty and international higher education. She is perhaps most well-known for her highly-cited, co-authored book Faculty at Work: Motivation, Expectation, Satisfaction, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1995. She held a number of key leadership positions, including associate director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, associate dean of the School of Education, director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, and special advisor to the School of Education's dean on international activities. She also served as a faculty associate in the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies. Professor Lawrence coordinated the twelve-year, $550,500 Executive Education Program on Higher Education Leadership in Tianjin and Liaoning, China from 2000-12. In recognition of her skills as a teacher and her role in establishing an international partnership, Professor Lawrence was named an Honorary Professor by Tianjin Normal University in 2001. She has contributed to her profession by serving on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and as vice president of the postsecondary division of the American Educational Research Association.