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Alan Mandell

Alan Mandell is College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring, and was the first Susan Turben Chair in Mentoring at SUNY Empire State College. For more than four decades, Mandell has served as administrator, mentor in the social sciences, and director of the college’s Mentoring Institute. He edits the college journal, All About Mentoring and is also coeditor (with Nan Travers) of the on-line journal, PLA Inside-Out. Mandell regularly makes presentations at conferences and trainings on adult learning, mentoring and experiential learning, and has served as a consultant/reviewer on many projects. With Elana Michelson, Mandell is the author of two editions of Portfolio Development and the Assessment of Prior Learning. With Lee Herman, he has written From Teaching to Mentoring: Principle and Practice, Dialogue and Life in Adult Education. Mandell and Xenia Coulter have written essays, reviews and led many workshops. Their volume on John Dewey’s Experience & Education was published as part of the “New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education” series. With Katherine Jelly, Mandell edited the book, Principles, Practices, and Creative Tensions in Progressive Higher Education: One Institution’s Struggle to Sustain a Vision. In 2009, Mandell was honored by the Adult Higher Education Alliance with the Eugene Sullivan Award for Leadership in Adult Higher Education. He is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2001), the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Services (1991), and the Excellence in Mentoring Award (2000). In 2020, he was named SUNY Distinguished Service Professor.

Degrees

  • B.A. in History from University of Chicago
  • M.A. in Sociology from New School for Social Research
  • Ph.D. in Sociology from The Graduate Center at City University of New York

Publications

  • Mandell, A. & Coulter, X. (Eds.) (2018). Adult Educators on Dewey's "Experience and Education." New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education (#158).

  • Jelly, K. & Mandell, A. (Eds.) (2017). Principles, Practices, and Creative Tensions in Progressive Higher Education: One Institution's Struggle to Sustain a Vision. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
  • Mandell, A. & Coulter, X. (2016). Academic mentoring as precarious practice. In K. Peno, E. D. Mangiante & R.A. Henahan (Eds.) Mentoring in Formal and Informal Contexts. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
  • Coulter, X. & Mandell, A. (2016). Rediscovering the legacy of self-initiated learning in prior learning assessments. In S. Reushle, A. Antonio & M. Keppell (Eds.) Open Learning and Formal Credentialing in Higher Education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
  • Herman, L. & Mandell, A. (2004). From Teaching to Mentoring: Principle and Practice, Dialogue and Life in Adult Education. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
  • Mandell, A. & Michelson, E. (Eds.) (2020). Adult Learning in the Age of Trump and Brexit. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education (#165).