Dr. Bill Morrison, an alumnus of the Beta Omicron Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity, is set to be inducted into Northwestern State University’s Hall of Distinguished Educators.

The Gallaspy College of Education and Human Development honors alumni whose outstanding professional achievements warrant special recognition. Since 2000, over 70 education alumni have been inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Educators.

Morrison is a retired educator with 30 years experience in teaching and administration at the district and state levels. He earned his bachelor’s degree from NSU in 1983, and in 1997 earned a Master’s of Education in Educational Technology from NSU. In 2000 he earned a Doctor of Education from NSU in Educational Technology. In addition to his experience in PK-12 teaching and administration, he has 25 years higher education experience in graduate-level teaching/academics and program development and administration.

Morrison began his career as a secondary math and science teacher in Rapides Parish. After several years, he went into the private sector for nine years where he worked for an educational technology company and for five years owned his own technology company that specialized in educational systems, custom programming, and networking. He then returned to education in Rapides Parish as the Technology Specialist for the Special Education Department where he was responsible for technology staff development, assistive technology assessment and implementation, and technology budgeting and purchasing for the Special Education Department.

In 1997, Morrison became the first director of Technology for Rapides Parish. As the district’s chief technology officer, he was responsible for all instructional and administrative technology for the 50-school district with 24,000 students. In this role he and his team wrote and received over $13 million in competitive federal, state and private grants for educational technology. Additionally, the department received a grant for and implemented a regional technology training center that served eight districts in central Louisiana and provided training to over 1,400 teachers annually for almost 10 years. During his 15 years as Technology Director, his department networked all 54 district schools and offices with fiber optics and brought over 10,000 computers into the district.

Morrison’s last two years with the Rapides Parish School Board saw him serve as the Assistant Superintendent of Administration for the district. In this role he assisted the superintendent in all administrative responsibilities for the district including personnel matters (3,400 employees), district purchasing, interface with budgeting and finance, bids, surveys, litigation and court actions, supervision of district plant facilities and maintenance, construction, school food services, child welfare and attendance, transportation, insurance and risk management and working with principals, staff and parents to ensure that school board policies were implemented.

From Rapides Parish, Morrison moved to the Louisiana Department of Education as the Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Assessments. Here, he led the state’s work for all areas of PK-12 statewide assessment including the development, administration and reporting of large-scale summative assessments including LEAP, iLEAP, End of Course Examinations and the statewide management and administration of other assessments such as the ACT. In this role, he also served as the Louisiana assessment lead and liaison to the U.S. Department of Education and other state education departments to establish and maintain productive relationships with key national organizations involved in assessment issues and represent the LDOE in cross-organizational activities.

For the final seven years of his career, Morrison served as a tenured associate professor in NSU’s School of Education as the program coordinator for the Adult Learning and Development (EDAL) program. His initial work in the EDAL program was to redesign and re-envision the Master of Arts in Adult Learning and Development program, formerly the Adult Education program. Over a period of two years, he worked with the development of 12 completely new courses and created two program concentrations: eLearning and Adult and Workforce Development. After the redesign of the master’s program, Morrison was tasked with creating a Doctor of Education Program in Adult Learning and Development with Community College Leadership and Adult Learning concentrations. The program development took over five years and involved receiving approval from the Louisiana Board of Regents for the program, designing 22 new doctoral courses, creating dissertation and research formats and protocols, receiving SACS approval and recruiting and enrolling student cohorts. The initial cohort of 20 students was accepted in 2017, with the first graduates completing the program and graduating in the spring of 2021. At that time, the doctoral program had grown to over 80 students, making it one of the largest at NSU and one of the larger doctoral programs in Louisiana.

In addition to his PK-12 and NSU work, Morrison also served as an adjunct graduate instructor for NSU from 1997 to 2002 and for Lesley University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2003-2010.  Over the final 20 years of his career, he made over three dozen presentations, most at the national level, wrote numerous articles for national publications and served in over 50 professional roles and activities. Additionally, he received numerous professional awards at the state and national level, including the International Society for Technology in Education Making It Happen award.

A reception for the honorees will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 in the Commons Area at the Teacher Education Center at 150 Tarleton Drive. The induction ceremony will start at 11 a.m. Friends, colleagues and alumni are invited to attend.

Morrison will become the fourth Pi Kappa Phi initiate named to the hall, following Dr. Larry Gracie, Robert Crew, and Dr. Jerry Payne.

Via NSU News Bureau and NSU Traditions.