Hi, my name is Lilian Hill, professor emerita
of the University of Southern Mississippi. I retired after working for more
than 35 years in adult education in both Canada and the United States. My work
experience includes program development/administration, conference management,
faculty development, and teaching at the undergraduate, professional, and
graduate levels. As a professor, I have published extensively in adult education, higher education, and pharmacy education journals. My primary areas of expertise are in adult learning, health literacy, and assessment and evaluation. In 2020, I published an edited book on Assessment Evaluation, and Accountability in Adult Education. Most recently, I co-authored a textbook titled So you detest reading? Literacy skills and strategies for college students (Kendall Hunt, 2022).
At the university level, I have taught a wide variety of courses in adult education and qualitative research. I have chaired and served on more than 100 dissertations and often contributed as the qualitative research methodologist.
Regarding my service to my profession, I am co-editor of Adult Learning, the practitioner-oriented publication of the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education. I was honored to be recognized with the
- Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education by the American Association in Adult and Continuing Education in 2015
- Induction into International Adult Education Hall of Fame in 2018
- Circle of 50 alumni by the University of Georgia in 2019
- Career Achievement Award from CPAE in 2021
- Lifetime Research Award, University of Southern Mississippi in 2022.
On a personal note, I am an artist, author, life coach, and recent graduate of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.
I will leave you with a poem I wrote that shares the antecedents of my interest in this topic.
Lessons from my Mother
I often say someone was not raised by my mother. Lately, I have been asking myself what I mean by that
statement?
I say it when people are behaving rudely to one another.
When they refuse to understand a conflict from more than one perspective,when they are so sure they are right.
And fail to see that they could be wrong and the other person could be right.
When they disbelieve or disrespect the reasons people have for what they say and do.
When they fail to believe in other persons’ good intentions.
When they are focused on people’s exteriors, and do not care to learn about how they live, what they
experienced, or what they learned.
When people fail to realize that we are all in this together, and that we are all afraid, clutching on to our little bits of the economic pie that does not trickle down, no matter how many times we are told that it will.
We hope to gain and not lose.
We do not realize, much conflict is the result of people being manipulated within our socioeconomic system.
Whenever I would complain of being wronged, my mother would question me about what reasons the person would have for the way they acted.
As a child I was indignant.
Why did she not believe me that the other person was in the wrong?
I understand now that my mother was teaching me to look at and respect other people’s perspectives.
My mother prepared me to become an adult educator long before I ever knew the term.
Why did it take me so long to understand?
