William Crawley

• Position: Professor & AWKO Leadership and Public Policy Research Fellow
• Department: Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Legal Studies
• Office Location: Building 85, Room 113
• Wcrawley@uwf.edu
• Campus: 850.474.2336
• Argo Scholar Commons: Dr. William R Crawley

Biography

Dr. William Crawley has more than 25 years in higher education, including 20+ years in various academic leadership positions at multiple institutions such as dean, associate dean, international campus director, executive director of philanthropy, department chair, and grants coordinator. In 2014, Dr. Crawley was appointed to dean of the newly created UWF College of Education and Professional Studies, where he directed a college mission focused on delivering a learner-focused education, applied scholarship, and building robust partnerships with regional school districts and professional organizations to drive workforce and societal prosperity. In 2023, Dr. Crawley accepted an appointment as a Leadership and Public Policy Research Fellow at UWF’s Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz (AWK) Center for Leadership.

Dr. Crawley is an accomplished educator, scholar, and academic leader. As a first-generation college student, he understands and is deeply committed to the profound impact of education and mentoring. Throughout his career, he has worked to extend access and equity in education, andragogical innovation and curricular design, and faculty and staff professional development. To best prepare students for the rapidly evolving careers, he has integrated technology into the curriculum of all the disciplines under his supervision.

Dr. Crawley is a prolific author and presenter, sharing his work at more than 70 symposia and conferences, with recent presentations including an analysis of Covid Learning Loss to the Oxford International Roundtable, and an invited campus presentation at Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) on Improvement Science. Dr. Crawley has disseminated his research via peer-reviewed journal articles, books, monographs, technical reports, and book chapters.

Specializing in interdisciplinary and transformational leadership – leadership behavior that draws out and nurtures the highest levels of human potential and enhances organizational performance – Dr. Crawley is an innovative leader, author, and presenter whose research has informed his work in the classroom, as a peer reviewer and editor of scholarship, as an academic administrator, and through collaborations with government and community-based organizations.

With leadership at the core of his work, Dr. Crawley’s research interest has led him to be extensively involved in public-service and community-based initiatives, where he has led more than $8 million in grant funding. Because of his organizational leadership experience, Dr. Crawley is frequently invited to serve on non-profit executive boards. For example, he currently serves as co-president of the Gulf Coast Freedom School, an out-of-school literacy program for early and middle school students.

Degrees & Institutions

Dr. Crawley grew up in the Midwest, where he earned two undergraduate degrees: a B.S. in resource management from Iowa State University and a B.A. in Asian studies and Japanese language from the University of Iowa. He continued his education at the University of South Carolina, taking a master’s degree in criminal justice and a graduate certification in drug and alcohol studies. He next earned a Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and completed a second doctoral in Interdisciplinary Leadership at Creighton University.

Continuing his professional leadership development, he completed the Management Development Program (MDP) at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, earned an executive certificate in Strategy and Innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, took a certificate in Communications from the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and most recently completed the University of Oxford’s Executive Finance Program.

Leadership Positions and Recognition

Scholarly Appointments

• American Council on Education Fellow (ACE), DePaul University (Chicago)
• Leadership and Public Policy Research Fellow, Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz (AWKO) Center for Leadership, University of West Florida (UWF)
• Nippon Fellow, Japan Studies Institute (JSI), American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASC&U)
• 2014, 2016 & 2018 Visiting Scholar, Japanese Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU – Hikone, Japan), Michigan State University
• 2009 Research and Teaching Fellowship, Japanese Center for Michigan Universities

Service

• International Board of Governors, Japanese U.S. Teacher Education Consortium (JUSTEC)
• National Board of Directors, Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate (CPED)
• Grant Advisory Board, National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Co-President, Board of Directors, Central Gulf Coast Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools
• Leadership Council, Take Stock in Children (Escambia County, FL)
• Task Force Member/Fiscal Agent, Project Safe Neighborhoods, US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan (WDMI)

Teaching Excellence

• 2009 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, Grand Valley State University (GVSU)
• 2007 Faculty Mentor Award, Grand Valley State University
• 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award, Panhellenic Association
• 2006 Outstanding Teaching Award, Grand Valley State University-Pew Campus

Publications

Please see Dr. Crawley’s CV for a complete list of publications.