MACT (1973) and PhD (August 1984), University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Major:  English (Dissertation on abuses of rhetoric in controversial nineteenth-century British cases; rhetoric books written for lawyers; and the presentation of barristers in nineteenth-century British literature).  Minor:  French.  Elected to membership in the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Attended summer 1985 program in Teaching Technical and Professional Communication, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

B.A. (1971) cum laude, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.  Major:  English.  Minors:  French and math.  Elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

Guide institutional accreditation; institution-wide academic program development, review, accreditation, and articulation; strategic planning; and annual division planning. In 2006-2008, chaired the Steering Committee and coordinated the institutional self-study for continuing accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. Serve as institutional liaison to the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and to the Ohio Board of Regents, its Performance Committee, and its Articulation and Transfer committees. Provide oversight for academic and nonacademic assessment, general education (effective 2008), degree audit, periodic and annual reporting to the Higher Learning Commission, special grant initiatives, and the Tech Prep program. Serve as signature authority for the Provost's area and act on behalf of the Provost when needed. Chair or serve on divisional and institutional administrative committees and on Academic Senate committees as needed. Co-chair the regional Tech Prep Governing Board and serve on the Eastern Ohio AHEC Executive Board. Maintain the Provost's area web site. Formerly provided oversight for the Office of Institutional Research, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and P-16 collaborations.

Led and provided oversight for the Academic Division of the university, the largest division in the university. Provided oversight for the six undergraduate colleges, the School of Graduate Studies and Research, the Office of the Provost, and the Academic Affairs budget. Served on the President's Cabinet, the Administrative Advisory Council, and the state's Inter-University Council.

Worked with faculty, department chairs, program directors, the Dean’s Advisory Council, the Dean, central administration, and college advisors and staff to serve students and administer the largest college at Youngstown State University.

Co-founded the program, which grew to approximately 100 majors, administered a grant supporting the new major, established a student internship program, and set up a desktop-publishing lab for professional writing and journalism students. As director, I received the Society for Technical Communication’s Jay R. Gould Award. The program itself has won multiple university assessment awards.
 

Current:

• State Performance Report/Statistical Profiles Consultation Committee, OBOR 

Previous:

• State Performance Report/Statistical Profiles Technical Subcommittee, OBOR 
• Articulation and Transfer Policy Review Committee, OBOR 
• Academic Content Standards Committee, OBOR/ODE Joint Council 
• English Language Arts Content Standards Subcommittee, OBOR/ODE Joint Council

Selected University-Level Committee Appointments, Youngstown State University: 

Current:

• Higher Learning Commission/North Central Association Accreditation Coordinator and Committees (Self-Study Co-coordinator, Steering Committee Chair, and Web Manager, 2005-2008; Previous Self-Study Editor 1996-98) 
• Executive and Administrative Staff Council (formerly Administrative Advisory Council)
• Assessment Council 
• Deans' Council 
• Academic Programs Committee 
• Academic Planning Committee
• Academic Senate Administrative Representative
• Provost's Area Web Manager
• Outstanding Freshman Scholars Tribute Committee (Chair)
• Hispanic Heritage Committee
• University Web Site Advisory Committee 

Previous:

• Academic Senate (Secretary and Executive Committee, 1995-2003; Former Web Manager) 
• University Strategic Planning Committee (Chair, Web Manager) 
• Task Force on University Mission and Goals (Chair) 
• Program Review Committee(s) (Chair)
• University Curriculum Committee (Chair) 
• SCT Banner Advisory Committee, Data Standards and Reporting Committee, and Web Portal Team
• Annual Plan and Budget Committee 
• Presidential Search Advisory Committee 
• Provost Search Advisory Committee 
• BS/MD Joint Admissions Committee 
• Task Force on Sexism in Communication (Chair) 
• A&S Outcomes Assessment Committee (Chair) 
• Various Search Committees, Student Retention Committee, Dykema Scholarship Selection Committee, and Graduate Grievance Committee, among others 

Selected English Department Committee Appointments, Youngstown State University:

Current:

• English Festival (Writing Games and Former Web Manager)
• Press Day Advisory Committee (Registration and Former Web Manager) 

Previous:

• Hiring (Various Positions)
• Chair’s Advisory Council 
• Professional Writing and Editing (Chair) 
• Advising 
• Outcomes Assessment 
• Undergraduate Curriculum 
• Graduate Curriculum 
• Mission and Goals 
• English Web Site Committee, Workload, Computers and the Teaching of Composition, Textbook Review, Placement, Honors, and Academic Goals, among others
   

With two other coordinators, I advised and supervised composition instructors; hired, mentored, and evaluated new part-time faculty; conducted faculty-development workshops; and handled student complaints.  For seven years, I also taught the year-long graduate practicum, supervising and mentoring new graduate assistants during their first year of tutoring and teaching.
 

Advised students for a six-year undergraduate/medical school program, served on committees for the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM), chaired the Arts and Sciences Outcomes Assessment Committee, wrote and edited the quarterly Arts and Sciences newsletter/magazine, worked with the Dean’s Advisory Council, and performed tasks assigned by the Acting Dean.
 

Served and administered a department with 33 full-time faculty, 60 part-time faculty, and a $2,000,000 budget.
 

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Graduate Courses Taught:  professional and technical editing, professional writing/publication internships, publications issues and management, document design and production, technical writing, nineteenth-century British studies, the graduate practicum in the teaching of writing.

Undergraduate Courses Taught:  technical communication, professional and technical editing, professional writing/publication internships, the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel, nineteenth-century British studies, world literature, freshman composition, intermediate composition, honors composition, and computer composition.

Link to Past Course Syllabi
 

Courses Taught:  freshman composition, technical writing, introduction to literature, logic and rhetoric, developmental composition, reading, and reading for foreign students.
 

Courses Taught:  French I and II, junior and senior composition, survey of British literature.
 

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Currently manage the CEA web archive at <http://www.as.ysu.edu/~english/cea/ceaindex.htm> and the CEA Forum archive at <http://www.as.ysu.edu/~english/cea/forum1.htm>.
 

Responsibilities included editing and supervising production of a journal for college administrators, designing brochures, copyediting manuscripts for books and articles, indexing books, proofing, and writing research reports.
 

Responsibilities included editing technical manuscripts and grant proposals and proofing galleys for nonnative speakers of English.

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(Book with Scholarly/Pedagogical Focus) Bowers, Bege K., and Mark Allen, eds.  Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1986–1996.  Notre Dame, IN:  University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.  752 pages.  Winner of the 2004 MLA Prize for Distinguished Bibliography, a national book award.

(Book with Pedagogical/Professional Focus) Bowers, Bege K., and Chuck Nelson, eds.  Internships in Technical Communication:  A Guide for Students, Faculty Supervisors, and Internship Sponsors.  Arlington, VA:  Society for Technical Communication, 1991.  Also wrote Preface and Chapter 2 (pp. 14–26) and compiled the bibliography.

(Book with Scholarly Focus) Bowers, Bege K., and Barbara Brothers, eds.  Reading and Writing Women’s Lives:  A Study of the Novel of Manners. Ann Arbor:  UMI Research Press, 1990.  In 1991, rights to the book were bought by Boydell & Brewer (England) and the University of Rochester Press (New York).  Also coauthor of the introduction (pp. 1–17) and author of the chapter titled  “George Eliot’s Middlemarch and the ‘Text’ of the Novel of Manners” (pp. 105–17).

Bowers, Bege K.  “Samuel Warren.”  In British Reform Writers, 1732–1914. Dictionary of Literary Biography, no. 190.  Ed. Gary Kelly and Edd Applegate. Detroit, Washington, D.C., and London: Gale Research, 1998.  334–38.

Bowers, Bege K.  “Florence Nightingale.”  In British Travel Writers, 1837–1875. Dictionary of Literary Biography, no. 166.  Ed. Barbara Brothers and Julia Gergits.  Detroit, Washington, D.C., and London: Gale Research, 1996.  265–74.

Bowers, Bege K.  “Henry Peter Brougham.”  In British Reform Writers, 1789–1832. Dictionary of Literary Biography, no. 158.  Ed. Gary Kelly and Edd Applegate. Detroit, Washington, D.C., and London: Gale Research, 1996.  36–42.

Allen, Mark, and Bege K. Bowers. “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2005.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 29 (2007): 565-660; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2004.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 28 (2006): 349–423; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2003.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 27 (2005): 381–470; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2002.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 26 (2004): 443–535; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2001.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 25 (2003): 459–546; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 2000.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 24 (2002): 455–561; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1999.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 23 (2001): 615–99; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1998.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22 (2000): 557–656; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1997.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 21 (1999): 409–500; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1996.”  Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20 (1998):  355–438; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1995.”  Studies in the Age of Chaucer 19 (1997):  353–447; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1994.”  Studies in the Age of Chaucer 18 (1996): 317–96; “An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography, 1993.”  Studies in the Age of Chaucer 17 (1995):  287–362. (I have served as co-compiler of this annual bibliography since 1985.)

Bowers, Bege K.   Rev. of Visualizing Technical Information: A Cultural Critique, by Lee Brasseur; and Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions, by Charles Kostelnick and Michael Hassett.  Technical Communication Quarterly 15.2 (Spring 2006): 248-52.

Bowers, Bege K.  Rev. of Successful Writing at Work, by Philip C. Kolin.  Journal of Technical Writing & Communication 25.1 (1995):  112–14.

Elias, Janice, and Bege K. Bowers. “Conducting a Successful and Rewarding Self-Study.” A Collection of Papers on Self-Study and Institutional Improvement. Chicago:  Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, 1999.  273–77.  This publication was based on our experience leading YSU’s University-wide reaccreditation process.

Editor of the CEA Critic (1988-2002), the scholarly journal, and the CEA Forum (1988-2003), the newsletter/magazine, of the College English Association.  The Critic published three volumes a year; the Forum published two.  (The Forum became an online publication in 1999.)  We housed, edited, and produced the Critic at YSU.  I received the College English Association’s Distinguished Service Award in April 1996 for my work as editor of the journals.  (Critic co-editors included Barbara Brothers and Julia Gergits.)

For a number of years, I compiled the Chaucer Research-in-Progress Reports for the Chaucer Review and Neuphilologische Mitteilungen.

See also the Professional Experience–Administrative/Service section above.

College English Association Executive Board, 1988–2005 (National Organization); Web Archive Manager.

Assistant Bibliographer, New Chaucer Society (International Organization), 1986–Present.

2004-Present:  Elder; 2001–Present: Web Manager, First Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio.

2002–Present: Member of the Performance Report Consultation Committee and Technical Subcommittee, Ohio Board of Regents.

1993–2004: Coordinator and judge for the Manitoba, Canada-Northeastern Ohio Student Technical Writing Competition, a regional branch of the International Student Technical Writing Competition.  The contest involved eleventh and twelfth graders throughout Manitoba, Canada, and northeastern Ohio.

2002–2003: Member of the Articulation and Transfer Policy Review Committee, Ohio Board of Regents.

1999–2001: Member of the Ohio Department of Education committees on K-12 academic standards, benchmarks, and grade-level indicators in English Language Arts.

1998–2001: Member of the Ohio Board of Regents/Department of Education Joint Council committee on academic standards for students entering college and/or the workforce.  Also on the subcommittee for English Language Arts.

1995–2000: Secretary, Board of Deacons, First Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio; editor, FPC Focus on People and Community, the quarterly newsletter of First Presbyterian Church, Youngstown.

1995–96:  Consultant to Western Reserve Care System (now part of Forum Health), Youngstown, Ohio, evaluating and determining the reading level of informational material the hospitals distribute to patients.

1994–95:  Consultant to the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, helping administrators with business and grant writing.

Reader of manuscripts and proposals for various presses and journals, including the Chaucer Review, winter 2003; Visual Design for Digital Documents for Addison Wesley Longman Publishers, summer 2002; Linda Smoak Schwartz’s The Schwartz Guide to MLA Documentation for Harcourt Brace, fall 1999; James D. Lester’s Writing Research Papers for Longman/Addison-Wesley Publishers, fall 1996; Chaucer’s Fame in England, a scholarly book, for the Modern Language Association, spring 1996; and Ourselves Among Others, a composition textbook, for Bedford-St. Martin’s Press, fall 1995.

College English Association (National Organization, Executive Board, Distinguished Service Award), College English Association of Ohio, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (National Organization), Society for Technical Communication (International Organization), Northeastern Ohio Society for Technical Communication (Former Planning Committee; Past Chair, Manitoba, Canada-Northeastern Ohio High School Technical Writing Competition), National Tech Prep Network, Modern Language Association (National Organization; Past Chair of the Committee on Chaucer Bibliography and Research), New Chaucer Society (International Organization, Assistant Bibliographer), the YSU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi (Executive Committee; Web Manager; Secretary 1994–98), and the Gould Society Faculty Committee.

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