The Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring honors the life and work of mathematics textbook author Michael Sullivan, a long-time TAA member who has authored or co-authored more than 120 mathematics textbooks, many of which have been published in multiple editions.

The Lecture series provides a forum for textbook and academic authors to learn from veteran textbook and academic authors and other academic and textbook authoring and publishing experts. It will feature an invited lecturer whose textbook or academic authoring accomplishments are prolific, award-winning, and highly engaging and inspiring, or whose experience in the textbook or academic authoring or publishing industry qualifies them as an expert. The lectureship was established in 2023 by a generous gift from Michael Sullivan.

Lectures will be presented each year at TAA’s Annual Conference in June. The inaugural lecture will take place at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville, TN June 21-22: “The Very Human Experience of Learning,” by Susan Winslow of MacMillan Publishing.

Nominations for the 2025 Lecture will be accepted starting July 2025.

• Nominations are accepted from TAA members in good standing.
• We encourage nominations of speakers from any academic or textbook authoring field whose authoring accomplishments are prolific, award-winning, and highly engaging and inspiring; or from industry professionals whose experience in the textbook or academic industry qualifies them as an expert.
• The stewardship of the Michael Sullivan Lecture is guided by TAA’s Conference Committee. TAA members can nominate a lecturer by completing an online nomination form.

Michael Sullivan had a long teaching career at Chicago State University as Professor of Mathematics, from 1965 to 1997. His love of teaching spurred him to write textbooks, with his first textbook Finite Mathematics, published in 1972. He has since authored more than 120 textbooks in mathematics, including College Algebra, Trigonometry, Precalculus, Business Calculus, Engineering Calculus, and AP Calculus. His textbooks are used in high schools and universities across the United States and have been translated into a variety of foreign languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek. TAA chose several of his texts to receive the McGuffey Longevity Award and honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He is a long-time member of TAA, and has served as TAA Council President and Treasurer, and is currently TAA’s representative to the Authors Coalition. He continues to author textbooks, but also enjoys travel, tennis, and gardening. He divides his time between living in Naples, FL and Oak Lawn, IL.