In a recent survey of TAA members about what month works best for them for the association’s annual conference, 61 percent said June. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said May and only 10 percent said April. TAA’s conferences have been held in the first or third month in June since the first one, held in Las Vegas in 1988. The one-question poll was sent to 2,300 TAA members and 109 responded. As a result, the TAA annual conference will continue to be held in June each year at this time, said TAA Executive Director Kim Pawlak.
Kevin Patton Receives 2024 Authoring Mentoring Award From TAA
Anatomy & Physiology textbook author Kevin Patton received the 2024 Author Mentoring Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville on June 22.
TAA’s Authoring Mentoring Award is given to a teacher, administrator, fellow author, or other professional colleague who takes extraordinary care to encourage and advise earlier career authors.
Brenda Ulrich Receives 2024 TAA President’s Award
Brenda Ulrich, TAA Board Secretary and an attorney at Archstone Law, received the 2024 TAA President’s Award from TAA Board President Paul Krieger at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville on June 22. The TAA President’s Award is given at the discretion of the TAA Board President based on service given to TAA in the past year.
Laura Frost Inducted Into TAA Council of Fellows
Chemistry textbook author Laura Frost was inducted into the TAA Council of Fellows at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville on June 22.
The TAA Council of Fellows distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional and academic works have established his/her presence in scholarly publishing over time and who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA.
Daphne C. Watkins Receives Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award From TAA
Daphne C. Watkins, a Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan, has been awarded the Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). The award was established to honor individuals whose achievements over a career of devoted effort and service demonstrate the highest degree of commitment to excellence in authoring works to advance their discipline; encourage, enlighten and support the work of colleagues; and educate students in the field. The award is named for Ron Pynn and Franklin Silverman, two charter members of TAA who pursued and modeled these qualities in their own work.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected for this award,” said Watkins. “Thank you!”
TAA Member Phil Wankat’s Curation and Commentary of ‘The Academic Author’ Archives – Installment 2
The second installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues (1994 to 2010) of the The Academic Author, Bios, is now available. Articles include “And now, 50 books later, a bio of Mike Keedy, author of mathematics textbooks and the founder of TAA,” and “Cognitive Aspects of Writer’s Block,” and “Author Profile: Philip Zimbardo, Improving the human condition.”