International Education To Get New Leader

Michael D. Morrison, The William J. Boswell Professor of Law at Baylor Law School, will succeed Dr. William A. Mitchell as The Jo Murphy Chair in International Education and director of the Center of International Education at Baylor, effective Feb. 1, 2007.
A Baylor faculty member since 1993, Mitchell has served as CIE director for the past six years. Under his leadership, Baylor increased the number of students studying abroad from 575 in 2000-01 to 855 in 2005-06, and expanded the number of exchange and study abroad programs to nearly 60 programs in 26 countries. The number of international students attending Baylor remained steady while the diversity of the students' home countries grew to 76. 
Beginning next year, Mitchell will focus his research on the impact of colonialism in the West African region of Francophone Africa. He also will continue his research with the Center for Democracy and Diplomacy, which he helped establish in 2005 at the University of Dohuk in northern Iraq.
Morrison has been a member of the Baylor Law School faculty since 1977 and was designated an Outstanding Professor in 1997. He served two terms as mayor of Waco from 1996-2000. He most recently served as interim chief of staff for former Interim President Bill Underwood and current Baylor President John M. Lilley.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Morrison earned a degree in psychology with high honors from the University of Oklahoma in 1971. He received his law degree from Oklahoma as the Outstanding Law Student for 1974 by the Oklahoma Bar Association. He served as Note Editor of the Oklahoma Law Review and was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif. He is admitted to practice in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, as well as the United States Supreme Court and the federal courts of Texas and Oklahoma. He has been recognized by his peers with election as a Fellow of both the Texas and the American Bar Foundations.
Mitchell received his bachelor's degree from East Texas State University, now Texas A&M-Commerce, his master's degree from UCLA and his doctorate from the University of Illinois. He is a graduate of the Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Services.
Before joining the Baylor faculty, Mitchell led a distinguished 34-year military career, in which he served in the Vietnam and Gulf Wars and commanded bases in Incirlik and Izmir, Turkey. His military career launched his academic career with his first of several appointments at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado from 1970-86 and then as professor of national security affairs at the Air War College from 1986-88 and from 1991-92.