Dr. Charles Howell

Charles Howell, an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War era, earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies education from Georgia State University. After teaching in elementary schools in Georgia and Maine, he took a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa. For nine years he taught composition at Syracuse University, before completing doctoral work in philosophy of education in 2001. Prior to arrival at YSU, he taught education courses at Moorhead State University in Minnesota and served as department chair at Northern Illinois University.

Dr. Howell’s scholarship focuses on political and ethical issues in education, especially parents’ right and responsibility to control the education of their children. He has been active in the national debate about the social and political implications of homeschooling. His two children were educated at home from ages 10 and 11.

Dr. Howell was appointed Dean of the Beeghly College of Education in 2012. Under his leadership, education and counseling programs were reaccredited in 2016 and 2018. At the height of the pandemic, in Spring 2020, he oversaw the merger of education with the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and now serves as dean of the new college, Beeghly College of Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Education, known by the mellifluous acronym BCLASSE (“be classy”).