Alan Mandell is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring at SUNY Empire State College. In his more than four decades at Empire State College, he has served as administrator, mentor in the social sciences and director of the college’s Mentoring Institute. Mandell edits the college’s journal, All About Mentoring and co-edits (with colleague Nan Travers) the first international on-line journal on prior learning assessment, PLA Insideout. Mandell regularly makes presentations at conferences; facilitates workshops; and serves as a consult/reviewer on many projects on adult learning, mentoring and experiential learning.
Together with Elana Michelson, he is the author of Portfolio Development and the Assessment of Prior Learning (2nd edition) (2004) and co-edited the collection of essays, “Adult Education in the Age of Trump and Brexit” (2020). Together with Lee Herman, he has written many essays and book chapters, and has co-authored the book, From Teaching to Mentoring: Principle and Practice, Dialogue and Life in Adult Education (2004), and with Katherine Jelly, he co-edited the book, Principles, Practices, and Creative Tensions in Progressive Higher Education (2017).
Over the last several years, Mandell and colleague Xenia Coulter have regularly published on the state of adult learning today, including a recent edited volume on John Dewey in the New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education series. Recognition of his work includes the Eugene Sullivan Award for Leadership given by the Adult Higher Education Alliance (2009), the SUNY Chancellor’s award for Excellence in Teaching (2001) and for Professional Services (1991), and the Empire State College Foundation Award in Mentoring (2000). Mandell held the first Susan Turben Chair in Adult Learning and Mentoring (2008-2009).