As change looms for Bill Pitney, he is in awe of his good fortune.
“Being able to go back to the classroom and work with our students? I mean, how cool is that? To revisit the thing that drew you here in the first place? How cool is it to have that opportunity?” Pitney asks. “It’s amazing.”
The College of Education’s associate dean of Research, Resources and Innovation since 2016 has chosen to return this fall to his home Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) as a professor of Athletic Training.
That’s what he taught when he arrived on campus in 1994, before he began enhancing his résumé with leadership positions.
In addition to his term as associate dean, Pitney served eight months as NIU’s acting vice provost for Faculty Affairs in 2019; KNPE Chair Todd Gilson, who served as acting associate dean while Pitney worked in Altgeld Hall, now will take on that role permanently.
Pitney also was executive secretary of University Council and president of Faculty Senate for Fiscal Year 2015.
Yet he never has forgotten why he pursued a career in higher education or one of his favorite parts of the academic process.
“Coming to NIU, I enjoyed creating learning experiences that were meaningful for our students,” Pitney says, “because there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing or observing our students make the connections between what they’re learning in the classroom and the real world. That was just so rewarding.”
So, he adds, was his preliminary work toward those ends.
“I’m probably a nerd, but I liked preparing for classes – thinking about what the objectives are and the best way to help our students achieve those objectives,” Pitney says. “That was always just really fun for me, and I look forward to preparing for my classes for this fall. I just get a lot of joy in that.”
Dean Laurie Elish-Piper calls Pitney “an amazing partner in leading the College of Education.”
“His pragmatic, hard-working approach enabled us to get so much done over the past six years, and his generosity of time, expertise and insights has been such a gift to me, to our senate and to the college,” Elish-Piper says.
“As Bill moves back to his faculty role, I know he is excited to re-immerse himself in his research, teaching and student engagement work. I am also confident that he will assume the role of faculty leader and contribute his efforts and energies to the Athletic Training program, KNPE and the College of Education in important and meaningful ways,” she adds.
“While I will miss having him in the role of associate dean for Research, Resources and Innovation, I am forever grateful for his partnership, expertise and wise counsel on myriad issues, challenges and opportunities we’ve faced over these past six years.”
The feeling is mutual for Pitney, who considers his term in the dean’s office as an “honor.”
“I believe I positively changed our climate and tried to make this the best place to teach, work and learn,” he says. “I recall thinking of that when I took this position – trying to be a team player with our faculty, our students and our staff, working with them to support our folks in their roles. This has been a really meaningful piece for me.”
He also is grateful to have “connected with our faculty in new and different ways,” such as through his oversight of the GPS program that offers guidance, positioning and support to incoming faculty.
“We bring them together consistently when they first arrive on campus for their initial semester and beyond so that they meet senior faculty and other staff on campus, understand opportunities that exist for them and understand key procedures that are in place that will help them navigate NIU,” Pitney says.
“Another piece of that is this is the Collegial Connections program, which brings faculty from different departments together to get to know one another, to interact with one another and perhaps even collaborate with one another,” he adds. “There have been some really positive relationships that have developed.”
Positive relationships have defined Pitney’s career.
The native of Peru, Ind., majored in physical education at Indiana State University with plans to teach; a class in athletic training showed him a different path.
“I was just really intrigued by that content,” Pitney says, “and then I thought, ‘How cool would it be to be part of a health care team where you’re with your patients to prevent injuries, you’re with your patients to treat any injuries that occur and you’re with your patients to help with the rehabilitation process and then see them return back to the field, the court or the sport setting?’ It’s an interesting profession from that standpoint and different among other health professions.”
Earning a specialization in athletic training with his bachelor’s degree, he went on to complete a master’s degree in physical education from Eastern Michigan University and his NIU doctorate in adult continuing education.
Before that, however, and with board certification as an athletic trainer, Pitney provided outpatient rehabilitation as a clinical outreach athletic trainer in the Detroit area, serving three high schools and their sports teams.
Later, as an athletic trainer at Eastern Michigan University, he found a chance to apply his educator licensure.
“I had an opportunity to co-teach a therapeutic modalities, or therapeutic interventions, class there in their undergraduate athletic training program and, just as I thought I would, I really enjoyed it and loved it,” Pitney says.
“Being a physical educator, I always had the natural proclivity to want to teach and engage with students – that calling to be a teacher – and when I had the taste of teaching athletic training students at Eastern Michigan University as a graduate student, I just really knew that’s where I wanted to be. I started to look for some opportunities to become a full-time educator.”
That came in 1994 in Anderson Hall.
Recognition followed.
Pitney’s list of honors includes the 2013 Outstanding Educator Award from the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers’ Association, the 2013 Dedicated Service Award from the Illinois Athletic Trainers’ Association, the 2015 Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and the 2016 Sayers “Bud” Miller Distinguished Educator Award from the NATA’s Executive Committee on Education.
Even as he took on leadership roles in his department, eventually serving as director of the Athletic Training program, and across NIU and throughout his profession, he regarded each as a teacher as well as a way “to serve, help, make a positive difference and leave a meaningful mark.”
“I’ve benefitted from those opportunities. You get a chance to continually learn, whether it’s about the innerworkings of the university, or the college, or the department, or why policies and procedures exist or are structured the way they are, and how we got to that point,” Pitney says.
“When you’re constantly learning about these things, and you’re learning about best practices to bring to bear on current situations, that’s a meaningful experience,” he adds, “and to see how I can change things to make them better has been a key thing for me.”
