E.mail: jlawson@stetson.edu

Telephone: 904-635-9490

• Instruction and Instructional Design
• Ethics/Normative Theory
• Psychology/Human Behavior
• Research
• Logic/Reasoning and Critical Thinking
• Editing/Writing

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CASE MANAGER

Our Children First. May 2010-Present.

Assessed the biopsychosocial functioning of clients. Completed needs assessments and developed individualized service plans with the aim of improving client functioning and performance. Worked in conjunction with physicians, clinicians, educators, community service providers and legal professionals to optimize client functioning. Arranged, coordinated, monitored, evaluated, and advocated for a package of multiple services to meet the specific client’s complex needs. Produced and maintaind records in compliance with regulatory standards. Acted as change agent within the socio-legal-educational structure.

PRINCIPAL, CURRICULUM DEVELOPER, INSTRUCTOR

The Lawson Academy. July 2008-July 2009.

Under Florida Statute 1002.41, established a college preparatory home education program. Reviewed and evaluated compliance issues and concerns. Ensured that program was in compliance with the rules and regulations of regulatory bodies. Acted as instructional leader to promote a productive learning environment. Developed program mission and internal code of conduct. Ensured implementation of policies. Developed, reviewed, selected and designed learning curriculum. Built courses that met clearly defined learning objectives. Designed documents, student materials, presentation slides, assessments, labs and course descriptions. Instructed college preparatory courses in Literature, Art History, Physical Science, Earth Science, World Geography, Human Sexuality, Grammar, Algebra I, Health and Human Adjustment and American Government. Hired co-instructors for college preparatory Art and Aesthetics.

TEACHING ASSISTANT

University of North Florida Department of Philosophy. 2006-2008.

Successfully taught, through discussion format and lecture format, approximately 100 undergraduate students per semester. Developed and selected course materials and evaluation and assessment tools. Adapted instructional content and/or delivery methods for different levels or types of learners. Designed instructional aids. Presented and made recommendations regarding course design, technology, and instruction delivery options. Used instructional technologies, including Smart Rooms, BlackBoard, and MS applications, such as PowerPoint. Consistently received outstanding evaluations from students, peers and superiors.  

 

Courses:

Introduction to Philosophy. Spring, 2008.

Introduction to Philosophy. Fall, 2007.

Introduction to Philosophy. Spring, 2007.

Introduction to Philosophy. Fall, 2006.

Sample Course Description for Introduction to Philosophy:

This course is an introduction to some of the classic problems in philosophy. Central topics to be discussed include epistemology and value theory, the nature of scientific theory, theistic and atheistic belief, ontology, the problem of human freedom, the nature of rationality, philosophy of mind, and political philosophy. Students will engage with primary texts from Ancient Greece to the modern time, encountering classic thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Rene Descartes and David Hume, as well as contemporary thinkers, such as Alan Turing, Gilbert Ryle and John Searle.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

University of North Florida Department of Philosophy.

Research Assistant for Reading Bernard Williams (Ed. Daniel Callcut). Fall, 2007-Spring, 2008.

Under the editorial guidance of Dr. Daniel Callcut, and in conjunction with Routledge Press, a top publisher in the field of philosophy, performed editorial functions during book production, including conducting research to verify and ensure content accuracy, reading and reviewing commissioned essays, reviewing copy to detect errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax. Prepared written material for publication. Verified facts, dates, and other content, using standard reference sources. Rewrote and/or modified copy to conform to publication’s style and editorial policy. Was credited with being a “superb research assistant” in the book’s acknowledgments section.

Book Description:

When Bernard Williams died in 2003, the Times newspaper hailed him ‘as the greatest moral philosopher of his generation’. This outstanding collection of specially commissioned new essays on Williams’s work is essential reading for anyone interested in Williams, ethics and moral philosophy and philosophy in general.

Reading Bernard Williams examines the astonishing scope of his philosophy from metaphysics and philosophy of mind to ethics, political philosophy and the history of philosophy. An international line up of outstanding contributors discuss, amongst others, the following central aspects of Williams’s work:

• Williams’s challenge to contemporary moral philosophy and his criticisms of ‘absolute’ theories of morality
• reason and rationality
• the good life
• the emotions
• Williams and the phenomenological tradition
• philosophical and political agency
• moral and political luck
• ethical relativism

Contributors : Simon Blackburn; John Cottingham; Frances Ferguson; Joshua Gert; Peter Goldie; Charles Guignon; Sharon Krause; Christopher Kutz; Daniel Markovits; Elijah Millgram; Martha Naussbaum; Carol Rovane

• Review of Reading Bernard Williams from the journal Ethics.

• Review of Reading Bernard Williams from the Notre Dame Philosophical Review

Guest Lecturer: Guest lecturer for Reasoning and Critical Thinking on Confirmation Bias. University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, 2008.

Guest Lecturer: Guest lecturer for Reasoning and Critical Thinking on Informal Fallacies. University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, 2008.

Co-Editor and Contributor: Co-editor and contributor for the Florida Student Philosophy Blog, an electronic resource for philosophy undergraduate and graduate students hosted by the University of North Florida’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, 2006-2010.

Workshop Co-Developer: Developed a workshop on the topics of governmental integrity and transitional justice, Spring 2007.

Guest Lecturer: “Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach and the Colonization of American Indians.” Lecture delivered to students in Feminist Ethics (Upper-level undergraduate philosophy course). Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, 2004.

Guest Speaker: “Questioning the Metanarratives: An Explanation of Postmodernism with Emphasis on Social and Cultural Movements.” The Chiles Academy, Port Orange, Florida, 2004.

Guest Motivational Speaker: “High School and Beyond.” Presentation delivered to middle and high school students at risk for dropping out of school. The Chiles Academy, Port Orange, Florida, 2004.

Tutor: Volunteer roaming tutor at The Chiles Academy, Port Orange, Florida. Assisted students in grades six through twelve with expository writing and reading comprehension. Fall, 2004.

PUBLICATIONS

Opinion/Editorial:

“Dispute Over Mascots Only Tip of Indian Concerns.” Daytona Beach News-Journal 20 August 2005: 5A

HONORS AND AWARDS

Induction into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. March, 2009.

First Prize in Poetry and Prose in the Ann Morris Essay and Creative Writing Contest for “Round and Round,” Stetson University Honors Convocation, 2004

First Prize in Poetry in the Ann Morris Essay and Creative Writing Contest for “America II: A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg and Other Beautiful Minds,” Stetson University Honors Convocation, 2003

First Prize in Poetry in the Ann Morris Essay and Creative Writing Contest for “I Heard the Stories,” Stetson University Honors Convocation, 2002

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Extremely active in securing funding for the alternative school Teen Parent East (now The Chiles Academy) in Port Orange, Florida, a school for pregnant and parenting teens. Activities included meeting with the Volusia County School Board, appearing on local news stations and meeting with local political officials to discuss the unique needs of parenting and pregnant teens and their children. 1994-1998.

• Met with former governor Lawton Chiles in Daytona Beach, Florida to discuss the needs of at-risk children, families and women, to ensure the continuance of and increase in governmental funding of relevant programs. 1994.

• Met with former First Lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tallahassee, Florida to advocate for the needs of at-risk children and women, securing federal funding of relevant programs. 1997.

• In conjunction with Healthy Start Florida, met with former governor Lawton Chiles in Tallahassee, Florida to discuss the needs of at-risk pregnant women and infants and secure funding of needed programs. 1997.

• Met with former governor Jeb Bush to discuss the needs of pregnant and parenting teens and at-risk populations to secure funding of relevant programs. 1998.

• Active in the transition of Teen Parent East from being a public school to becoming a public charter school; wrote op-eds for local newspapers on the transition, met with the executive director of Teen Parent East (Chiles Academy) to discuss the transition. 2002.

EDUCATION

University of North Florida, Master’s Coursework (All But Thesis), Practical Philosophy and Applied Ethics.

Stetson University, B.A., Majors: Philosophy and Psychology, 2004