Christopher J. Jochum, Ph.D. currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Fort Hays State University (FHSU) where he leads a large teacher preparation program, serving on-campus and virtual students across the country.
An award-winning educator, Jochum’s work has been recognized in both higher education and the public schools. As a high school teacher, he was a finalist for the Master Teacher of the Year Award for the Salina Unified School District. While at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), Jochum received the campus-wide Creative Teaching Award, Outstanding Professor Award, Preferred Professor Award, and was named a finalist across all University of Nebraska campuses for the Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award. In 2015, he was inducted into the Academy for Teacher Education Excellence at UNK, a prestigious award for those who have made significant contributions to teacher education and preparation. Since beginning his administrative appointment at FHSU in 2016, he has received the College of Education’s Outstanding Research Award, Outstanding Service Award, and Outstanding Administrative Professional Award and has also been recognized for his mentoring of faculty within the Department of Teacher Education and College of Education.
Jochum’s previous professional appointments include the University of Nebraska at Kearney as an Associate Professor of Foreign Language Education and Spanish, the University of Central Missouri as an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education, Salina High School South (Kansas) as a secondary Spanish teacher and Chair of the World Languages Department and Kearney Public Schools (Nebraska) as a K-12 English as a Second Language teacher.
A sought-after leadership speaker and coach, Jochum has trained and developed leaders in higher education, and public schools in the U.S. and abroad focused on areas such as faculty engagement, creating a positive organizational culture, conflict management, casting organizational vision, crisis leadership, effective hiring, and leveraging high impact practices for student success. A versatile scholar, his research has focused on the benefits of study abroad, teacher efficacy, and more recently on effective organizational leadership.
Jochum received a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Kansas State University; a Master of Education degree in Spanish and ESL from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK); and a Bachelor of Education in Secondary Education from UNK.
Dr. Jochum is the author of “The Department Chair: A Practical Guide to Effective Leadership” (Rowman & Littlefield) and serves as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Academic Chairpersons Conference, where he is also one of the facilitators for the New Chair Alliance. Chris was recently elected as a Commissioner for the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) and was one of the founding Directors of The National Center for Clinical Practice in Educator Preparation.
Dr. Chris Jochum 