Interim Provost Sally E. McRorie has named Jeffrey Ayala Milligan as director of the Learning Systems Institute, one of Florida State University’s largest research organizations.
“I am deeply honored by the trust Provost McRorie has expressed in my capacity to lead the Learning Systems Institute,” Milligan said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to guide LSI, which has a long and distinguished record of success in research and development in education, in STEM education, and in learning and human performance.”
Since its start in 1969, LSI has managed research grants and service contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has worked in more than 25 countries and partnered with dozens of international institutions.
LSI currently manages 28 projects with a value of $57.7 million. In 2013-2014, it showed a 13.9-to-1 return on the state’s investment in the institute.
“LSI’s economic impact in Tallahassee and Florida is significant,” Milligan said. “We pride ourselves on our efficient use of grant support and taxpayers’ dollars.”
LSI affects PreK-12 education throughout Florida, as it created and manages CPALMS.org. This online toolbox of information, vetted resources and interactive tools helps educators effectively implement teaching standards. CPALMS is the State of Florida’s official source for standards information and course descriptions.
A tenured professor in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Milligan has been a faculty member for 13 years, teaching and advising students in the philosophy of education.
His interest in international settings reaches back to his Peace Corps service in the Philippines in the early 1980s, and Milligan has in recent years helped reinvigorate LSI’s work in international development. As a result, LSI has active projects in Indonesia, the Philippines and Ethiopia, in addition to an extensive catalog of research related to teaching and learning and significant projects in Florida.
Milligan said he was proud to assume leadership of a research team with such a long and storied past.
“The Learning Systems Institute has a history of national and international service and educational research reaching back more than four decades,” he said. “LSI will continue to grow in these areas of strength as we look to new opportunities where we can bring LSI’s unique expertise and experience to bear to enrich education, learning and performance.”
“The Learning Systems Institute has a history of national and international service and educational research reaching back more than four decades,” he said. “LSI will continue to grow in these areas of strength as we look to new opportunities where we can bring LSI’s unique expertise and experience to bear to enrich education, learning and performance.”
Milligan has been the recipient of research/creativity grants totaling about $7 million, including two Fulbright Senior Fellowships (Philippines, 1999, and Malaysia, 2006) and a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, all for research on education in the Muslim societies of Southeast Asia. He holds a doctorate in the philosophy of education from the University of Oklahoma, and is the author of more than 40 articles, book chapters and reports on the intersection between religion and education in the United States and Muslim Southeast Asia.
Milligan is co-editor of Citizenship, Identity and Education in Muslim Communities: Essays on Attachment and Obligation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and the author of two books: Islamic Identity, Postcoloniality and Educational Policy: Schooling and Ethno-Religious Conflict in the Southern Philippines (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Teaching at the Crossroads of Faith and School: The Teacher as Prophetic Pragmatist (Lanham: University Press of America, 2002).