Do and teach: Instructors bring careers to the classroom

Their titles may vary, but Iowa State's 77 professors of practice use their workforce experience to provide unique opportunities in the classroom, where students get real examples of what's to come after graduation.

"Our practice faculty bring that lived experience of the discipline," said Dawn Bratsch-Prince, associate provost for faculty. "They can talk to students about what it's like after graduation, and that experience really informs the way they conduct their classes."

Practice faculty in six colleges play an important role in preparing students for the career path they choose and for a stronger Iowa workforce. They also provide another perspective in departments with faculty that are steeped in theory or focused on research, Bratsch-Prince said.

Inside talked with four instructors about their work experience and how it shapes their approach in the classroom.

Dwight De Jong, simulator instructor, aerospace engineering

Why is it important to give junior and senior aerospace engineering students flight experience if the vast majority are more likely to build a plane than fly it?

"Imagine I am going to teach you how to be a carpenter, but I am only going to let you read about nailing a nail into a board," said Dwight De Jong. "It's hugely advantageous to our aerospace engineers to see it in real life. They can feel if an airplane is doing something it should not be, or know if it's talking to them through its warning systems."

De Jong spent more than 20 years in the United States Marines Corps learning, then teaching, marines how to fly the AV-8B Harrier and King Air 250 aircraft. Thousands of hours in the cockpit allows him to give students flight experience on one of six simulators in a Howe Hall lab. For four weeks students learn how to fly, navigate, communicate, and control and measure engine performance before becoming a test pilot the final week. Nationally, ISU’s aerospace engineering department is the only program that requires all of its undergraduate students to learn flying on simulators.

In addition to learning to fly, De Jong prepares students for realities that await them in the workforce. He doesn't allow cellphones in his classroom because many of the jobs graduates secure will come with some level of classified status. When De Jong isn't teaching four sections a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he works with the Iowa Air National Guard in the Distributed Training Operation Center at the Des Moines International Airport. There, he assists with a simulation program for aviators in this country and overseas in all service branches.

"I have to turn my phone off, take my car fob out, remove my hearing aids and smartwatch," De Jong said. "You have to get used to it, it’s the rules of the lab."

Students quickly adjust and course evaluations usually come with one common complaint: They want the course to be longer.

Gwen Friedow, lecturer, marketing 

There was a time when families gathered around the television regularly saw a successful commercial from the National Pork Producers Council about "Pork: The Other White Meat."

Gwen Friedow was part of the ad team that created and launched the campaign. She also ran an advertising and marketing firm in Dallas and later was the chief strategy officer for a major firm in Chicago, working with Kellogg's and the Chicago Cubs, among others.

Now she teaches a brand management course to graduate and undergraduate students in the Ivy College of Business and collaborates on a course with Engineering about new product marketing. She applies her experience to today's marketing challenges by talking through successes and failures of companies with students.

"A lot of in-class exercises use energy drinks like Monster, Red Bull, Celsius, Starbucks because it's something students are aware of and helps them understand what they are learning," she said.

Friedow said teaching allows her to give back to Iowa State and feeds her desire to "help good things grow." To prepare students for their first job, she considers herself more coach than instructor. Assignments build on previous ones, and teamwork is important because projects often involve groups working together, she said.

"If you are part of a team and your supervisor gives you an assignment with a due date it's likely committed to someone else," Friedow said. "One person not doing their job can throw everything off for the team."

Friedow said students appreciate the workplace-like environment because it shows them a path to success. Applying skills to real-life situations makes securing a job and advancing in it seem possible.

"That is what students want and what parents want for them," she said.

Peg Mattison, lecturer, marketing

Peg Mattison is an entrepreneur who went from working at Kinkos -- a copy and printing chain store -- after graduating from Drake University to starting her own web design company, finding success as a super seller on Ebay and returning to teach at ISU in 2023. She still helps with the construction company she owns with her husband, runs a small marketing company and is on the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce board of directors.

"I teach the way I interact with adults, chamber members and clients," she said. "I keep it real world and I have the attitude of a boss wanting things to get done. You have to do the work and can't take shortcuts."

She said there is some resistance from students in the beginning, but all her assignments are about learning to meet client expectations and building a portfolio in order to help students land a job after graduation.

"I am very open with my feedback with real world examples," Mattison said.

Mattison, who teaches social media marketing strategy, principles of marketing and sales management, brings in speakers connected to her previous experiences. She implores students to network because that is how successful businesses are built, she said.

"When people talk to each other, the tension goes down," Mattison said. "It opens up a lot of doors and a lot of perspectives. Students enjoy it when I tell them stories of what worked and what didn't for me."

Brad Perkins, teaching professor; civil, construction and environmental engineering

Brad Perkins teaches mechanical system design, construction methods and materials, mechanical and electrical methods and materials, and construction and engineering law. He returned to Iowa State nearly 21 years ago after working as a nuclear reactor operator in the United States Navy and in engineering posts across the Midwest. He said his teaching style is simple but effective.

"I approach teaching from the perspective of what I wish I would have known, what would be useful in industry and what are the skills and knowledge students need," Perkins said. 

Perkins focuses on the fundamentals and practical applications for the information he shares. An early student evaluation helped shape his approach.

"The evaluation said, 'Good class, but I could have gotten most of this by just reading the book,'" he said. "It made me really think about what the purpose is of having a professional engineer leading the class. What value am I adding?"

For more than a year, he has recorded a podcast called "Office Hours" in the Student Innovation Center and posted it on YouTube. Perkins began by talking with his students, but word spread to department alumni and it expanded.

"For students, we talk about the things we don’t have time for in class. We can get really in-depth about an area of construction or another topic," Perkins said. "The companies of our alumni that have joined us are some of the biggest construction companies in the world."

Students can learn a lot about jobs, the industry, specialties, how to approach getting a job and the differences between engineering fields, said Perkins, who believes it's vital insight that costs students nothing.