The purpose of the academy is to give honor and recognition to a select group of our outstanding graduate and undergraduate alumni. It is with great pride and enthusiasm that we honor them – and thank them for their willingness to give back to our school.

School of Communication
2001 Alumni Academy Inductee

Shirley Van Hoeven

Immediately following the completion of the master’s degree in communication in 1970, Shirley Van Hoeven joined the School of Communication as an instructor. As she pursued graduate education at WMU, earning the EdD in Education Leadership in 1976, she continued teaching and earned tenure and promotion in the department that same year. In 1978, Shirley was hired at Western to direct one of the first masters level organizational communication curriculums in the country. She was promoted to full professor in 1990 and served in that capacity and as graduate director until her retirement from Western Michigan University in 1999. In 1985, Shirley was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Purdue University, providing her the opportunity to expand her research in the area of managing and negotiating conflict in organizations. With this expertise, she began consulting in various organizations throughout the west Michigan. Awards for teaching and service have been numerous in Shirley’s tenure as a faculty member at Western. In 1976, she received the Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award; in 1990, was given the “Women of the Year Award by the WMU commission on the Status of Women and a WMU University Teaching Excellence Award; and in 1995, the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty Award. In 2000, the university awarded her with one of its highest honors, the Distinguished Service Award. And most recently, the National Communication Association has awarded her their Lifetime Teaching Excellence Award. She has served as a member and former president of the Western Chapter of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and served as board president of the local Habitat for Humanity. Throughout her thirty-some years of living in Kalamazoo, Shirley has served on many boards and continues to find participation in community service very much a part of her life.