Coauthor of Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory to be visiting professor this spring

David Campbell, eminent scholar and University of Minnesota alumnus and former faculty member, will serve as the college’s Hellervik/PDI Visiting Professor in Adult Career Development during spring semester 2006. The professorship is a joint appointment between the human resource development track of the Department of Work and Human Resource Education, and the counseling and student personnel psychology track of the Department of Educational Psychology.

Campbell is currently Smith Richardson Senior Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership, an organization with headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., dedicated to the development of effective leadership in industry, government, and nonprofit organizations. Campbell works at the center’s branch in Colorado Springs, Colo.

When asked to leave Colorado for the Minnesota winter, Campbell showed no fear. A Midwestern native, Campbell received a B.S. in science and an M.A. in psychology from Iowa State University. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1960. Campbell joined the University’s psychology faculty that same year and rose to full professor in eight years.

During that period, he coauthored the widely used Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, an assessment tool for career choices. He has had numerous books published, received many honors, and created other well-known assessments, including the psychological test battery, the Campbell Development Surveys™, which includes individual surveys designed to analyze working interests, skills, leadership potential, teamwork, and working satisfaction.

“I was at the University of Minnesota for 15 years—I have many good friends there and it’s a very strong university for psychology and the particular area that I’m working with,” Campbell says. “My area of expertise has always been psychological assessment, and Minnesota is one of the premier universities in the world for that, with MMPI [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory] and more.”

While at the college, Campbell will focus on teaching, research, and advising activities related to assessment, as well as issues of leadership, leadership development, and impact of leaders on organizations. The professorship also is part of a continued collaboration of the college with the Minneapolis-based company, Personnel Decisions International (PDI); it is funded by PDI and University of Minnesota alumnus, Lowell Hellervik, PDI’s CEO and chairman of the board.

“The visiting professorship is a nice way to apply the skills and creative thinking of a psychologist and person who’s been involved in human resource and organizational development to really enrich our college,” says John Romano, chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, who helped arrange for the professorship. “We’re very excited about having him stay with us for the semester.”