2015 Hawaii History Educator of the Year Announced

History Education Hawaii, Inc., the Hawaii State Council of the National Council for History Education (NCHE), announced its 2015 Hawaii History Educator of the Year. 

Dr. Justin Vance of Hawaii Pacific University and the Hawaii Civil War Roundtable was named the 2015 Hawaii History Educator of the Year. 

Dr. Vance is an Associate Professor of History and the Interim Dean for Hawaii Pacific University’s Military Campus Programs. 

A graduate of Boise State University with a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Master of Arts in Diplomacy and Military Studies from Hawaii Pacific University and a Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California, Dr. Vance’s research interests include teaching history via distance learning modalities, the American Civil War and the history of World War II in the Pacific. 

Previously, he taught history at the Honolulu campus of Wayland Baptist University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and conducted battlefield tours of Hawaii’s World War II military sites for Home of the Brave Tours. His passions for history education included such settings as the Battleship Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor and the Bishop Museum. In 2010, Dr. Vance was the winner of the Golden Apple Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching at Hawaii Pacific University. 

Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), founded in 1965, is Hawaii’s leading private, not-for-profit university and international learning community, providing innovative and challenging undergraduate and graduate programs built on a solid foundation of liberal arts education, graduating its students to meet the ever-changing needs of a global society. HPU prides itself on maintaining strong academic programs, small class sizes, individual attention to students with a diverse faculty and student population. 

Serving as president of the Hawaii Civil War Roundtable, Dr. Justin Vance has been on the forefront of sharing American Civil War history with the people of Hawaii. He has organized the Roundtable’s participation in numerous educational events, perpetuating living history displays, participating in parades through the city streets of Honolulu in Civil War period uniforms and dress. Dr. Vance has distinguished himself as an expert on the participation of Native Hawaiians in the American Civil War. (Go here for his YouTube interview on Think Tech Hawaii's Global Connections)

“There is no doubt that Dr. Justin Vance is an exceptionally gifted historian and history educator,” said Jeffrey Bingham Mead, co-founder and president of History Education Hawaii, Inc. “Dr. Vance has distinguished himself through years of persistence, hard work in the unrelenting pursuit of educational excellence in the academic discipline of history. His teaching and advocacy of historical literacy in Hawaii has propelled him to touch the lives of many both inside and outside the classroom. Dr. Vance has built solid links between the subjects of history and his students plus the community at large. His scholarly approaches to teaching and learning has contributed greatly to the institution, to the community and to the profession.”