Distinguished Professor Rachel Bowden
Professor of Biology Rachel Bowden and Professor of Marketing Steven Taylor have been named Distinguished Professors by the Office of the Provost. They will be honored at the annual Founders Day Convocation on February 16.
Bowden began her career at Illinois State in 2003 in the School of Biological Sciences, becoming a full professor in 2013. During her tenure at Illinois State she received both the University Research Initiative and University Teaching Initiative Awards in 2007. She was named Outstanding College Researcher in 2011 and Outstanding University Researcher in 2013.
Having been funded continuously since 2002, Bowden is a Million Dollar Club inductee with awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health for her research on maternal hormonal effects on offspring sex ratios in her model system, the red-eared slider turtle.
Bowden has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in national/international scientific journals and given over 25 invited talks on her research. Her rate of publication has been identified as among the highest in the School of Biological Science’s history, and her work has been cited more than 1,500 times. Bowden served the school as assistant director for undergraduate studies from 2009-15. At the school level, she has served on numerous committees, including Undergraduate Studies Committee, Curriculum Committee, and as the coordinator for the Behavior, Ecology, Evaluation, and Systematics sequence and the undergraduate Zoology sequence. At the college level, she has served on the Research Proposal Review Committee and on the Strategic Plan Committee.
Bowden is committed to the teaching mission of the university and teaches courses spanning from freshman to graduate student levels. She frequently provides research and publication opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. She has mentored 12 M.S. and Ph.D. students, 15 undergraduate students, and has co-authored over 25 papers with graduate and undergraduate students.
Bowden is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Zoology and has been an external reviewer for 37 journals since 2003. She has been involved with the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, regularly serving as a judge for student presentations, co-organizing a symposium in 2008, and serving as a divisional officer from 2013-15. Additionally, she has served as a grant review panel member and ad hoc reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
Distinguished Professor Steven Taylor
Taylor began his career at Illinois State in 1992, becoming a full professor in 2001. He has received national recognition for his scholarly research in the areas of service marketing, marketing implications for higher education, and in digital piracy.
He has completed over 82 refereed or invited journal articles and book chapters with articles appearing in top marketing journals. His work has been cited over 21,800 times, including researchers from more than 20 countries worldwide. Taylor is also recognized as an exceptional teacher, having won the University Teaching Initiative Award in 1997 and the college Outstanding Teacher award in 2001. In 1995, he received the University Research Initiative Award. In 1997 and 2011, he received the college Outstanding Research Award. In 2013, he received the University Outstanding Research Award. He was the inaugural Hinderliter Chair in the College of Business from 2012-13.
Taylor has served on numerous college and university committees including the CFSC, the Search Committee for the Cross Chair, the Provost’s Task Force on Distance Learning, and the Strand Diversity Committee. He currently serves on a chair five-year review committee and the MBA Faculty Council. Taylor consistently mentors and publishes with many junior faculty members.
Taylor strives to link his teaching and research activities frequently involving both undergraduate and graduate students in research projects; he has served as the College of Business mentor for students from underrepresented groups since 1995.
Taylor serves as associate editor for the Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction & Complaining Behaviors, and served as co-editor for more than a decade. He is a founding member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Service Research and was honored by the publication in 2007 as Outstanding Reviewer. He is also on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Service Management and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Taylor frequently consults with regional and national organizations in the areas of service research including customer outcomes and loyalty behaviors.
