Rothwell has devoted his professional life to workforce education and development, first in the private sector before moving to the academic realm. But it wasn’t his initial path in college. Rothwell pursued English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with designs on eventually becoming a professor in English before making the decision to pivot, he said.
“When I finished all coursework for the Ph.D. In English, I discovered that there were only two people who had gotten jobs,” Rothwell said. “They graduated 69 Ph.D.s in one year, and only two of them got academic jobs. So, at that point I thought, I cannot stay in English. I need to find something else.”
Rothwell had been teaching business and technical writing to business majors at Illinois and was looking for an alternate path. He found it in a book he was reading.
“In that book there was a chapter about corporate training and development, and I read that chapter, and as soon as I read it, I decided to start looking on the University of Illinois campus for any graduate courses in training and development,” Rothwell said. “And I found one. And it's identical to the one that we still have in workforce ed, WFED 471, which I've taught for many years.
“So, I left English and became the first Ph.D. student in a new field — human resource development (HRD),” he continued. “At the same time, I decided to hedge my bets and so I applied for an MBA at different schools at the same time while looking for a full-time job. I succeeded in getting in the Ph.D. program, the MBA program, and got a job in HRD — all at once. So, I did all of them at the same time.”
Rothwell got work experience while simultaneously getting a doctoral degree in training and development and an MBA with an emphasis on human resource management from what is now known as the University of Illinois Springfield.
As if that wasn’t enough, Rothwell became a published book author for the first time immediately after graduating with his doctorate, and then was invited by faculty at the University of Illinois to teach graduate classes.
“I don't regret it at all,” Rothwell said. “I've been a passionate advocate, because I believe work is critical to people's lifestyle. The quality of their lives depends on how well fitted they are to their jobs.
“We spend most of our time on our jobs,” he continued. “We spent about eight hours a day sleeping, about eight hours a day working and about eight hours a day, supposedly, in free time. But most people today actually spend a lot more time working than they do, sleeping or on their personal time, so the quality of the average person’s life hinges a lot on the quality of their work. And I believe that training — what we now call talent development — helps people have a better life because they are able to get more satisfaction out of their work.”
During his tenure, Rothwell has helped secure numerous grants, but there is one grant in particular in which he takes the most pride, he said.
It was a project with communications giant Motorola and 31 other multinational companies from 1997 through 2000 that saw Rothwell travel to China dozens of times during summers and holiday break periods while maintaining all of his faculty responsibilities at Penn State.
During the project, Rothwell worked with senior executives from these corporations on worker development before being sponsored by the companies in 1999 and 2000 to teach 20 in-person graduate level courses in China — 10 each at Nankai University in Tianjin and Peking University in Beijing — in training and development, which Rothwell single-handedly designed, developed and taught.
“I point with pride to the fact that 69 students graduated with Penn State certificates and also received certificates from the universities in China and from the 32 multinational companies,” Rothwell said. “Many of those students have gone on to great success in China and several of them came to Penn State to get their Ph.D. in workforce ed. That was a major achievement to have been able to do that single-handedly. Between teaching in China and teaching at Penn State, I basically did five years’ worth of teaching in 18 months.”
Rothwell first came to Penn State in January of 1993, taking a position as a professor heading up the graduate program in human resource development/organization development.
Before arriving at Penn State, he had nearly two decades of work experience in government as a training director, and then as part of a Fortune 500 multinational insurance company. He said his doctoral program chair at Illinois was friends with the professor in charge of workforce education at Penn State and knew the University had a job opening for someone to take over the degree program focused on the corporate training and development side.
Rothwell didn’t think he would accept any offer to join the faculty at Penn State, because he said he was on track for a vice president of human resources position within the next few years, but flew to State College “on a lark” and accepted an interview.
“I came out and fell in love with the students,” Rothwell recalled. “It was the students that intrigued me about Penn State. So, I went back and forth with the dean at that time, Rodney Reed, and he finally offered me the job with tenure.”
To say Rothwell has had a huge impact on the College of Education would be no exaggeration. Among his many achievements, he highlighted the launch of the World Campus master of professional studies in organization development and change, on which he partnered with fellow faculty member Wesley Donahue.
Rothwell expressed pride that the program grew to the point that it brought in approximately $10 million in new tuition money over a 10-year period.
Rothwell also has been extremely active as the chair of doctoral program committees, leading 120 during his time at Penn State.
“I’ve chaired more committees than there are doctoral students currently in some colleges at Penn State,” he said. “So, I think that’s an achievement.”
Although Rothwell had been nominated for the title of distinguished professor twice before, in 2004 and again in 2007, it was the collective advocacy of 104 students and alumni that ultimately secured his appointment in 2022. Many of those supporters had worked closely with him during their time at Penn State and had been profoundly impacted by his teaching, mentorship and ongoing guidance. Their letters didn’t merely endorse his nomination; they made a compelling case for why he deserved the distinction.
“I was honored,” Rothwell said, “but even more humbled that it was my students and former students who nominated me.”
The students cited Rothwell’s dedication to his advisees, how it extends far beyond graduation, and that he remains a mentor, collaborator and advocate for years to come after graduation.
Rothwell also has a lengthy list of awards and honors he has received. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Organization Development Network and earned the Global Lifetime Achievement Award by Penn State Global Programs, the University’s highest award for doing work internationally. He received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the College of Education and was given the University-wide Graduate Faculty Teaching Award.
Additionally, he has earned the Association for Talent Development’s Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, was named a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance Fellow by the Association for Talent Development, received the Best Global Training and Development Leadership Award from the World HRD Congress in India, and was named a Brand laureate in Malaysia. Rothwell also has received the Walter Zeller medal from Kiwanis International and UNICEF and earlier this year, was presented with the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award by the International Society for Performance Improvement.
However, he said, when he reflects on his career, he looks back on all the hard work he has put in and the lasting effect it has had.
“It’s not just the 120 Ph.D. students, but I've delivered over 1,700 professional talks and that means I've reached an enormous number of people and worldwide,” Rothwell said. “I’ve made 83 trips to China. I’ve made 32 trips to Singapore. I've been to every Asian country except a couple of them at least a dozen times and I didn't go there for tourism. I went there for training, for college teaching, for consulting, for keynoting national conferences.
“So, I like to think I've made an impact in my field.”