Janis Pardue Hill PhD

Janis Pardue Hill, PhD, a retired professor from Louisiana Tech University, has spent forty years in Louisiana education in various roles: secondary classroom teacher, curriculum coordinator in the Ouachita Parish School System, program coordinator at the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE), curriculum consultant, and university professor. Dr. Hill holds a BS in Health, Physical, and Safety Education with a minor in English; an MA in English Literature; and a PhD in Curriculum Theory with an emphasis on English.

Although she loved the university, her colleagues, and her students, both graduate and undergraduate, Dr. Hill will quickly confess her heart rests in the high school classroom where she used literature to teach reading and writing skills, critical thinking skills, and above all, the desire to be a lifelong learner.

Besides teaching, Dr. Hill also served on innumerable Department of Education committees during the development of the Louisiana English Language Arts (ELA) Standards as well as the state ELA high stakes standards tests at the eighth and tenth grade levels. She also worked on the development of the ELA Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) for the Louisiana DOE and in 2003 authored the Louisiana Model Curriculum for the English Language Arts Grade-Level Activities (Grades 9-12).

As a Program Coordinator at the DOE, she recruited and worked with classroom teachers on the SAGE (Supporting Academic Growth in Education) project. Always an advocate for the inclusion of teachers in the curriculum development and testing process, Dr. Hill served as a consultant for several parishes in Louisiana, working with state classroom teachers on the development of local standards and curriculum.

Dr. Hill retired to dedicate herself to family, with the publication of her father's notes and journals her top priority. She spent the last two years of her father's life talking with and interviewing him, years she will quickly affirm as some of the most joyful times in her life. Determined to finish the work to honor her father and the other courageous defenders of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, Dr. Hill believes fervently that these stories must be shared with the children and grandchildren of "The Greatest Generation" and that each of their stories is an integral part of their collective history as well as the history of the American people.

Dr. Hill has been married for fifty-two years to her high school sweetheart, Charles A. Hill, Jr., a career law enforcement agent; and they are the parents of two children, Trey Hill and Amy Bourgeois, and three grandchildren. They now reside in North Louisiana.