Richard A. Swanson
Richard A. Swanson (born 1942) is an American scholar in organizational theory and human resource development. He is a Distinguished Research Professor and the Sam Lindsey Chair at the University of Texas at Tyler, a position he has held since 2006. He is known for his work that connects financial research with human resource development.
Education: Swanson earned a B.A. from The College of New Jersey in 1964, an M.A. in 1966, and an Ed.D. from the University of Illinois in 1968.
Career: He taught at the University of Minnesota from 1979 to 2005 and has been professor emeritus of HRD and Adult Education there since 2005. He is also professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 2006 he has been a Distinguished Research Professor at UT Tyler.
Work and leadership: In 1968, Swanson started and led an effort to recruit disadvantaged undergraduates from Ohio’s inner cities. He has served as president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). At the end of 2007 he chaired UT Tyler’s HRD Faculty Search Committee. He founded Advances in Developing Human Resources, a journal sponsored by AHRD, and he was the founding editor of the Human Resource Development Quarterly, the research journal of AHRD and the American Society for Training and Development.
Awards and honors: In 1993 he received a national award from the American Society for Training and Development for his scholarly contributions. In 1995 the same society named their annual award for outstanding manuscripts in each HRDQ volume after him. He received the Outstanding HRD Scholar Award in 2000 and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the UIUC College of Education in 2001.
Publications: Swanson has written and co-authored about seven books and more than 200 articles and other publications.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:27 (CET).