{"id":6868,"date":"2026-08-11T09:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/?p=6868"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:25:22","slug":"philanthropy-ann-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/2026\/08\/11\/philanthropy-ann-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: In Perfect Timing \u2014 How a 50th Reunion Connection Endowed the Future of Inclusive Teaching at Bates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In philanthropy, timing is everything. As Ann Austin \u201976, P\u201911, P\u201911 and her husband John Beck P\u201911, P\u201911 began planning for the end of her long and successful career as a University Distinguished Professor in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education program at Michigan State University, the stars of her life seemed to align. She was brought back to campus after agreeing to serve as the gift chair for her 50th Reunion. It was only a matter of time before Ann was connected with Lindsey R. Hamilton ’05, director of the Bates Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, and the two quickly bonded over their passion for higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by her own time at Bates, as well as that of her twin sons Andrew W. Beck ’11 and David A. Beck ’11, Ann and John made a future commitment through their estate which will establish an endowed fund to support the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. A testament to Ann\u2019s legacy and contributions to the field, the Austin-Beck Family Fund for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, paired with their annual Bates Fund gift, will ensure that students for generations to come will experience teaching excellence at Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with Ann and asked about why she\u2019s supporting the CITL today with a Bates Fund gift, and in the future through her estate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How did your history degree and the liberal arts approach at Bates prepare you for your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ann<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The experience of the liberal arts was wonderful for me. There was a lot of emphasis, in my history major, on excellence in writing. And great attention to thinking clearly. And those two things were extremely helpful to me as I went on to master’s and doctoral level work. I also really appreciated, in terms of broader liberal arts, seeing the connections across disciplines. I felt as though Bates, through its liberal arts perspective, helped me see the connection across fields of study and in terms of ideas. The general ambiance was one of being able to use your education to serve others and that’s really been a big motivation in my career.
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What have been some central themes across your career in higher education?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I talk about the themes in my work, a very big part of it is research around improving teaching and learning at the college level and the graduate level. Within that, particularly, I’ve done quite a lot of work around STEM education. I also do research on academic careers and over the years I’ve explored some of the particularities of career stages \u2014 particularly support for early career faculty. I also do quite a lot around organizational leadership and organizational change, asking how change occurs in colleges.

What role do you think a center like Bates\u2019 Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning can play?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To have a center for inclusive teaching and learning is essentially saying that, as an institution, we value excellent teaching and learning, and are willing to put resources into it. It shows that we have a structured element of our institution that’s reminding us how important teaching and learning is. And not only does it help faculty learn to be better teachers, but when they have opportunities \u2014 often through a teaching center \u2014 to connect with other colleagues, many people develop friendships and connections that make their lives happier and more satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you decide to give a planned gift to Bates\u2019 Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ann<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Over the years, through my own experience, through our sons\u2019 experience, and then through some opportunities I had to interact with the faculty myself around teaching and learning, I continue to have so much respect and appreciation for the work that happens at Bates. It was, for me, just in every possible way, the kind of experience that I had hoped as a young person to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to making a gift, it did take a little bit of thinking at first to understand the philanthropic process and to see how a gift could be most meaningfully used. When I saw that Bates was developing this Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, it really excited me. It was a meaningful gift to my husband and me because it enables the gift to parallel where so much of my career has been focused. But it was even more meaningful once I met the colleagues there because what they’re doing is really wonderful \u2014 absolutely top-notch and cutting-edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In philanthropy, timing is everything. As Ann Austin \u201976, P\u201911, P\u201911 and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1657,"featured_media":2340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"Bates Donor Relations","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"_sidebarChoice":"none","footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-donors-making-a-difference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6898,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions\/6898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}