Michael Childers

Michael Childers is a department co-chair and professor with the University of Wisconsin School for Workers in Madison. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a master’s degree and PhD in workforce education and development from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Childers joined the School for Workers after completing his graduate degrees and post-doctorate fellowship, and he brings diverse management and engineering experience from a wide variety of industries, including basic steel, machining, metal fabrication and plastics manufacturing.

On campus, Childers has taught labor management relations for the Wisconsin School of Business for the last decade. In 2018 he was honored as a University of Wisconsin System Teaching Scholar, and in 2019, he became a fellow in the UW-Madison Teaching Academy for demonstrating excellence in teaching and a commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning across campus. He serves on the executive committees of both the Teaching Academy and Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious interdisciplinary honor society for students in the top 10% of their class.