The vision of the New Mexico State University Teaching Academy is to help NMSU educators develop extraordinary teaching lives embedded in exceptional careers.
NMSU faculty member and director of the academy Tara Gray is celebrating the 15th anniversary edition of her book “Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar.” She has been honored locally and nationally with 10 awards for teaching, scholarship and service.
Gray received her education at the United States Naval Academy, Southwestern College in Kansas and Oklahoma State, where she earned her Ph.D. in economics. Since then, she has published 50 scholarly works, including four books.
In 2005, after seven years of writing and development, “Publish & Flourish” was ready for print. It was published as a fundraiser for the NMSU Teaching Academy. The $100,000 earned in book sales helps the Teaching Academy and has contributed to new carpet, paint and furnishings.
The book has been printed every five years since 2005. It aims to assist writers in tripling productivity, writing prose that is clearer, better organized and more compelling so they can publish in better journals and get more grants.
“Publish and Flourish” advocates three main ways of writing that are summarized in 10 steps. Gray encourages individuals to write 15 to 30 minutes per day or more. Her studies have shown that scholars using this method increase their submission rate from two articles per year to six. She advocates organizing each paragraph around a key or topic sentence. Gray also encourages writers to share their work with others informally before peer review.
In 1998, Gray wrote an article titled, “Publish, Don’t Perish.”
“I was so excited about the paper that I began thinking about the book and giving workshops on the subject here at NMSU and at conferences,” Gray said. “Dr. Jane Birch from Brigham Young University participated in it at a conference, discovered me and invited me to campus.”
Gray has now led workshops at BYU for 22 years. During that time, she has been invited to 120 other campuses including Harvard. She has spoken to 10,000 academic participants in 35 states and seven countries.
“Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar” is available for $25 plus $7.90 shipping and handling. To order visit https://shopcart.nmsu.edu/shop/teachingacademy. For more information on the book or the NMSU Teaching Academy, contact Gray at 575-646-1013 or tgray@nmsu.edu.