Michael Pasquale, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Pasquale serves as the dean of The School of Ministry, Media & the Arts at Cornerstone University. His current role builds on more than 20 years of demonstrated campus-wide leadership and career service, including his work as chair of the Humanities Division, professor of linguistics, special assistant to the academic vice president, founding director of the Master of Arts in TESOL program, founding director of the Logos Center and director of CU’s ESL Conference.

Dean Pasquale holds two graduate degrees in linguistics from Michigan State University. In 2001, he completed requirements for his Doctor of Philosophy in linguistics with a dissertation titled “Quechua and Spanish Language Contact: Influence on the Quechua Phonological System.” He also earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and TESOL from Cedarville University.

Dean Pasquale’s passions for the Christian liberal arts and equipping students as active participants in Cornerstone’s Christ-centered learning community have shaped his award-winning career in higher education. He received the Cornerstone University Provost’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2007 and the Earl W. Stevick Award from the Christian English Language Educators Association in 2019. In May 2017, Pasquale became the first CU faculty member to receive a Fulbright grant and conducted research and faculty development at the Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad Nacional Santiago Antunez de Mayolo in Lima, Peru.

In addition to his academic appointment at Cornerstone, Dean Pasquale serves as a peer reviewer for the Fulbright Specialist Program and on the editorial review board of the International Journal for Christianity and English Language Teaching. He also offers consulting in linguistics and TESOL for mission organizations and local churches, providing training in Europe, Asia, South America and North America. From March 2016 to October 2022, he worked as a TESOL consultant with the Detroit Tigers Baseball Club, uniting his baseball hobby as a fan of the Michigan-based team with his academic career.

“I am blessed to be a part of a vibrant learning community at CU. When we teach, we seek to engage the whole person. Students are more than just vessels to be filled with information, but are active members of a learning community. I see teaching as an example of hospitality. As a host, I am able to invite students to engage.”