Paul D. Arrington joined the AUM faculty in August 2019 as a Lecturer & Student Success Mentor in the UNIV Student Success Program and became the Program Coordinator in 2022. He is passionate about working with college students and finding ways to remove institutional barriers that impede student flourishing. Before coming to AUM, Paul enjoyed a 10-year career in the Texas public schools. During that time, he taught secondary social studies courses, coordinated campus-level college readiness systems, and was a member of the team that established the Tyler ISD Early College High School. While at ECHS, he served as a teacher, advisor, webmaster, and program and branch campus coordinator. He also spent a year as an adjunct professor of Learning Framework at Tyler Junior College.
Paul is a doctoral student at Auburn University where he studies educational leadership and program evaluation and researches high-impact practices in higher education, student belonging and mattering, and curriculum leadership. He completed his Principalship coursework and certification through Lamar University in 2018, and an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from The University of Texas at Tyler in 2017. His master’s research project examined secondary-level teachers’ perceptions of using Chromebooks in the classroom. He earned a B.S. in History (Social Studies Teaching, Grades 8-12) in 2009 from Abilene Christian University. In June 2019, Paul married Hannah, and they had their first child together, Samuel, in November of 2023. Their family also includes an energetic and loving Aussiedoodle named Penny.