Dr. Jake Milne ’99

From serious conversations to silly costumes and dancing, professor is laser-focused on engaging with students 

If you tallied up all the extra miles Dr. Jake Milne ’99 has gone for his Longwood students, they would probably circle the moon. But what’s even more impressive is how he’s traveled those miles. 

As you might expect, he puts in way over the required number of office hours and helps struggling students overcome challenges. But he also has refereed countless games of Oozeball (volleyball played in a mud pit) during Spring Weekend; advises student organizations including The Big Event, a day of community volunteering, and Longwood Ambassadors, who give tours; and leads a study abroad course to England and Scotland every other year. For 10 years—joined by his best friend and fellow professor Jeff Halliday—he danced the night away at Late Night Breakfast in elaborate costumes as Elvis, Superman, half of the Dumb and Dumber duo and many others. 

That’s just a short list of the ways Milne energetically, enthusiastically, joyfully and humbly embraces his role as a Longwood faculty member. The word “spirited” doesn’t begin to do him justice, but he is extremely honored to be the recipient of the 2025 Nancy B. Shelton Spirited Contributor Award, which recognizes the contributions of an alum who is a current or retired Longwood faculty or staff member. 

Milne joined the sociology faculty at Longwood in 2006 after completing his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. He has been an impactful campus presence ever since. 

“When someone is needed to give a perspective or a new faculty member a tour of campus, take a wild guess who they call first,” Halliday said in his video introduction of Milne at the awards presentation in June. “When students or our student-athletes are asked to recognize a faculty member who has made a positive impact on their life, guess who makes the list every time. When alumni come back to see their old stomping grounds, guess who they run up to greet?” 

Milne’s intense campus involvement as a faculty member at Longwood is an extension of his undergraduate student days, when he was a Longwood Ambassador, a founding member of a student educators organization, a peer mentor and a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity. During his first class with retired sociology professor Dr. Ken Perkins, he “fell in love” with the subject and switched majors from therapeutic recreation. By sophomore year, he knew he wanted to teach; by junior year, he knew he wanted to do that as a college professor. 

“Being a professor is more than standing in front of a classroom,” he said. “It’s helping students navigate this world. Students come to my office and tell me why they’re struggling. We just sit and talk. I’ve always known that I wanted to make teaching my primary focus. Part of the reason I became a professor was that that I wanted to be engaged with my students.” 

Nowhere was that manifested more colorfully than in Milne’s involvement with Late Night Breakfast, an event that happens toward the close of each semester to give students a break from studying. Faculty and staff volunteer to serve breakfast, there’s a DJ playing music and there’s dancing. It was the perfect venue for Milne and Halliday to show their silly side and relate to students on a personal level. 

“It started out with our being there to simply clean off tables and walk around and chat. When the music came on, we started doing the dances with the students,” Milne said. 

And then came the costumes. 

“We always had a theme. One of my favorites was when we did Dumb and Dumber. I wore the Carolina blue tuxedo, and Jeff wore the orange tuxedo. We did the Blues Brothers. We dressed up as Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. Honestly, we did it for the fun of making a fool of yourself and letting students see you do it.” 

That’s not to say that Milne doesn’t enjoy the serious side of academia. He has done research on hearing loss (he has congenital hearing loss and wears hearing aids) and on soccer referees, inspired by his 25 years as a youth and adult amateur soccer referee. 

“I loved being a referee,” he said, unable to resist adding a characteristically humorous side note. “I am convinced my hearing loss made me a great referee because I didn’t have to listen to anyone yelling at me.” 

Also characteristically, Milne turned the spotlight away from himself toward the end of this interview to focus on others. “There are so many people who do a fabulous job at Longwood, and they don’t get a lot of recognition. Shout out to those folks who make my job easier and make it fun to be at Longwood—students, faculty and staff. That’s what is important to me—that everyone on campus knows they are appreciated.” 

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