Brad Garner currently serves as the Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning at Indiana Wesleyan University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Akron and his doctorate from Kent State University. Prior to moving into higher education, Brad’s career was focused on program and faculty development in K-12 public school settings where he worked as a classroom teacher, school psychologist, and administrator.
Brad is the coauthor of two books that focus on employment and people with disabilities. His first book, 'Getting Employed, Staying Employed' was recognized and honored as a 'Book of the Year' by the President’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. He recently published 'A Brief Guide to Millennial Learners' (Triangle Publishing, 2007) and 'A Brief Guide to Teaching Adult Learners' (Triangle Publishing, 2009).
In addition, Brad has been working with groups of teachers in Bosnia and China as part of an Educational Leadership Institute designed to empower teachers to be change agents in their own communities and schools. He just returned from a three-month assignment in Zambia with a group of millennial students from IWU. He learned first-hand how different it is to live with millennial students as compared to simply having them in class several times a week.
Brad’s current role on the campus of IWU brings him into close personal contact with millennial students on a daily basis. He is particularly intrigued by their unique personality characteristics and their extreme sense of entitlement (e.g., I want it therefore I should have it!), as well as their ability to make “friends” with new acquaintances (who may be older, a professor, a supervisor) and quickly move to a new level of informality (like an email that begins with the greeting “Hey Dude”).