Miller to retire after 30 years of innovation and service

Gary Miller

University Park, Pa. - Gary Miller, associate vice president for Outreach and executive director of Continuing and Distance Education, has announced that he will retire from Penn State at the end of June. For 30 years, his groundbreaking work has had an impact on the University, throughout the commonwealth and nationally.

"I am very sorry that we will be losing an online learning pioneer, innovator, collaborator, outstanding leader, consummate professional and friend," said Craig Weidemann, vice president for Outreach. "Nevertheless, I am also extremely happy for Gary, as his decision to retire will allow him to pursue his many other interests."

Because of Miller's leadership Penn State is recognized as a national leader in the field of continuing and distance education. He was the driving force behind Penn State President Graham B. Spanier's vision in the early 1990s to develop a more robust program in Distance Education at Penn State-- including the creation of the World Campus. As the founding executive director of the World Campus, Miller has helped establish Penn State as a leader in the use of technology in higher education. From its inauguration with 41 students, the World Campus now reaches more than 10,000 students across the state, around the country and in 40 countries around the world.

Miller also has oversight for a variety of continuing education programs that serve thousands of adult learners and youth annually, including more than 48,000 attendees at research-dissemination conferences, and more than 40,000 youth participants in academic and sport camps at all campus locations.

"I've had the wonderful opportunity over the past three decades to be involved in several pioneering Penn State innovations, from early educational media productions of WPSU-TV to our first national satellite teleconference -- for nuclear engineers after the Three Mile Island incident—to the World Campus and the emergence of Penn State Online," said Miller. "From my start as an undergraduate student at Penn State-Shenango in the 1960s to my current role, Penn State has been a wonderful professional home."

During his tenure Miller has been an advocate for colleges, campuses and faculty who seek ways to extend their research to audiences beyond the traditional classroom. He developed the first revenue-sharing policies between the World Campus and the academic colleges as well as several administrative policies that advance distance learning. As a result, the World Campus is one of the premier online education organizations in the country, and Miller is frequently cited as an online education expert in many national media publications.

"Gary has had a distinguished career of leadership and accomplishment in distance and continuing education," said Spanier. "His path-breaking work in online learning has been remarkable and has set a standard for academe. Gary is a national hero in fostering innovations that will forever change the field of education."

His exemplary work at Penn State has also resulted in bringing international prestige to the University. In 1997 Penn State hosted the International Council for Distance Education 8th World Conference, capping a series of national and international conferences on distance education that began in 1994.

Miller's contributions to higher education have earned him numerous awards including the Wedemeyer Award from The American Journal of Distance Education, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of distance education in North America. He is also a recipient of the "Barrier Buster" award from the American Distance Education Consortium. In 2004, Miller was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.

Prior to coming to Penn State, he served as the associate vice president for Program Development and executive director of the International University Consortium at the University of Maryland University College, where he also served as the founding chair of the University of Maryland System Institute for Distance Education.

Over the past decade, Miller has served on the Taskforce on Quality Principles in Distance Education for the American Council on Education and on the Taskforce on Distance Learning for the Middlestates Commission on Higher Education. In addition, he has served on the boards of the University Continuing Education Association, the International Council for Open and Distance Education, the National University Teleconferencing Network, and the Distance Education Policy Laboratory of the Southern Region Education Board. Miller also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sloan Consortium, a consortium of institutions and organizations committed to quality online education.

Miller graduated with a bachelor's degree with distinction in 1970 from Penn State and holds a doctor of education in higher education, also from Penn State. He is the author of "The Meaning of General Education: The Emergence of a Curricular Paradigm" and of numerous articles and book chapters on topics related to the curriculum, continuing education and distance education. In addition, he has presented numerous papers on undergraduate curriculum, continuing education and distance education at national and international conferences.