Penn State World Campus pioneer receives Distinguished Service Award

Gary Miller, executive director emeritus of the Penn State World Campus, has received the Distinguished Service Award from the National University Telecommunications Network.

The National University Telecommunications Network presents its highest honor to a Penn State distance education developer

University Park, Pa.— His leadership has helped thousands of students get Penn State degrees over the last 10 years. For his efforts, Gary Miller, executive director emeritus of the Penn State World Campus, is the 2008 recipient of the National University Telecommunications Network's (NUTN) Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes Miller’s numerous contributions to the field of distance education.

NUTN, a consortium of more than 50 higher education institutions, has presented its Distinguished Service Award since 1997. As part of the award ceremony, held during NUTN's annual conference, Miller made a presentation on "Convergence or Transformation: Optional Futures for Distance Education," discussing current and future distance education trends. "Our generations are lucky to be working at a time when distance education has the potential to help our institutions realize the mission of public education in a new and more complete way than has ever before been possible as our institutions adapt themselves to the needs of the Information Age," Miller said.

During his 30-year tenure at Penn State, Miller was instrumental in expanding the University's distance education program. He led the development of the World Campus, Penn State's 25th campus, and served as its founding executive director. The World Campus opened in 1998 with 41 students. Now in its 10th year, the World Campus enrolls some 7,000 students in all 50 states and more than 40 countries worldwide and offers more than 60 online degree and certificate programs.

Until his retirement in 2007, Miller was associate vice president for Outreach and executive director of Continuing and Distance Education, where he was responsible for continuing education programs serving thousands of adult learners and youth annually. He also led the successful effort to host the 1997 International Council for Distance Education Eighth World Conference at Penn State.

Miller's contributions to higher education have earned him numerous awards, including the Wedemeyer Award from The American Journal of Distance Education and 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. He also was named one of Pennsylvania Business Central's Top 100 People of 2007.

Before 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.

Miller attended the Penn State Shenango campus and graduated from Penn State with a bachelor's degree with distinction in 1970. He 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.

Penn State World Campus specializes in adult online education, delivering 62 of Penn State’s most highly regarded graduate, undergraduate and professional education programs through convenient online formats. Founded in 1998, Penn State World Campus is the University’s 25th campus serving more than 7,000 students in all 50 states, in 42 countries and across six continents. For more information, visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/ online. Penn State World Campus is part of Penn State Outreach, the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education. Penn State Outreach serves more than 5 million people each year, delivering more than 2,000 programs to people in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, all 50 states and 80 countries worldwide.