Academic Leadership
Clinton D. Gardner, PhD
President and Provost
Dr. Clinton Gardner came to Northcentral University in 2007, following a five-year tenure as president of Argosy University, Phoenix Campus. At Argosy, he played an integral role in helping the campus obtain five-year re-accreditation status from the American Psychological Association for the Doctoral program in Clinical Psychology, and was instrumental in bringing to Argosy new Undergraduate and Graduate programs in Business, Education and Psychology. His other achievements at Argosy included leading the drive to gain re-accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission, and implementing new academic programs at the Master’s and Doctoral level in School Psychology and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Gardner earned his PhD in Higher Education Administration from Michigan State University, and held numerous leadership positions at Michigan State University and Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. Throughout his 25-year career, Dr. Gardner has held several positions in higher education, such as University President, Senior Vice President for Management, Vice President for Finance and Administration, and Vice President for Enrollment Management.
In addition to his extensive background in Administration, Dr. Gardner has taught Economics and Education courses at Davenport University and Argosy University, respectively, and has served on numerous dissertation committees in Business and Education. He is a former president of Data Point Research Consultants, a private higher education consulting firm, and has also consulted with numerous colleges and universities in areas of Admissions, Academic Program Planning, and Enrollment Management.
Dr. Gardner, a board member and past President of the Arizona Private School Association, serves as a Consultant-Evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission, and has membership in numerous organizations/associations, including the Detroit Economic Club. His areas of scholarly research and interest include Enrollment Management, Financial Management, Strategic Planning, Organizational Leadership, College/University Administration, and For-Profit Postsecondary Education. Learn more about President Gardner.
Scott W.M. Burrus, PhD
Vice Provost
“The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose” — Richard Leider
Do you believe everyone has a purpose? Have you reached the pinnacle of your purpose? A passion of Northcentral University’s Vice Provost, Dr. Scott W.M. Burrus is to provide quality educational opportunities and programs that provide an opportunity for people to reach their personal and professional purpose. In fact, you might say, his purpose is to ensure others have the educational tools to enhance their purpose.
Dr. Burrus is committed to Northcentral University’s mission, which includes the application of progressive educational methodologies in the tradition of John Dewey. Burrus also holds a deep respect for diversity, in particular recognizing each individual’s unique learning styles and abilities, while at the same time exploring opportunities for deeply engaged applied education. With this foundation, Dr. Burrus believes that education is not just about the end goal, which is important, but education may accelerate a continual process that can lead to fulfilling one’s purpose.
According to Scott, the beauty of aligning Northcentral’s curriculum with applied experiential education, and therefore with the University’s mission is our students have the opportunity to engage in active, problem-based, project and service-oriented, and place-located learning without the need to relocate or otherwise disrupt their lives or career trajectory. Northcentral students have the opportunity to apply their course material to their own location-based learning laboratory, while collaborating with expert faculty currently practicing in the field.
Central to our vision is the course, course-room, and faculty. This is where the vision is “lived out.” What’s truly essential is our faculty. Each faculty member is a leader in their field and truly “mentors” students in their individually situated learning laboratory. Working one to one in a course, our faculty guides the learning journey, which lays a foundation for lifelong learning. To ensure Northcentral follows best practices in the areas of academic quality, we evaluate and improve the student experience, curriculum, individual course offerings, and the dissertation phase for our Doctoral programs.
Scott passionately believes that living out Northcentral’s mission each day provides a one of a kind learning opportunity for professionals eager to engage in the next phase of their personal and professional lives. Indeed, this phase will likely be more than they can possibly imagine and is more of a new beginning than just the completion of an educational milestone. Learn more about Dr. Scott Burrus.
Gregory T. Bradley, PhD
Dean of the Graduate School
"Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary." — Albert Einstein
Dr. Greg Bradley is the Dean of the Graduate School at Northcentral University. Previous appointments held at the university include Dean of the Office of Academic Research, Director of Instructional Research, and Research Methodologist/Statistician in the School of Business and Technology Management.
Dr. Bradley's field of expertise is the application of inferential statistics in solving complex business problems. His personal research interests include the practical utilization of both customer and employee satisfaction research, the application of structural equation modeling to identify the correlates of customer loyalty, the utilization of conjoint analysis to assess the behavior of customer choice, and the utilization of multidimensional scaling to assist with product and service positioning strategies. Of note, Dr. Bradley currently serves as a member of the academic research team responsible for investigating the economic impact of the BP oil spill on the State of Mississippi.
Dr. Bradley has spoken at several investment, development, and marketing conferences around the country and has authored a variety of technical documents and peer-reviewed articles related to improving the decision making process through quantitative analysis. He is currently working on a national empirical analysis of the differences in service quality attitudes by casino patrons differentiated by both the perceived and real value of complementaries (“comps”) received while gaming. He also has extensive classroom experience, having taught several courses in quantitative decision modeling, multivariate analysis, consumer behavior, and global managerial policy and strategy.
Professionally, Dr. Bradley has owned a national behavioral research and decision analytics firm for several years. Prior to founding his consulting firm, Dr. Bradley was the Director of Planning and Research at Casino Magic Corp. His responsibilities included monitoring and managing the details of the new business development function, which involved assessing market potential and developing financial projections for both domestic and international projects, as well as conducting all primary and secondary market research throughout the company. During his tenure at Casino Magic, he also held the positions of Director of Budgeting and Analysis and Corporate Operations Analyst. During that time, his additional responsibilities included serving as Project Director to oversee the coordination of opening a casino in northeastern Greece and hedging multiple foreign currency risks. Prior to joining Casino Magic, he served as the Management Control Systems Administrator at Avondale Marine, Inc.
Dr. Bradley holds a PhD in Business Administration with a concentration in Management. His dissertation also had a secondary interdisciplinary emphasis in Marketing and Cognitive Psychology, focused on developing comparative structural equation models to identify the antecedents of customer loyalty in the North American gaming industry. He also has a Master of Business Administration degree and a baccalaureate degree in Business Administration with a dual emphasis in Marketing and Human Resources. Learn more about Dr. Gregory Bradley.
Heather Frederick, PhD
Dean, School of Behavioral and Health Sciences
"Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Heather
Frederick looks for the positive and believes that even though life can
be tough at times, "you can find something meaningful in just about any
situation.” Dr. Frederick received her BA in Psychology from San Diego
State University, and both her MA in General Psychology and her PhD in
Social/Developmental Psychology from Brandeis University (with
concentrations in quantitative methods in psychology and lifespan
development).
Prior to joining the online learning community, Dr. Frederick taught Statistics, Social Psychology and Independent Research at San Diego State University. Frederick also served as an Associate Director for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Walden University, an online graduate institution. During her time there she developed a deep passion for assisting graduate students in completing their degree. She studied barriers to degree completion and launched initiatives to remove or lessen common reasons students sometimes become "stuck” at the dissertation stage of graduate education.
One of Dr. Frederick’s favorite quotes is "Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” by American author Henry David Thoreau. Dr. Frederick impresses upon her twin daughters that having goals, a passion for what you are doing, and a real ambition to improve your life will get you where you want to be. It’s all up to you.
She has been involved in community-based interventions for over 16 years. Her research interests include chronic pain, social support, control beliefs, exercise behavior, ethnic disparities in health, successful aging, and online learning. Her suggestion for Northcentral Students is this: "Decide what you want to 'do with your life,’ then interview people who actually do this for a living and get their opinion on the type of academic experience you need. Then go searching for the program that will help you reach this goal. If it is related to the field of Psychology, we likely have a program for you here at Northcentral.”
Dr. Frederick joined the Northcentral team in 2008. A native Southern Californian, she currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her daughters — who share her love of music — keep her busy. When time allows, she hopes to one day rekindle hobbies that include swing dancing, inline skating, and reading entire books in one sitting. Learn more about Dr. Heather Frederick.Dr. Cynthia Knott
Dean, School of Education
“One can never consent to creep when one feels the compulsion to soar.” — Helen Keller
Dr. Cindy K. Knott is dedicated to inspiring excellence in people to learn, lead, and serve for a brighter future.
Northcentral University’s Dean for the School of Education previously served as Dean for the College of Education at Grand Canyon University (GCU) and held a position with Childhelp as Vice President of Special Projects & Prevention Education. Dr. Knott was responsible for the overall management and execution of the prevention education program, services, and special projects. During her service at Childhelp, Dr. Knott was appointed to the Governor’s Child Safety Task Force working on child welfare reform recommendations.
Under Dr. Knott’s leadership at GCU, she provided oversight and direction for faculty, staff, and students across the College of Education to include training, support, and mentorship assuring the highest academic integrity and ethical standards. During her term at Grand Canyon University, she led her team through the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) program approval process for the College’s certification programs, including undergraduate and graduate teacher and administration programs. Dr. Knott engaged a diverse and global community of learners in the pursuit of finding their purpose. Learn more about Dr. Cindy Knott.
A. Lee Smith, PhD
Dean, School of Business and Technology Management
How does that saying go? "What goes around eventually comes back around.” Such a phrase may hold true for Lee Smith,
who has very fond memories at Northcentral University. Lee graduated
from the University’s doctoral program in 2003 and later, served on its
Board of Trustees. As an Northcentral Ambassador, Dr. Smith often is
questioned as to why he selected Northcentral to complete his studies.
From his perspective, the answer is simple. He states, "I chose
Northcentral because I found the entire atmosphere to be supportive and
caring of the students.” He goes on to say that, "faculty and staff all
seem focused on a common goal – making the experience for the Student
the best experience that it can be.” Dr. Smith brings that customer
service focus to the University from his 29 years of experience working
in the customer service industry and in academia. Dr. Smith received his
Bachelors of Science degree in marketing from Myers University and a
MBA in management from Lake Erie College. His PhD. is in management as
well.
Prior to joining Northcentral University, Dr. Smith served
as Dean for the College of Business and the Jack Welch Management
Institute at Chancellor University. Before joining Chancellor
University, Dr. Smith was a corporate consultant and Director at State
Farm Insurance and AAA Insurance Companies respectively. Dr. Smith has
taught at several universities including holding the rank of Associate
Professor at Northcentral University. His favorite topic is business
ethics. He has conducted numerous organizational workshops on the
subject of business ethics and considers it to be one of the critically
important courses taught at the University. In addition to his business
and academic career, Dr. Smith has a long record of community service.
He has served on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement, the
Higher Learning Commission as a public reviewer, and was president of
100 Black Men of Central Illinois, Inc, a non-profit organization whose
primary mission is to mentor young African American youth.
Dr.
Smith is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. In 1981, he married Valerie,
his college sweetheart. They have two children, Erica who lives in
Chicago and Keith who lives in Tucson Arizona. The newest member to the
Smith family is their first grandchild, Grace, which Val and Lee have no
problem spoiling. Lee’s favorite hobbies are camping, fishing, and
hunting. As for the hobbies, many have suggested that Lee select
different ones other than fishing and hunting since he rarely comes home
with the spoils of the sport. Learn more about Dr. Smith.