Northcentral University

Dr. Cary Gillenwater originally worked in Hollywood, California before hearing the call to teach. He entered the teaching profession in 2001 in the North Carolina Lateral Entry Teachers Program. The program was established to bring people into the teaching profession who had previously worked in another field. Dr. Gillenwater earned his teaching certificate in Middle Grades Language Arts, and ultimately added Secondary English to his certification. Language Arts allowed Dr. Gillenwater to make connections for students between traditional literature and popular culture. During his graduate studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Gillenwater found that his previous career in media could serve him well in education. He had previously been trained in documentary film making and found a counterpart to it in qualitative studies. He discovered media and visual literacy via cultural studies, and during his doctoral studies, worked with Dr. Gerald Unks on a film about Chapel Hill, North Carolina prior to the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. The film aired on the local PBS affiliate. Dr. Gillenwater focused his doctoral studies on teacher education, curriculum and development, and media and visual literacy. His dissertation was a case study on the use of graphic novels with advanced high school English students, based on the idea that strong traditional literacy skills could be transferred to make meaning from images. He built his study around a combination of theories from education, the arts, cultural studies, and media and visual literacy. Throughout his graduate studies and his career, Dr. Gillenwater has maintained that practical application of theories for teaching is critical to educators overcoming the chasm that seems to separate theory from teaching. He believes that a "head full of theories" will not serve a person well when they are in front of a classroom of education students and are unable to ground those theories in the lived experiences of those students. Dr. Gillenwater has worked at NCU since 2013 and was recently awarded the 2018 School of Education award for Outstanding Student Engagement, Teaching Excellence, Adjunct Faculty. He is now a full-time associate professor with NCU. Dr. Gillenwater is known for building a strong rapport with his students and his willingness to "go the extra mile" to help them be successful. Dr. Gillenwater enjoys NCU's unique one-on-one teaching model, as it allows for connections to be made that transcend the virtual environment. CARY GILLENWATER, PHD 26

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