Business and Public Management Online Degrees

Dr. Stephens is the Program Director for the Workforce Management and Leadership program. He has over 19 years of administrative and teaching experience in the higher education and K-12 environments. He has developed and taught courses at Georgia Southern University within the doctoral education program, and has taught business courses with Liberty University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Baker College, and Darton College. While at Altamaha Technical College, (now Coastal Pines Technical College), he was the department head of the Marketing and Management programs. He has formed and facilitated over 15 business courses for online delivery methods.

Educationally, he possesses a Master’s degree in Business Administration, a Master’s degree in Education, coupled with a Doctorate in Education Administration. He is a graduate of the Georgia Tech Economic Development Institute, has a certificate in Online Learning Administration, Online Learning and Teaching Management, and is a Certified Customer Service Trainer and Advancement Officer.

He brings in practical business work experience in wholesale, retail and in banking. He is a previous owner of a small business that employed 27 employees with four locations. He is a member of various professional organizations including the North American Council for Online Learning, the Georgia Association of Career and Technical Education, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, and the American Association of Community Colleges. He is a former president of the Georgia Southern University Alumni Association. In his hometown of Jesup, GA, he is past president of the Jesup Rotary Club and the Jaycees, and served on the Board of Directors for the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce.

Bill Garlen is a seasoned management and leadership professional with diverse credentials that combine tactical leadership, corporate executive management, marketing, communications and human resources expertise. Garlen spent years as a business entrepreneur and has a background of achieving success in television, media, music, consulting, corporate, and proprietary business environments. His teaching background includes over 20 years experience in diverse adult education. Additionally, he spent several years in corporate training consulting where he designed, developed and taught courses online and in the classroom. Corporate courses developed include topics in business, management, leadership, marketing, mechanical engineering, real estate, appraisal, adult continuing education, occupational skills, safety and a wide range of computerized applications.

Garlen worked his way from the entry level up to executive management in large corporations, trained as a military officer, owned successful businesses and led a number of volunteer organizations. He served on the Boards of Directors of publicly traded companies. As a board member he served as a lead director, and as chairman of both the audit and compensation committees. He still serves on community boards with Rayonier and the Federal Correctional Institute in Jesup. His knowledge in balancing state, federal and institutional requirements with the practical needs of academic, business and industrial organizations provides him with a unique insight into business, management, and leadership with a unique ability to communicate real world knowledge to his students.

Garlen is a member of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, International Leadership Association, Learning and Development Center of Excellence and Education Technology and eLearning Professionals. At the College of Coastal Georgia he assists in administering and overseeing programs in the School of Business and Public Affairs, supports the development and coordination of the various curriculums in the School, coordinates the use of part-time faculty (recruitment, text selection, and orientation) and assists in assessment activities of the various programs within the school. In addition Garlen serves on the College of Coastal Georgia Curriculum Committee, the Web Oversight Committee, and on numerous faculty and staff search committees.

Education
Ph.D. in Political Science with Distinction, Northern Arizona University
M.A. in Political Science with Distinction, Concentration: Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Northern Arizona University
Graduate Certificate in Public Management, Northern Arizona University
B.S. in Biology, College of Charleston

Teaching and Research Interests/Recent Publications or Scholarly Output
Fields of Study: Public Policy (Primary), International Relations (Secondary), Environmental Policy/Politics (Cognate)
Dissertation: “Interpreting Sustainability: An Analysis of Sustainable Development Narratives Among Developed Nations”
Chair, Department of Criminal Justice, Public Policy, and Management
Tenured Associate Professor of Public Management
Former Director of the Honors Program at the College of Coastal Georgia
Former Sustainability Coordinator/Director at Northern Arizona University and the Sea Island Company
Associate of the Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies
Certified in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI)

I teach courses in public administration, public and for-profit management, public and environmental policy, sustainability, environmental political theory. My research spans environment and sustainability topics but often relates to the topic of the integration of sustainability in policy.

Recent Publications include:

Trussell, M.R., & Farley, H. (2023). Economic impact of CarePortal donations in Glynn County, Georgia.
Journal of Public Child Welfare, 18(5), 1074-1083.

Farley, Heather M. and Zachary A. Smith (2020). Sustainability: If it’s Everything is it Nothing?
Routledge. 2nd edition. In Progress.

Rudd, M.A., Moore, A.F.P., Rochberg, D. et al. (2018). “Climate research priorities for policy-makers, practitioners, and scientists in Georgia, USA.” Environmental Management 62: 190.