Biography

Dan Shepherd has served as a high school English teacher, a high school assistant principal, an elementary principal, a curriculum director, and an assistant superintendent in public schools throughout Indiana. His career has taken him to rural, suburban and urban school systems, and he has worked with students, families, teachers and administrators in settings with little racial and economic diversity and in settings with significant racial and economic diversity. He continues to work with schools through his current service as the director of the Advanced Studies for Teacher Leaders program at Indiana Wesleyan University. 

Educational Background:

• B.A., 1988, Cedarville University
• M.Ed., 1994, Indiana Wesleyan University
• Ed.S., 2005, Ball State University
• Ed.D., 2010, Ball State University

Interests

Dr. Shepherd’s recent research and writing interests have included a comparison of Jesus’ instructional approaches with the findings of current educational research and the impact of differentiating instruction based on the teacher’s understanding of students’ personality types. He has also conducted grant-funded research into the attitudes of public school principals toward the new teachers they have hired in recent years, and he has been published on the topic of leadership, focusing especially on the importance of vision, relationships and character in organizational improvement. Finally, he has studied how Christian college faculty members most powerfully share their faith with their students.