Vachel Miller is currently Associate Professor in the Leadership and Educational Studies Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He teaches courses on research methodologies, globalization, sustainability and leadership, connecting local and global contexts.
He recently edited a new book on educational leadership titled Apocalyptic Leadership in Education: Facing an Unsustainable World from Where We Stand (2017, Information Age Publishing).
In a period of overlapping social/environmental crises, this book takes inspiration from Robert Jensen’s call for teachers and intellectual leaders to “go apocalyptic”, i.e., to face head‐on the calamities that threaten our shared future on Earth.
The book is targeted at educational leaders in both K-12 and higher education settings and considers education through the lens of social justice and sustainability, as well as affective, spiritual, pragmatic and organizational paradigms.
After completing his doctorate at CIE in 2004, Vachel spent 3 years in Uganda working as an M&E specialist for an East African regional USDOL child labor project, following in the footsteps of Dwaine Lee. Since 2008, he has been teaching in educational leadership and higher education programs. He has also taught adult learning theory for Monica Gomes in Bangladesh and established a partnership with Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia.
In 2015-2016, Vachel was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in a new PhD program in Educational Leadership at Bahir Dar University. While in Bahir Dar, he met another CIE graduate, Mary Lugton, who had taught there previously and continues to support girls’ education in the area.
In January 2017, Vachel travelled with colleagues to Cusco, Peru, to continue conversations about forming an international network of universities focused on sustainability. He has been working on a number of different projects: "We're doing online leadership training for a group of polytechnics in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, through IREX. I'm also doing some academic writing on leadership with my colleagues at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia." [3/17]
Email: millervw@appstate.edu