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Gayla Stoner, PhD, comes to Creighton from Northern Arizona University, where she served as vice provost and dean for Online and Innovative Educational Initiatives, providing operational and programmatic oversight for innovation, educational partnerships and development across eight colleges, including 22 educational locations within Arizona. She oversaw the eLearning Center, as well as the Educational Partnership team and Personalized Learning (competency-based) programs. Additionally, she founded Northern Arizona’s Office of Continuing Education in 2020.

Previously, Stoner was associate provost at Central Washington University where she oversaw multimodal learning and statewide university centers for “place-bound” students, those who face financial and other hurdles to leaving an immediate geographic area to attend school. She holds PhD and MSEd degrees in workforce education and development from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Dr. Stoner’s interests include the provision of educational opportunities that help reshape lives through the alignment of real-time and emerging industry needs. Most specifically, she is interested in providing access to high-quality educational programming to adult learners and working professionals, including those who do not believe education is within their reach. 

Throughout Dr. Stoner’s higher education career, she has established collaborations with community, industry and corporate partners that provide opportunities for innovative pathways to education, professional development and lifelong learning.