DMin, Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, WA
MA, California State University, Fresno, CA 2005
BS, Malone University, Canton, OH 1999
Professional Experience: Bryan serves as the fifth President of Bakke Graduate University. After graduating from BGU in 2012 with a Doctor of Ministry degree in Transformational Leadership for the Global City, he spent the next decade holding various roles throughout the organization. He initially served as an adjunct professor. He then took on the director role for the Doctor of Transformational Leadership (DTL) program, and he served as Academic Dean, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer for several years. Throughout this time, he has maintained pastoral work at his home church, North Way Christian Community (NWCC), located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He currently leads NWCC’s Ministry Hub in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He planted an urban, multiethnic church for NWCC in East Liberty in 2011, and he founded the Transformational Urban Leadership Institute at NWCC in 2016 to equip lay leaders locally and globally on transformational leadership perspectives. In 2006, he helped NWCC and the Pittsburgh Public Schools to launch a city-wide youth mentoring initiative called the Learning and Mentoring Partnership (L.A.M.P.). His doctoral dissertation at BGU focused on how faith-based mentoring relationships transform the lives of young people in urban contexts.
His research on transformational mentoring was published in the 2017 book Urban Shalom and the Cities We Need which contributed to a global advocacy group he co-founded called the Urban Shalom Society. He has served as a co-editor of The New Urban World Journal, and he has facilitated workshops, led urban immersions, and presented papers at conferences and events throughout the United States and in many countries around the world. Before becoming a pastor and a leader in higher education, he was a professional football player in the Arena Football League during his twenties and served as a teacher and coach in California. Bryan and his wife, Julie, live in Pittsburgh where they enjoy spending time with their young adult children, adventuring to cities around the world, sports, boating, reading, writing, playing the ukulele, and spending time with friends.