Brian Gardner

Mr. Brian K. Gardner is a lecturer of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State Schuylkill. He is the lead instructor responsible for the scheduling and delivery of the IST curriculum that fulfills the degree requirements for the first two years of the bachelor of science in IST program. In addition, he serves as the program coordinator for the IST curriculum at the campus.

Mr. Gardner has had a long and distinguished career in IT consulting and academia. He began his career at IBM and served on a wide range of technical teams providing system administration and programming support for large clients such as the U.S. Navy and DuPont. He also worked for a number of other small to medium-sized consulting firms providing critical technical support to Commonwealth state agencies such as PennDOT, the Department of Health, and the Department of Labor and Industry. His valuable contributions have earned him technical lead and project management roles on numerous projects. His consulting work has provided him with the opportunity to travel extensively across the continental United States and overseas which included project work in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. During his consulting career at IBM, Mr. Gardner also traveled across the U.S. teaching networking courses to external customers for their Skills Dynamics services organization.

Mr. Gardner has also had extensive academic experience to complement his consulting work. Before coming to Penn State Schuylkill, he was an adjunct instructor at Penn State York for eight years, assuming responsibility for teaching the 200-level IST networking courses. Other teaching credits include adjunct lecturer roles at Elizabethtown College, Harrisburg Area Community College, ITT Technical, and York Technical Institute.

Mr. Gardner started his Penn State journey at the McKeesport campus (known today as Greater Allegheny) and earned his bachelor of science degree in Computer Science from Penn State's University Park campus. He also earned a master of science degree in Information Systems from Shippensburg University. He also holds an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation certification, considered to be the most widely used IT Service Management framework in the industry.

Brian is originally from New York City and developed his love for computer technology from his father, Earl, who was Manager of Computer Operations at Book of the Month Club. Brian’s wife, Diann, has deep Schuylkill County roots and is a proud Schuylkill campus alumna, earning her bachelor of arts in Individual and Family Studies from University Park one year after his graduation. Brian and Diann are also proud of their three daughters, one of whom is a 2016 Penn State School of Business graduate.