Nathaniel W. Cradit, Ph.D.
Title:
Assistant Professor & Founding Program Director, Higher Education Leadership
Programs/Classes Taught:
RES 510, Research Methodology & Writing
HED 620, Leadership & Governance in Higher Education
HED 630, Academic Affairs: Faculty, Curriculum, & Assessment
HED 632, Student Development Theory
HED 650, Institutional Study
RES 654, Qualitative Research Methods
Areas of Expertise:
Student affairs
Academic leadership and faculty development
Teaching and learning
Postsecondary education policy
Campus safety & risk management
Qualitative inquiry
Biography:
Dr. Nathaniel Cradit comes to NLU with a background of 10 years as a higher education scholar-practitioner. He has worked with institutions of varying sizes to promote educational justice as a path toward social justice through administrative leadership roles in first-year student transition programs, intercollegiate athletics, student affairs, and civic engagement. In addition, Nate served as a consultant on the development and assessment of multiple graduate and co-curricular programs for the study of higher education in nations with young systems of public education, including at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, and ADA University in Azerbaijan.
In addition to these accomplishments of practice, Nate’s scholarship on timely issues regarding college teaching and postsecondary educational policy has been recognized through state and national media outlets, academic journals, and national and international academic conferences. His current work is centered on the ways in which state laws to allow concealed weapons on college campuses influence faculty behaviors. This study was the first of its kind to demonstrate that these so-called “campus-carry” laws change teaching and faculty-student interaction in ways that are detrimental to student success, and has been recognized for both its practical contributions to the study of higher education and for methodological significance as an advancement in qualitative inquiry. Nate has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in higher education, public policy, and leadership at Michigan State University among other institutions. Outside of his work, Nate serves on the board for a national career/technical education nonprofit organization. He is an amateur home chef, marathon runner, avid traveler, and co-parent to an elderly, curmudgeonly pug named Max.
Education:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, Michigan State University
- Master of Arts (M.A.) in Higher Education Student Affairs, Eastern Michigan University
Research and Interests:
Interactions between public policy and postsecondary teaching and learning
Campus-carry legislation and its educative and developmental implications
Institutional violence
Organizational theory
International education and intra-national notions of learning and knowledge
