Doug Garnar

Momentum Administrator's picture

Doug Garnar began teaching at SUNY Broome Community College in 1971.  He retired in 2015 but continues to teach community internship courses on a part-time basis.

He was awarded a SUNY Distinguished Service Professorship in 2007 and the College's Center for Civic Engagement was named after him in 2017.

Doug attended a workshop sponsored by the Society for Values in Higher Education in 2000 which focused on the use of public deliberation.  For the past two decades he has used NIFI both on campus and in the community (especially at senior citizen centers/Lyceum programs and local churches).  Working with his colleague, Lisa Strahely, the civic center has been offering "public voice" forums focusing on a variety of issues ranging from setting legislative agenda priorities at the State and County level) to looking at the impact of proposed State legislation to legalize recreational marijuana.

Finally, Doug has been authoring monthly columns in a Western NY monthly paper called the Owl Light News---his columns focus on the use of public deliberation featuring a new NIF issue book.  He was dubbed a "Civic Sherpa" and enjoys looking for possibilities to "spread the message of deliberative democracy.