Charlena Miller
Assistant Professor of Management
Phone Number: 402.826.2161Department: Business Administration
Office: GA411
Email: [email protected]
Primary Campus: Crete
Credentials: BS, MA, DBA
Dr. Charlena Miller is Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business. She joined Doane University in 2022 and teaches courses in management and artificial intelligence. She earned a DBA (2023) from George Fox University with her dissertation research in the area of career shock and voluntary turnover intention. She earned an M.A. in Spiritual Formation (2009) from Portland Seminary, focusing on the formation of organizational leaders. Her research interests include human-centered AI and its relationship with learning and leadership.
Charlena is a business practitioner and educator with a management, marketing, and public relations background. She has led teams in the development of education technology products, interactive media, online and in-person enterprise training programs, and brand and marketing for global and regional organizations. She is CEO and Co-Founder of HumanWise, where she helps teams build and sustain the human discernment AI cannot replace, drawing on her Fortune 50 corporate experience alongside her academic training. Charlena enjoys transformational work with individuals and organizations seeking to develop healthy businesses where people thrive and are equipped to serve and contribute to their communities. She is delighted to apply her business experience and passion for transformation to the work of supporting students to develop their potential and contribute from a sense of purpose.
She serves as a Yale Life Worth Living Faculty Fellow and a faculty mentor for the AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and Curriculum, where she advises higher education institutions and leadership teams on AI governance and strategy.
Courses
- AI-Enhanced Strategic Analysis (BUS 496)
- Business Capstone Experience (BUS 498)
- Life Worth Living in the Age of AI (LAR 303)
- Organizational Behavior (MBA)
- Organizational Change and Transformation (MBA)
How did you become interested in teaching?
I am driven by a passion to support people who take risks and work hard to learn and grow. Learning and growth is a vulnerable process, and teaching is sacred work with both tremendous responsibility and incredible privilege. There is hardly anything more rewarding than to be a part of someone discovering their talents, honing these into skills, and making the contributions their hearts long to make. Investing in others’ growth fulfills part of my sense of purpose and is the wisest investment in the future that I could imagine making.
What advice do you have for students?
Each moment of class time and homework are as sacred as any other moments of your one and only life. The moment you are in is the only one you are guaranteed. Give your attention to it. A valuable practice is to work at the discipline of treasuring the present moment and resisting the urge to just get through it to the next thing. When you think something doesn’t matter, find a way to slow down and make it matter. When you think something is silly, find a way to transform it into something meaningful. Take full ownership of your learning and experience. Don’t suffer because you feel stuck or confused. This is a normal part of the learning process when you are giving it your all. Speak up. Ask for help.
What is one of your favorite quotes?
In her poem Sometimes, Mary Oliver offers essential instructions for living. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” This has meaning for me as Oliver gently illuminates the necessity of choosing to live in awe and wonder if one is to live fully alive. I think part of the joy and challenge of teaching is in fostering the ability within myself and students to notice and experience the awe, wonder, and possibility of all the “ordinary” around us, in others, and within ourselves.