Renea B. Gernant
Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts
English, Communication and Theatre Arts Department
Profile Renea Gernant has been at Concordia full-time since 1991. Gernant currently serves as the program director for gerontology and aging studies and as professor of communication studies.
Gernant's primary area of research is older adult communication. Other research interests include political communication, language theory and debate education. Gernant speaks regularly on issues of older adult communication, intergenerational marketing and intercultural communication.
Gernant and her students present regularly at the National Communication Association national convention in the areas of debate education, rhetoric and interpersonal communication. Co-curricularly, Gernant directed the forensics team from 1988 to 2007. Gernant is currently the faculty advisor to Pi Kappa Delta, a national honorary forensics and communication organization.
Having worked extensively with the mission school in Tisovec, Slovakia, Gernant helps advise those in the international studies program who have an interest in teaching or mission work in Eastern Europe.
Education
Certificate in Gerontolody, University of Nebraska-Omaha (2007)
Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1998)
M.A., University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1991)
B.S.Ed., Concordia College, Seward, Neb. (1988)
Courses taught Mass Communication, Speech and Debate Education, Speech and Debate, Religious Rhetoric, Intercultural Communciation, Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Theory, Language and Linguistics, Communication Theory, Adult Development and Aging, Issues in Gerontology and Aging Studies, Death and Dying, and introductory courses in writing and speaking.
Other Gernant is a speaker on cross-cultural communication and ministry, animal assisted therapy and older adult programs and ministry.
Gernant currently serves as the Vice-President (President Elect) of the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA), the largest collegiate debate organization in the United States. She was President of the National Christian College Forensics Association (NCCFA) until spring of 2008. In 2004, she was given the outstanding coaching award from the NCCFA. In 2002, she was awarded the outstanding service award from the Nebraska Intercollegiate Forensics Association. In 1998, Gernant coached the National Champions in NPDA debate.
Gernant volunteers with area care agencies doing animal assisted therapy and hospice work. She is president of the board of NOAH'S Assistance Dogs in Crete, NE and is a member of NOAH'S Canine Crisis Response Team.