Gary Burkholder

Milestones

My road in life has taken me all over.

Wanted to be a Wildlife Management Major.

Switched to History and Foreign Languages because I was not successful in college chemistry.

Dropped out of school to enlist in the Navy to be a cook.

Went to Nuclear Power School instead and realized my love for engineering.

Went back to college with a ROTC scholarship and got my nuclear engineering degree.

Spent the next 7 years in the Navy.

Went back to undergraduate to change profession to Psychology.

Was persuaded to go to graduate school and I got my doctorate in 2000 in Psychology.

Keep following my journey

Education

High School
Yucca Valley High School

Bachelor
Engineering, General
University of Washington-Seattle Campus

Graduate
Psychology, General
University of Rhode Island

Doctorate
Experimental Psychology
University of Rhode Island

Bachelor
Psychology, General
University of Rhode Island

Career

Vice President; Senior Research Scholar

I teach, mentor, research, and find ways to sustain a culture of evidence and research.

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

Education

Writing

Teaching / Mentoring

Day to Day

A great day for me is when I accomplish a certain amount of creative or academic writing. I also have meetings during which I work on establishing a research program for my institution. I mentor students who are completing their doctoral research.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for college students

Study what interests you the most. The specific undergraduate degree did not matter to where I am at today. However, my undergraduate degree in engineering was most useful to me in my years as a division officer in the United States Navy. I studied what I enjoyed and used what I studied to meet the shorter-term goals I had at the time.