How one OHIO Online communications alumnus is using his degree to bring change to primary and secondary education

After 29 years of working in the field of education and 10 years working as an administrator, Californian high school administrative vice principal Gregg Patner (M.A. ‘24) felt at a standstill in his career.

He decided that he could either pursue a new job or further his education.

While he entertained a few different job prospects, he decided instead to pursue an online Master of Arts in Organizational Communication at Ohio University. Not only did the program reinvigorate his passion for his current field of education administration, it also inspired him to bring about new, innovative changes to several California schools.

One of these changes included partnering with Stanford University’s Deliberations Democracy Lab to take the “Deliberation in Schools and Among Young People” program to the schools around the country.

Delivering deliberation to schools

Patner first learned about deliberation work in Dr. Laura Black’s Facilitating Difficult Conversations class (COMS 5220) at Ohio University. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of deliberation, it is an alternative to debate. Like debate, deliberation involves exchanging controversial viewpoints, but, as Patner explains, “instead of arguing and debating your side, you share your thoughts and listen to both sides - there’s no winner or loser.”

According to Stanford University, “deliberation seeks to better understand the issues and options, weigh potential trade-offs between possibilities, establish common ground, and ultimately formulate the most justifiable path forward. Rather than persistence and rhetorical flair, deliberation demands humility, a willingness to listen, and recognition of a shared stake in the issue.”

In a world that is increasingly more polarized, being able to respectfully listen to various viewpoints is a crucial skill.

In the COMS 5220 course, Partner looked at different organizations across the country that are doing deliberation work. When he found out that Stanford University has been doing deliberation work since 1989, he was interested to learn more. Stanford’s campus is a few minutes away from where he lives, and he thought it could be a great partnership opportunity.

He considered, “Maybe this is where my passion project lies is understanding how to take the concepts I learned in Dr. Black’s class and integrating it into schools across the country. Because if you understand what deliberation is and have an opportunity to practice it, they’re going to develop the skill set.”

After he graduated from OHIO Online’s communication program, he decided to contact Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab (DDL) to make this idea a reality. The assistant director of the lab agreed to partner with him and together they took the “Deliberation in Schools and Among Young People” program to Carlmont High School for the first time in the 2025-2026 school year.

Stanford’s program is an instructional strategy that can be integrated into large group events, the classroom and group training. For their first attempt, they decided to implement the program into the school’s new student orientation. They split 600 students into small groups of 20 each across campus to discuss a hot topic “so that their voices could be heard and they could deliberate together.” At the end of the discussion, students got to ask questions that came about during their group discussions with Stanford moderators.

After orientation, students came to some interesting conclusions and were more open to different viewpoints that they might not have considered otherwise. They reported that they were more willing to appreciate their peers' opinions and found it interesting to hear what their classmates thought.

Since the event was successful with the students, they also decided to integrate deliberations into staff meetings.

At a recent staff meeting, teachers were asked to discuss the role AI should play in education. Once they were done deliberating in their small groups, the teachers heard from an expert panel that included a CEO from a company that was developing AI and an AI consultant to the European Union. Just like the students, teachers were able to ask the panel questions that came about in their small groups.

This school-wide deliberation work has inspired several teachers to bring deliberation to their own classrooms as part of their instructional strategy.

The teachers and students are learning new ways to communicate with one another and reshaping their own views in the process.

“There’s levels of learning to the deliberation process," Patner  explained. "First, you learn about the topic. Then, you share your ideas and how you feel about the topic. Questioning your small group and then the expert panel are the last two levels of learning. In the process of learning and sharing their ideas, they find themselves becoming more moderate and it shapes their perspective. They might not still fully agree with what the other side has to say, but they become more moderate in their views as opposed to polarized.”

Innovating Stanford’s program

Patner’s work with Stanford is innovative, as he brought the program to the elementary level for the first time. This large accomplishment would not have been possible had Patner never taken Dr. Black’s class in the Organizational Communication program.

Up until this point, the Democracy Lab’s work with elementary schools was very limited. Their events were one-offs and not systematic. With the help of the Lab and a fellow education administrator, Patner was able to bring a systematic deliberations program to a San Francisco elementary school.

Getting deliberations into an elementary school was important to Patner.

“What we learn at an early age matters. If you can create the space and the opportunity for kids to express their opinion, to deliberate and not feel like they have to argue or avoid, those are good skills, but this gives them a third skill that they can go to. The question is will that then pave the way for them to be more able to consider other people’s opinions as they grow up? The research points to yes,” Patner said.

Some of the age-appropriate topics that the elementary school students deliberated included social media, phone use and uniform policies.

For the expert panels, Stanford was able to provide moderators from their own university as well as subject experts from top companies. For example, experts from ScreenSense came in for their deliberation discussion about screen time. ScreenSense is a company that specializes in research-based tech advice for parents and schools.

“The data derived from those deliberations reinforced the well-researched findings that deliberations do, in fact, align perspectives. For example, before the deliberation, 65% of the 4th/5th graders thought cell phones should be allowed in school, and in the post-survey that number dropped to 45%,” Patner said.

In addition to deliberation sessions, older elementary students receive a chance to visit Stanford classes to discuss deliberation work. They are also given a chance to join a school advisory board, where they can discuss school policies and enact schoolwide changes. These experiences have been highly enriching and life-changing for them.

Due in part to Patner’s work, Stanford is now considering writing a book about the importance of doing deliberation work at the elementary school level. This recognition of Patner’s work highlights how beneficial an accessible, online program like Ohio University's can be.

Communications program offers applicable career-driven curriculum

In addition to his work with deliberation, Partner has implemented several other new ideas into his school district as a direct result from several of his OHIO Online communications classes.

“Coming into the program at the tail end of my career, I approached school differently,” Partner said. “So, I was very much all in. Let’s be creative. Let’s go for it. Let’s challenge the boundaries. And in doing this, I had these amazing interactions with others, and in my classes, I had some amazing projects which were super inspiring to me. And that was fulfilling . . . and it reinvigorated me. Throughout the program I would take little bits and pieces here and there and integrate them into the school I’m working at.”

For example, he implemented an improved emergency training for staff. He created the training program in his Instructional Training and Development class (COMS 6270), and the program resulted in a reported increase in staff perceptions of emergency readiness. Through the emergency communication theories he learned in class, he was able to coach teaching staff how to clearly navigate emergencies from natural disaster responses to individual student health problems (i.e. concussion or asthma attack). 

He also restructured onboarding practices at Carlmont High School because of content completed in his Communicative Processes in Organizations class (COMS 7220) to enhance the transition and socialization of new employees. These assignments have been an invaluable part of his OHIO Online education.

Why OHIO Online?

When asked why he chose OHIO Online’s Master of Arts in Organizational Communication program, Patner said it was the people. The director of the program, Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, made him feel welcome immediately and was always available to answer his questions.

Once he entered the program, he continued to appreciate the relational aspect of OHIO Online’s staff. Patner said that his professors “created a sense of connectedness to the University through the online component, which was really wonderful.” For example, some professors would share pictures of the campus, while others shared information about different University projects and partnerships.

When reflecting on his OHIO Online experience, Patner said “I’m so grateful as a 55-year-old person at the end of his career to go back to school and be inspired, to take on work and create passion projects. I’m not sure where they’re going to go from here, but I’m excited and revitalized because of it.”

OHIO Online’s Master of Communication is part of the prestigious Scrips College of Communication which is the alma mater of more than 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. You can learn more about the Scripps College of Communication here.