ISA Welcomes Dr. Gary Daynes to Consulting Team

Ian Symmonds & Associates is pleased to welcome Dr. Gary Daynes to our consulting team. Gary will join our team as a consulting associate, leading strategic efforts with our clients in both (isa) education and (isa) nonprofit. He offices and lives in Eastern North Carolina.

Gary Daynes has over twenty years experience as a professor, author, school leader, and innovator. Through those years, though, his work has focused on a few key beliefs: that communities must organize themselves in order to flourish, that schools are essential parts of flourishing communities, and that the relationship between teachers and learners is the key factor in educational success. Gary is a listener, a problem-solver, and a conceptual thinker. He’s also the father of four college-age daughters.

Gary has taught at large universities and small colleges on topics as varied as American intellectual history, community organizing, and the relationship between place and vocation. He has led initiatives on service-learning, learning communities, mentored student research, electronic portfolios, and retention, all with the purpose of deepening student learning. He has published and presented on the civil rights movement, social change in America, and the activism of Jane Addams. His current work focuses on the ways that small schools and small communities can succeed in the face of competition from larger institutions.

As a school leader, Gary served Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT as Associate Provost for Integrative Learning, and later as the Vice President for Strategic Outreach and Enrollment. He is currently the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Barton College in Wilson, NC where he has led academic affairs, enrollment management, and marketing for the college. Gary’s success in these leadership roles is based on his ability to work across boundaries–both organizational and human.

Gary is a civic leader as well. He co-founded the College Access Network of Utah, and chaired the boards of City Academy, an urban charter high school in Salt Lake City, UT, and the Utah Humanities Council. He is currently the board chair for the St. John Community Development Corporation, a non-profit sponsored by the St. John AME Zion church, and dedicated to the educational success of underserved children in eastern North Carolina. Gary is also a leader in economic development in eastern North Carolina, having just been part of a team to win a million dollar grant to start an innovation hub and co-working space in Wilson, NC.

Gary has led strategic planning efforts for non-profits, K-12 schools, and independent colleges.