Biography

Edgar I. Farmer is the head of the Department of Learning and Performance Systems at Penn State University. Farmer also is director of Penn State's Postsecondary Technical & Community College Leadership program, which he founded in 1997. He served as professor-in-charge of the WFED program from 1997-1999. In addition, from 1999 to 2002, he was the University's site director for National Research and Dissemination Centers on Career & Technical Education, and is currently a member of the leadership team of the College's Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee. Before joining the Penn State faculty in 1996, Farmer served at North Carolina State University as director of graduate programs in the Department of Adult and Community College Education. He is a former coordinator of the Industrial and Technical Education program and past editor of the Occupational Educational Form, now the Workforce Education Forum, a national refereed journal in vocational education. He is also a W.K. Kellogg National Fellow, CIC Fellow and currently is serving as a Penn State Administrative Fellow to Eva J. Pell, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. Farmer's research interests are cultural diversity, African American Lawmakers in the United States Congress during Reconstruction (1870-1873), and research methods in workforce education. He received his D.Ed. in Vocational Industrial Education from Penn State in 1978.