Dr. Corey Seemiller has worked in higher education for more than 20 years in both faculty and administrative positions in higher education. She has taught and directed programs related to her areas of expertise, which include leadership, civic engagement, career development, and social justice. Her student affairs background includes Residence Life, Academic Advising, Career Services, Fraternity and Sorority Programs, Educational Opportunity Program (recruitment and retention of low-income, first-generation students), and Student Involvement and Leadership.
Dr. Seemiller currently serves as an award-winning professor in the department of Leadership Studies in Education and Organizations at Wright State University and previously held roles including Director of Leadership, Learning, and Assessment at OrgSync, Inc., a campus management technology platform and Director of Leadership Programs at the University of Arizona.
Leading Expert on Generation Z
Dr. Seemiller has been on the forefront of research and publishing about Generation Z since the generation began entering college. In collaboration with her co-collaborator, Dr. Meghan Grace, she conducted her first nation-wide mixed-methods study on Generation Z college students in 2014, her second, the Generation Z Stories Project, in 2017, and the third, Gen Z Voices on Voting in 2019. She and Dr. Grace have published five books – Generation Z Goes to College, Generation Z Leads, Generation Z: A Century in the Making, Generation Z Learns, and Gen Z Around the World, as well as the Gen Z Voices on Voting Report, the Campus of Tomorrow Report, and several scholarly and trade publication articles.
Dr. Seemiller recently co-led the Global Gen Z Study where she worked with 91 research collaborators from around the globe to better understand Generation Z in a post-COVID world. Participants from 81 countries took part in the study, and the research was published in Gen Z Around the World with Emerald Publishing. She just completed her fifth study, Generations in the World of Work, and is writing a book with the same name.
Dr. Seemiller’s work has been featured on NPR and in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, as well as in several other news publications and academic journals. She has also been interviewed for podcasts as well as TV and radio shows worldwide and has engaged in market research consulting for Fortune 10, 50, and 500 companies. Her highly popular TED Talk on Generation Z at TEDxDayton showcased how Generation Z is making a difference in the world and has been watched by more than a quarter million viewers. She speaks all over the world at conferences and institutions about Generation Z and frequently consults for marketing firms and corporations on how to market to and hire Gen Z.
Prominent Voice in Leadership Education
In addition to her work on Generation Z, she is the author of The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook and Student Leadership Competencies Resource Guide, both designed to help educators develop intentional curriculum that enhances leadership competency development with students as well as designed evaluation measurements for each competency, an online database that outlines leadership competencies needed by each academically accredited industry, a workbook, online competency self-assessment, and an iOS app. Dr. Seemiller also published Discovering the Leader Within: Self-Leadership Skills for Teens.
Dr. Seemiller served as the 2014 and 2015 Co-Chair for the National Leadership Symposium and the 2015, 2017, and 2019 Co-Chair of the Leadership Education Academy. She served on the Board of Directors for Lead365, as a member of SAGE ‘s Editorial Advisory Board for the Leadership Videos Collection, an Associate Editor with the Journal of Leadership Studies, and a founder and Board member of the Sonoran Center for Leadership Development. She is currently a Board Member with the Institute for Generational Research and Education, a 501(3)(c)..
When not researching or writing, Dr. Seemiller is busy with her podcast, Rock That Relationship! Dr. Seemiller also co-authored an award-winning children’s book, Fenix: The Fearless Feline, with her then 8 year-old Gen Z daughter.
Dr. Seemiller received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication from Arizona State University, Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University, and Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona.
