Dr. Brennan has served as chair of the Mission College English Department, Student Success Committee, the Learning Outcomes Committee, and Accreditation (among others), as Vice President of the Academic Senate, and teaches composition, African and Native American literature, and life skills classes. He was voted Faculty of the Year at Mission College in 1999 and was awarded a NISOD Teaching Excellence Award. In April, 2005, he was awarded the Stanback-Stroud Diversity Award from the California State Academic Senate and in 2008 received the state Hayward Award for Excellence in Education.
Since 2005, he has served as Chair of the On Course National Student Success Conference, a major national student success conference with 500 attendees, annually featuring 50-60 sessions focused on learner-centered strategies to empower students to become active, responsible learners. Conference website.
His publications include two books (on Mixed Race and Black Indian Literature) from Stanford Press and University of Illinois Press, and Choosing a Good Road, a textbook focused on student success in middle and high school. He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles, conference papers & panel presentations, and book critiques. (See Publications.)
Dr. Brennan has taught as an English Instructor at Foothill College, West Valley College, and San Jose City College; an Instructor in the University of California, Berkeley Ethnic Studies Department (teaching the History of American Cultures and Civil Rights Movements of American Cultures); Student Publications Program Writing Instructor for the University of California, Berkeley (serving on the Chancellor's Committee on Student Publications); and Multi-Cultural Literature Reader, University of California, Berkeley English Department.
He previously worked as a freelance book critic, reviewing fiction and poetry for the Los Angeles Daily News, Review: Latin American Literature and Art, and The San Francisco Review of Books, as Editor of The Berkeley Poetry Review, and Assistant Editor of The San Francisco Review of Books.
At Mission College, he served as director and founder of two academic mentoring programs (Pass the Torch and Math Mentors) for community college students. These programs trained peer academic mentors to work in study teams with students enrolled in basic skills (remedial) level English, Math, Reading and ESL courses. The team leaders were trained by faculty members and taught study skills and reviewed course content using collaborative learning techniques. Student retention and success rates increased by over 30%.
Dr. Brennan also developed the On Course Learning Communities project which linked basic skills English, Math, ESL and Reading courses with a counseling course focused on the acquisition of student success strategies. This learning community project utilized the following strategies and models: freshman seminar, innovative On Course textbook and faculty training, team-teaching (content instructor and counselor), cross-disciplinary collaborations, and building capacity (training educators and students to become actively involved as mentors, sharing gained wisdom) Student retention rates increased by over 22%.
His professional affiliations have included: Modern Language Association; American Studies Association; American Literature Association; Western Association of University Publications Managers; Faculty Association of California Community College; and the American Creativity Association.
He has served on the following Campus/District Programs/Committees:
Chair, Accreditation Task Force 2003-2008
Chair, English Department, 2003-2005
Vice President and Senator, College Academic Senate, 2000-2004
Chair, Senate Student Readiness Task Force 2003-2004
Chair, Senate Learning Outcomes Committee 2003-2005
Chair, Student Success Committee 2001-2003
Matriculation Committee 2001-2003
Accreditation Standard Five Committee Member/Editor, 2001
Director, Math Mentors Program 2001-2002
Director, Pass the Torch Academic Mentoring 1999-2001
Chair, English/ESL Articulation Path Senate Sub-Committee 2000-2002
Chair, English 108A Board/Holistic Grading Committee 1999-2001
Chancellor’s Committee on Faculty/Staff Diversity 1999-2002
District Accreditation Committee 2004-2007
District Academic Senate 2001-2004
His presentations on campus have included: Identifying Learning Disabilities; Campus Learning Communities; Student Support Services; Experiential Learning & Student Success; Student Learning Outcomes; Emotional Intelligence; and Self Awareness.
He has directed and served on the following Grants projects: Title V Grant Writing Committee, Mission College 2003-2005; Cisco Systems College Grant Procurement ($200k) 2003-2004; Title III Student Outcomes/Assessment Committee 2002-2003; Director, Instructional Improvement Grant, State Chancellor’s Office 2002-2003; Director, Fund for Student Success Grant, State Chancellor’s Office 2001-2002.
Working closely with students, he has been involved in the following student activities: African American Heritage Month Committee 1998-2004; Global Studies Guest Lecturer, Black Indians, 2002; Coordinator, Campus Poetry Slam 1999-2004; Olympian of Arts Competition Coordinator 1999-2001; Faculty Sponsor: Black Graduation; National Marrow Donor Program, and numerous other activities with student government and student clubs & organizations.
His Team-Teaching Projects have included the following:
1) Music/Humanities with college Music Professor:
A collaboration between the Music Department (The History of Rock and Roll), and the Humanities Department (African American Culture and Humanities). These two classes came together to discuss the origin of the blues, the origins of jazz, African American history, and the African roots of rap and hip hop music.
2) English/Counseling with EOPS Counselor:
A collaboration in the English 108A classroom, one level below the transfer level composition course, with an English instructor and a counselor. This was a pilot program for the On Course learning communities, utilizing a cohort of EOPS and other students in an English classroom. The English instructor and EOPS Counselor team taught the On Course student success textbook and strategies, increasing the retention rates by 25% over typical retention rates at this level.
