Meet New Hires Adam Spanier and JD Stone

For Adam Spanier and JD Stone, seeing each other in Discovery Hall this fall will add a new dimension to their long-standing friendship. Both Spanier and Stone are newly hired instructors at the College of Business and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Between them, they bring a wealth of knowledge to share with the students who will be fortunate enough to take their classes.

Spanier, who is currently pursuing his PhD at UNO, has been a part-time adjunct lecturer for the past three years. Grateful to now be working at UNK on a full-time basis, he is looking forward to using his academic background in computer science, cyber security, and artificial intelligence to add a new dimension to the four classes he will be teaching. With research in the areas of Language-agnostic Static Vulnerability Analysis, Cyber Warfare Strategy, Decentralized Zero Trust Authentication, and Gamification in Cyber Security, Spanier is “very comfortable” with the material he will be teaching at UNK.

Spanier’s class material, which “covers the bases” of cyber security, computer science, and network communications, will allow him to share with his students what he personally has been learning about for many years. As an experienced teacher, he also looks forward to the connections he knows he will be able to make in the classroom. Reflecting on a time when he discovered that one of his students was feeling overwhelmed with college in general, Spanier shares how he took the opportunity to be in the moment, a strategy which gave his student the “confidence to navigate not only (his) class but school in general.” These types of relationships reflect Spanier’s understanding that teaching is more than just transferring material to his students. 

Stone, who is delving into academia for the first time, plans to use his experience as a site superintendent, contract administrator, and project engineer in his class lectures. He has “seen the construction process from a couple of different viewpoints” which he feels will bring a necessary perspective to his role as an instructor. He looks forward to helping his students understand what he has often been responsible for communicating to his clients as part of his role within the construction industry. 

His business background has enabled him to “know the subject matter like the back of (his) hand.” Fourteen years in the industry, including working on several projects at UNK, has given him considerable experience with the design team side of construction. For anyone who has enjoyed relaxing with a cup of coffee or collaborating with others at Brewed Awakenings, Stone’s expertise helped make that experience a reality. He is looking forward to using his “real world experience” to share “stories from job sites” that he has worked on to teach his class. He also plans to use his “contacts within the industry” to bring in guest speakers and plan trips to job sites to keep his classroom “connected to the actual industry.” His hope is that his students will feel like their experience feels “more like being a part of the industry than (being) in a classroom.”

Both Spanier and Stone are active in the Kearney community and are looking forward to being part of the faculty at UNK. Students taking their classes can expect to learn a lot more than what can be taught from a textbook. Both of these instructors will use their extensive knowledge and background experience to teach their students material beyond what is listed on the syllabus.