GHC Faculty and Staff

Biography:

Randy is a tenured Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Political Science at Georgia Highlands College. He is a former Regional Director with the State of Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. Randy completed a thirty-two-year law enforcement career in July 2011, after serving with the Rome, Georgia, Police Department for four years and then with the Board of Pardons and Paroles for twenty-eight years. He is a POST certified Senior Instructor and holds Instructor Specialization Certification in Firearms and Defensive Tactics. He is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Defensive Tactics Instructor’s course. One of Randy’s proudest moments in his criminal justice career is when he was selected for the inaugural Parole Board’s Instructor of the Year in 1996. He was selected as the instructor of the year from a pool of outstanding and distinguished instructors that taught for the Parole Board at that time. Additionally, an equally proud moment and a profound honor for Randy was when he was named a recipient of USG’s eMajor eHero Award in November 2023. He is just one of many awesome professors who teach for the USG’s eMajor, and he enjoys every minute of teaching the wonderful students who take criminal justice classes in the eMajor Program.

Randy holds a Master in Public Administration with concentrations in Criminal Justice and Political Science from Jacksonville State University. He has taught at the college level since 1988, having taught at Georgia Highlands College, Berry College, Shorter University and Georgia Northwestern Technical College, and has been on faculty at Georgia Highlands College since 1990. He served on the Northwest Georgia Police Academy Advisory Board for many years, having served two terms as Chairman. He is a current member of the Community Criminal Justice Foundation, Inc., International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association and the American Criminal Justice Association – Lambda Alpha Epsilon. He is a past member of the Parole Association of Georgia and the National Sheriffs’ Association.

Randy serves as a Co-Advisor to the Criminal Justice and Political Science Club at GHC and enjoys the fun times with the club members at club meetings and events. He feels strongly that student engagement is very important in the lives of students and the networking that occurs in club activities is critical for future careers in criminal justice. On January 20, 2017, Randy was awarded the Quality Matters Expert Award, as he had successfully completed a series of training sessions in Quality Matters.

Randy and his wife, Sherry (Ret. Associate Professor of Education at GHC) live in Rome, GA. They have one daughter, Kasey Green Brant, and one grandson, Brody William Brant. They enjoy watching their grandson play baseball, watching GHC athletic events, and spending time in the Grand Tetons. Randy and his family attend Crosspoint City Church in Cartersville, Georgia.

Biography:

Dr. Greg Sumner is a tenured professor and coordinator of the Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice at Georgia Highlands College. Greg served as a Deputy Sheriff for the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, Patrolman First Class for the Rome Police Department, and Lieutenant/Senior Instructor for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center-Northwest Georgia Police Academy. In those agencies, he has served as a patrolman, field training officer, honor guard member, SWAT team member, counter-sniper, and instructor. He holds instructor certifications in instructor training, firearms, defensive tactics, pepper spray, chemical agents (FBI), environmental crimes (EPA), health and wellness, and ASP baton. He is the founder and past president of Professional Screening & Information (PSI), a company that conducts pre-employment screening services internationally with clients in aviation, healthcare, insurance, business, government, and energy, to name a few. Greg created products such as Background Wise, Reference Wise, and Med Wise to include the pre-service background check model used by all police academies in the State of Georgia. After 15 years of successful growth, the company was sold in 2014 to a private investment group, where he maintains a seat on the board of directors.

Greg is the founder of a non-profit organization, the Community Criminal Justice Foundation, Inc. (CCJF), that provides annual scholarships to those seeking a degree in criminal justice and an annual lunch for criminal justice personnel throughout Northwest Georgia. As an entrepreneur, Greg has remodeled and developed properties in Rome, GA; Panama City Beach, FL; St. Simons Island, GA; and on the Toccoa River in Blue Ridge, GA.

Greg is a veteran of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, serving in the Georgia Army National Guard (48th Brigade) and the United States Army (24th Infantry Division) as a tanker and physical training instructor.

Greg holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Human Services with a concentration in Criminal Justice from Walden University and has conducted additional graduate studies in developmental psychology. He conducted his doctoral residency through Walden University at Indiana University. He holds a Master of Science in Criminal Justice and a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science from Jacksonville State University, where he was a member of the Alpha Phi Sigma-criminal justice national honor society, Lambda Alpha Epsilon-American Criminal Justice Association, and Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

Greg is the recipient of the Cobb County Teacher of the Year Award (2024); GHC Faculty Member of the Year Award (2024); GHC Excellence for Online Teaching Award (2021); USG eMajor/eHero Award (2020), Rome Downtown Development Authority-Williams S. Frick’s Service Award (2016); Community Criminal Justice Foundation Leadership Award (2015); Georgia Highlands College Shining Star Award (2013); Heart of the Community Award (2012); Jacksonville State University Criminal Justice Alumni of the Year Award (2012); graduate of Leadership Georgia (2009); Better Business Bureau Torch Award Recipient of Ethics in Business (2008); Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year (2008); graduate of Leadership Rome (2000); and Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, to name a few.

Greg has served on many non-profit boards of directors over the years. He currently serves on the boards of the Community Criminal Justice Foundation (member), Northwest Georgia Police Academy (chair), Jacksonville State University Foundation (member, chair 2021-2023), and Rome High School College and Career Academy program of Study in Law, Public Safety, and Corrections Advisory Board (member).

Greg and his wife (Shani) have three boys in college, one at the University of Mississippi and two at the University of Alabama. Much of his free time is spent with his family watching football, hiking, kayaking, fly fishing, and traveling.

Biography:

Zachary (Zak) Guder is an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia Highlands College. He is an Assistant District Attorney practicing in the Cherokee Judicial Circuit which covers Bartow and Gordon counties.

Zak has worked in several different positions within the criminal justice field. He started out of high school by enlisting in the Georgia Army National Guard (179th MP CO) as a Military Police Officer. He spent two years deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from 2012-2014. When he returned home, he attended Savannah Technical College where he earned an associate degree in paralegal studies.

After earning his paralegal degree, Zak worked at a local law firm in Savannah, GA for two years as a paralegal before returning to school to complete his bachelor’s degree. He graduated from Georgia Southern University (then Armstrong State University) in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society. Zak attended Law School at Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law (Barry University) in Orlando, FL and graduated Cum Laude with his Juris Doctor in December of 2020.
Following his graduation for law school Zak spent three and a half years as a public defender in NW Georgia before beginning at his current position.
In addition to his legal practice, Zak is also a Georgia certified Guardian Ad Litem, and a Mediator with certifications in Juvenile Dependency and Delinquency mediations.

Zak and his wife (Katie) live in Euharlee, GA with their many pets. Much of his free time is spent reading, watching TV, or playing video games. He has a particular passion for the British comic book Judge Dredd and its satirical commentary on the American Criminal Justice System.

Biography:

Ghee is an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia Highlands College. Ghee is a Special Agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Ghee has served as a law enforcement officer for more than 20 years. Ghee began his law enforcement career with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office in 2002. Ghee spent much of his local law enforcement career assigned to the Rome/Floyd Metro Drug Task Force as an Investigator, before leaving the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office as a Sergeant, in 2015. In 2015, Ghee accepted a position as a Special Agent with the Georgia Department of Corrections, where Ghee was assigned as a Task Force Officer (TFO), to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Northwest Georgia Criminal enterprise Task Force. Ghee is currently employed by the GBI, assigned to the Region 1 Field Office. Ghee is also detached to the FBI Atlanta Division, Cartersville Resident Agency, as a TFO. Ghee holds a General Instructor certification, a Firearms Instructor certification, Taser Instructor certification and a Use of Force Instructor certification, through the Georgia Peace Officer’s Standards and Training council.

Ghee holds an Associate of Science in Criminal Justice from Georgia Northwestern Technical College, a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (graduated Magna Cum Laude) and Master of Science in Public Safety Administration from Columbus State University.

Ghee has served on many community and non-profit boards in the Rome/Floyd County Georgia area, to include Current President of the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia, The Community Criminal Justice Foundation, Past President of the Coosa Valley Fraternal Order of Police, and the Salvation Army Advisory Board. Ghee has also been involved in raising money for local non-profits, to include, the Hospitality House Domestic Violence Shelter, Floyd Against Drugs Murder Mystery Dinner, and the Rome Celebrity Dance Challenge.

Ghee was the two-time recipient of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office Joe Adams Community Service Award, the GBI Basic Agent Course Leadership award, the class of 2018 Rome Life Twenty Under Forty, and the Outstanding Citizen Award from the Lindale, VFW.

Ghee and his wife (Lindsay) are the parents of a beautiful daughter and a Golden Doodle. Ghee is an avid fan of the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Braves, and the Alabama Crimson Tide.