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Dr. Erik Bean

Dr. Erik Bean
Professor of Practice of PhD in Global Leadership

College of Business, Ph.D. in Global Leadership

Phone: 260.243.7654

Email: EPBean@indianatech.edu

Office: Cunningham 311B

My Office Hours

Open: Email me with days and times of your availability

Classes I Teach

LDS 7001 Leadership Theory & Practice
LDS 7002 Leading in Times of Global Change
LDS 7003 Communication in Global & Diverse Context
OLHE 7008 Global Practicum
RES 7011 Research Critique
DBA 7100 Business Research Methods

Educational Background

Ed.D., Educational Leadership, University of Phoenix
M.A., Journalism, Michigan State University
B.S., Psychology, Grand Valley State University

Professional Experience

Hello, I’m Dr. Erik Bean, and I am pleased to serve as a full-time Professor of Practice in the Ph.D. in Global Leadership program at Indiana Tech. My academic and professional career spans higher education, journalism, leadership, media and information literacy, research, and organizational communication. I hold an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Phoenix and an M.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University.

My current scholarship examines the intersections of media and information literacy, bias and impartiality, artificial intelligence, ethical leadership and decision-making, and sustainability within global leadership and educational contexts. In 2026, I was approved as an Individual Expert member of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance and invited to serve as a founding member of the proposed MIL Diplomacy for Human Rights, Peace, Cultural Diversity and Sustainability Chapter. My work increasingly explores how leaders, educators, researchers, and citizens can recognize bias, exercise reflexivity, and make more informed and ethical decisions in AI-mediated information environments.

My scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Leadership Studies, Media Literacy and Academic Research, and the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals. I am also the author of Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories and coauthor of 20/20 Prudent Leadership: Conversation, Conduct, Character, & COVID-19. My scholarly work has taken me to conferences and academic engagements across the United States and internationally, including presentations associated with the International Leadership Association in Barcelona, Brussels, Ottawa, Chicago, Prague, and Toronto, as well as engagements at the University of Oxford, in Jerusalem, Cape Town, India, and Morocco.

In May 2026, I delivered a keynote address on bias, reflexivity, and leadership in AI-mediated information environments at the First International Spring Academy on Media and Information Literacy Diplomacy at Moulay Ismail University in Meknes, Morocco. My continuing work with the International Leadership Association includes research and presentations addressing artificial intelligence in higher education, research reflexivity, and the KLEMP framework for assessing bias and strengthening leadership awareness.

Before concentrating primarily on higher education and scholarship, I worked in journalism, publishing, technical writing, marketing communications, and customer experience. My journalism experience includes work as a reporter and newspaper editor, and I have served in scholarly publishing as a section editor for the Journal of Leadership Studies. I began teaching online during the formative years of online higher education in the late 1990s and have since taught and mentored undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students.

In addition to my academic work, I serve as Michigan State Leader for Media Literacy Now and am the founder of a Michigan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In 2022, I was selected as a First-Place recipient of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation Teacher Innovator Award for information literacy curriculum designed for use in community college and library settings.

My teaching and scholarship are ultimately connected by a common question: How can we become more thoughtful consumers, producers, researchers, and leaders in an increasingly complex information environment?

Publications/Presentations

Selected Journal Articles

Books

  • Bean, E. (2021). Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories. Healthy Mind Express Imprint. Foreword by Tim P. Vos, Ph.D., Michigan State University.
  • Migliore, L. A., & Bean, E. (2020). 20/20 Prudent Leadership: Conversation, Conduct, Character, & COVID-19. Abundant Knowledge.
  • Waszak, E., & Bean, E. (2019). Ethan’s Healthy Mind Express: A Children’s First Mental Health Primer. Healthy Mind Express Imprint.

Additional Books and Publications

Erik Bean has contributed to book publishing since 1999. A more extensive selection of his published books is available through his Amazon Author Page.

Forthcoming Scholarly Contributions

  • Bean, E. P. (forthcoming). Foreword. In L. A. Migliore (Ed.), Inspiring transformation through AI-powered whole-person leadership: Synchronicity, self-efficacy, and servant leadership. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. Expected October 2026.
  • Bean, E. P., & Polski, M. (forthcoming). Reflective media literacy: Overcoming cognitive dissonance and grasshopper mind in the digital age. Preliminary acceptance for the Media Education Lab “Media Literacy Provocations” publication.

Selected Conference Presentations and Scholarly Engagements

  • Bean, E. P., Burleigh, C., & Kaan, I. (2026, October 31). Assessing bias for leadership awareness: The application of the KLEMP framework. 28th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Toronto, Canada.
  • Kaan, I., Santos, A., & Bean, E. P. (2026, October 30). Reflexivity as leadership practice: Rethinking authority and transparency in healthcare research. 28th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Toronto, Canada.
  • Burleigh, C., & Bean, E. P. (2026, October 29). Leadership for artificial intelligence in higher education: Toward an integrative framework of distributed, ethical, and adaptive leadership. 28th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Toronto, Canada.
  • Bean, E. P., & Kaan, I. (2026, May 2). Invisible lenses: Bias, reflexivity, and leadership in AI-mediated decision environments. International Leadership Association, AI & Leadership Webinar, Emerging Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Intersections of Business, Education, and Coaching.
  • Bean, E. P. (2026, May 13). Moderator, Media and information literacy diplomacy for ethical and inclusive AI and information integrity in digital spaces. First International Spring Academy on Media and Information Literacy Diplomacy (ISA-MILID), Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco.
  • Bean, E. P. (2026, May 12). Invisible lenses: Bias, reflexivity, and leadership in AI-mediated information environments. Keynote presentation, First International Spring Academy on Media and Information Literacy Diplomacy (ISA-MILID), Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco.
  • Bean, E. P. (2026, March). Selected participant, How We Assess Success in Media Literacy? Deconstructing Current Practice & Research working group. MediaEd Research Jam, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
  • Bean, E. P., Kaan, I., & Santos, A. (2026, March). Trusting the researcher’s lens: Positionality, reflexivity, and the credibility of healthcare leadership research. 17th Annual Qualitative Report Conference, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
  • Jenkins, D., Haskell, C., Bean, E. P., Burris-Melville, T., Payne, J., & Tummala, V. (2025, October 18). Human intelligence meets artificial intelligence: Leading together in uncertain times. 27th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Burleigh, C., & Bean, E. P. (2025, October 17). Research integrity in the era of generative AI: A framework for ethical collaboration. 27th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Bean, E. P. (2025, October 1). AI, libraries, and leadership: Navigating impartiality and ethics. Closing keynote, ai4Libraries Conference, Stanford University, virtual.
  • Bean, E. P. (2025, April 11). Fostering care and creativity through media literacy in leadership education. Midwest Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, IN.
  • Bean, E. P. (2025, March 6). The role of AI in higher education for sustainability. Panelist, International Conference on Synergizing Eco Interventions for Achieving SDGs 2025, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi Campus, India, virtual.
  • Bean, E. P. (2025, March). Student perceptions to co-create a better media literacy bias assessment tool as an invitation to change. 16th Annual Qualitative Report Conference, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
  • Bean, E. P. (2024, November 8). Embracing AI in leadership: Changing architect of white-collar roles. 26th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Bean, E. P. (2024, March 1). Accepted peer-reviewed 2023 article to a European media literacy journal goes horribly wrong using ChatGPT: An autoethnography story. 15th Annual Qualitative Report Conference, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
  • Subhashis, N., & Bean, E. P. (2023, October 3). Transformational leadership at Pfizer: A case study. 25th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, virtual.
  • Bean, E. P. (2022, June 24). Curtailing bias in scholarship and civil discourse to improve rigor and avoid false narratives. Keynote, Construction Business and Project Management Conference, University of Cape Town, South Africa, virtual.
  • Bean, E. P. (2019, October 26). Energizing the getting published process: An administrative task! Keynote, Leadership Development Group Luncheon, 21st International Leadership Association Global Conference, Ottawa, Canada.
  • Bean, E. P. (2019, July 1). Autoethnography of the cultural competence exhibited at an African American weekly newspaper organization. InSITE 2019 Informing Science International Conference, Jerusalem, Israel.
  • Bean, E. P. (2018, September 21). Industrial age advertising identity solutions for a 21st century social network driven world. Internet, Politics, Policy 2018: Long Live Democracy, St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England.
  • Bean, E. P. (2016, October 19). An academy customer experience benchmark observation. Customer Experience Summit, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, England.
  • Bean, E. P. (2015, October 16). A University of Phoenix research center customer experience assessment study. 17th International Leadership Association Global Conference, Barcelona, Spain.