Dr. Brian Stipp

Associate Professor


Brian Stipp served as a special education teacher on the southwest side of Chicago for 10 years. In 2013, he came to Olivet to help start the university’s Special Education Teacher Training Program. The elementary and middle grade students Dr. Stipp taught in Chicago serve as a daily inspiration, motivating him to train pre-service special educators with the urgent academic, social and emotional needs of their future students in mind.

Dr. Stipp completed his Ed.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 2017. His academic research interests include social and emotional learning and multicultural education. He has published articles into academic journals: Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties, in 2019, and the International Journal of Emotional Education in 2021

Dr. Stipp enjoys reading (Wendell Berry and John Steinback are two of his favorites), and meandering conversations about the sublime, the serious and the silly. In addition to his work in the ONU Department of Education, Dr. Stipp also teaches in the university Honors program. He met his wife, Elizabeth — a 2001 Olivet graduate — at Martinez Tacos in Kankakee when they were ONU students. Today, the Stipps live in Kankakee and are the proud parents of six children.