Meet & Greet

Meet semi-retired Colonel Bryan Goda. In his time serving in the military for 30 years, he has occupied Germany, seen action in Operation Desert Storm and in Bosnia, and now he’s a lecturer here at UW Tacoma for the Institute of Technology.

He is well qualified to teach in his field. With a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, a master’s in Electronic Engineering and a bachelor’s in Computer Science, he can effectively teach courses spanning multiple disciplines.

Goda was studying to complete his bachelor’s in CS when he decided to enlist in the military. He was inspired by a recruitment flyer which featured a picture of Patton from the titular 1970 film; “it looked cool,” he remarked. Now, 30 years later, he has just finished celebrating at his retirement ceremony.

Goda has also served through teaching cadets as a lecturer at the Army War College and the US Military Academy. In his time teaching, he has lectured for more than 60 courses.

Though he has seen many universities and colleges during his academic and military career, he has a positive impression of UWT. He says that the students are very “motivated,” and also noted how “cool” it was that UWT is so tightly integrated in the area, with local businesses mixed in with campus buildings.

In his free time, Goda enjoys playing Golf, Chess, and Racquetball. He has been happily married to his wife, Gloria, for 26 years and has two children. His son, George, is a Captain in the Army, and his daughter, Sharon, is studying lab science in New Jersey.

He is currently teaching Discrete Structures I and System Analysis and Design at UWT, and will also be teaching Intro to Object-Oriented Programming in the summer.