Ron Bruner

Ron Bruner – DMin, Abilene Christian University; MA, Oklahoma Christian University; BS, Oklahoma Christian University; CFRM, IUPUI

Dr. Ron Bruner serves as the Executive Director of Westview Boys’ Home, a position he has held since October 1999. He has a lifetime of experience in mentoring, teaching, and training young people, along with decades of business and consulting experience.

His experience connects well with his education; Ron has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Ministry from Oklahoma Christian University. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Abilene Christian University, where he also did his Master of Divinity studies.

Ron’s education and experience have led to service in leadership roles. He is a member of the Oklahoma Nonprofit Council. Ron has represented Westview with OKCare (an organization of child care providers in the state of Oklahoma) and is a member of the Association of Youth Ministry Educators. Ron served as a board member of Network 1:27 (formerly the Christian Child and Family Services Association) from 2011 to 2017; he was the president from 2014 to 2016.  He also served as a board member of Great Plains Leadership Training for Christ from 1995 to 2019. Ron is currently a member of the Compass Group of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits.

The best days at Westview for Ron are those when young men seize the opportunity for transformation and move forward toward lives that are right with God, with themselves, with their families, and with their peers.

Ron edited a book with Dr. Dudley Chancey designed for Christian parents of adolescents–Owning Faith: Reimagining the Role of Church and Family in the Faith Journey of Teenagers. This book was published by Leafwood Press in 2017. In 2015, he co-edited the highly-regarded book Along the Way: Conversations about Children and Faith with Dr. Dana Kennamer. He also contributed several chapters to that work as published by Abilene Christian University Press.

Ron continues to study the effects of trauma on children who afterward come into foster and residential care. He also researches the spiritual formation of children, intergenerational faith transmission, ethics, and leadership. Ron has presented and published scholarly work in all of these fields. He regularly lectures on youth ministry and intergenerational ministry in churches, university classrooms, and training sessions with teammates at Westview.

Ron, a native Oklahoman, married Ann Fairbanks in 1977. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.