Gordon Vernick is an associate professor of music and coordinator of jazz studies at Georgia State University. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY; a Master of Music in education from the University of Miami, and a Doctor of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. As a professional trumpet player, he has performed in all musical mediums from symphony orchestra to jazz quartet and has freelanced all over the world. He is currently active in the Southeast United States as a clinician, adjudicator and freelance trumpet player.

As a jazz educator he is the past president of the Georgia Association of Jazz Educators, past chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators Curriculum Committee and was the Southeast coordinator of that organization. He was the director of the NARAS Georgia Grammy High School Jazz Band from 1994 to 1999. He is the co-editor of the book Teaching Jazz: A Course Of Study, published by MENC. He co-wrote the college textbook, Jazz History Overview, published by Kendall-Hunt. The text is in its second printing and has been adopted by numerous universities around the country.

Dr. Vernick is the director of the Georgia State Faculty Jazztet which performs regularly in Atlanta and has appeared at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Brasstown Music Festival, High Museum Jazz Series, Oxford University Music Series, International Association for Jazz Education Conference and many other venues in the Southeast. He has performed with such world-renown jazz artists as Kenny Werner, Clare Fischer, John Hart, Kevin Hays, Conrad Herwig, Marc Copland, Randy Brecker, Paul McCandless and many others. The Jazztet was twice invited to perform in San Jose, Costa Rica by the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano. During the summer of 2001 the group performed in Moscow, Russia at the Tribute to Willis Conover Jazz Festival and in March 2003 performed at Capitol University in Beijing, China. The Jazztet was invited to perform in November 2004 at the Curso e Colegio Bardal in Florianopolis, Brazil.

As a jazz clinician, Dr. Vernick has served residencies at the Conservatory of San Juan, P.R., The Taipei American School in Taiwan, the Singapore American School, the Bangkok International School, the Jakarta International School, Columbia College Chicago and Montana State University. His weekly radio show, Jazz Insights, on WMLB Atlanta, is available in podcast form on iTunes and was featured on the Apple home page this past May. The programs have been featured on a number of websites and have been downloaded over 350,000 times since May 2009. His latest CD, The Strangest Thing, was released on Jbird Records in May 2008.