Currently Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Academic and Faculty Affairs, Dr. Garner serves as a liaison between the SVP for Health Affairs and the five Health Sciences Schools:
• Keck School of Medicine of USC
• USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy
• USC Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry
o Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy
o Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
• USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
• USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
She works with the academic affairs and faculty affairs units within the school on faculty employment issues, faculty development, and misconduct, and on building collaborative programs among the schools.

Dr. Garner has over 40 years of experience in an academic medical center as a researcher, teacher, professor, advisor and administrator. Dr. Garner has served in numerous faculty service organizations, including the academic senate and Medical Faculty Council, the tenure, privileges and appeals committee, probationary deadlines committee, and numerous faculty senate committees and task forces. She served as the Health Professions Subcommittee Chair for the UCOC. She was an award-winning teacher (she taught in, and headed the neuroscience section of the medical school curriculum for nearly 20 years, and created numerous graduate courses and the Minor in Health Care studies). She was a successful researcher in the field of cellular neuroscience. She directed several National Institutes of Health grants, served on multiple study sections, and was involved in collaborative research on intracellular transport of viruses in neurons and epithelial cells.

Once turning to administration, she served as assistant dean for faculty affairs from 2004 to 2008, senior associate dean for faculty affairs from 2008 to 2011, and Vice Dean from 2011-2020. As Vice Dean Dr. Garner provided oversight of the KSOM Office for Faculty Affairs. This office was responsible for appointments, promotions and tenure, faculty and chair recruitment and hiring, end of employment, mentoring, evaluation and merit review, faculty salaries and compensation, problems and personnel records.

She was appointed associate provost for faculty development in the Provost’s Office at USC from 2007 until 2011. In the latter role, she helped coordinate and further faculty growth and development initiatives across both campuses with particular emphasis on mentoring activities of the Provost's office, and the creation of a university-wide culture of mentoring. She was special advisor to the Dean from 2020-2022, and took on her current administrative role in 2022.