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www.okhighered.org

www.newscape.us

Don and Mark visit once again with Nick Hathaway, CEO of ELocker.

Don and Mark talk with Phil Rice and Ashley Nichols of Align Strategies. Align helps companies attract amazing talent and outstanding clients through holistic alignment at the convergence of talent, client, and industry.

Phil Rice, CEO and Discovery Specialist at Align, is an accomplished entrepreneur, creator, alignment strategist, and certified yoga instructor. With his background in business, the arts, and yoga meditation practices, he approaches problem solving in a business context in a uniquely holistic way. As co-founder of Align, he helps companies be good by emphasizing holistic alignment as it relates to company engagement with employees, clients, and industries at large. Alongside this work, he is co-founder of the content agency, HUMNATIVE, and founder of a nonprofit prayer and meditation organization called Ember, creators of the meditative resource and software application, Slō. Motivated by a desire to see business as a partner in human thriving and environmental sustainability, he lives by the mantra, we must do this differently.

Ashley Nichols, COO and Discovery Specialist at Align, is a creative with a background in branding and design, leadership development, and strategic operations. She is passionate about utilizing these combined areas of focus to create cohesive brands with beautiful collateral, build thriving individuals and teams, and implement effective, sustainable processes. Ashley comes with a blend of entrepreneurial and corporate experience including her beginnings serving as Photo Shoot Producer for a clothing brand in Southern California, and later launching a boutique wedding photography company in her home state of Georgia. In 2017, Ashley relocated to Oklahoma City where she served as Operations Manager and Senior Consultant for GiANT Worldwide. In this role she facilitated global project management and coordinated with 100+ consultants in nine countries, while actively consulting individuals and teams across various sectors of industry on topics of leadership development, communication, self-awareness and maximized performance. For the last two years as Creative Manager at Hobby Lobby, Ashley has simultaneously led and mentored multiple teams with specialties in photography, craft design, styling, set design, copywriting and warehouse logistics. Her current entrepreneurial endeavors include working with multiple organizations in the for-profit and non-profit sectors providing services in branding, marketing, graphic design, content creation, and social media management.

Visit Align's website: wearealign.co

Don and Mark talk with Terry Brown, Ph.D., who serves as Vice President, Academic Innovation and Transformation, for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Terry has more than 20 years of leadership and higher education experience, most recently as the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. Over the span of her career, she has been employed at three AASCU institutions and engaged in several AASCU initiatives, most notably those related to the Division of Academic Innovation and Transformation.

As a first-generation college student, Terry is committed to student success and spearheaded several efforts to increase college completion. She led a strategic enrollment management plan and retention strategy that was largely shaped by SUNY Fredonia’s participation in AASCU’s Re-Imagining the First Year of College project. Terry also worked with AASCU’s teacher education initiative, which supported her in rebuilding a high-quality 21st Century Program. As a University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UW-River Falls) faculty member, she led the internationalization of the curriculum, encouraging students to study abroad and faculty to participate in AASCU’s Japan Studies Institute. In addition, as an associate dean at UW-River Falls, she served as the first chair of AASCU’s American Democracy Project.

Terry holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida and a B.A. in English with a minor in biology and an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech.

Don and Mark talk with Allison D. Garrett, who took office as chancellor the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education on Nov. 8, 2021. Garrett leads a state system comprised of 25 state colleges and universities, 11 constituent agencies, one university center, and independent colleges and universities coordinated with the state system. She reports to a constitutional board whose nine members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Garrett provides leadership on matters relating to standards for Oklahoma higher education, courses and programs of study, budget allocations for institutions, fees and tuition, and strategic planning. She is responsible for an annual higher education budget in excess of $2.8 billion as well as the state endowment fund, with a market value over $931.5 million. As Chancellor, she leads OneNet, which is Oklahoma’s most advanced technology network designed to provide the infrastructure to support high-speed broadband services, as well as the Oklahoma College Assistance Program, which guaranteed since inception approximately $8.1 billion in insured student loans and services the remaining outstanding student loan debt of over $1.0 billion.

Prior to her role as Chancellor, she served as the 17th president of Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. During her tenure, ESU developed momentum in several key areas, including completion of its largest capital campaign; transformation of the campus with new building projects; record-setting increases in student enrollment, retention, and graduation; and development of new academic programs to address the needs of state and regional business and industry. Prior to serving as president of ESU, Garrett served as executive vice president of Abilene Christian University, senior vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University, and as an associate professor of law at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama.

Garrett also worked for more than a decade at the Walmart Inc. corporate offices, holding the positions of vice president and general counsel for the corporate division and vice president of benefits compliance and planning. Upon graduation from law school, she went into private practice before taking a position with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A native of Neosho, Missouri, Garrett holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Oklahoma Christian University, a juris doctorate from The University of Tulsa College of Law and a Master of Laws in securities regulation from Georgetown University.

Garrett and her husband, former judge Chip Garrett, currently live in Edmond, Oklahoma. They have three adult children and one grandchild.

Read more about Chancellor Garrett and the OSRHE here: https://www.okhighered.org/state-system/chancellor-garrett.shtml

Don and Mark review events in higher ed and their work from 2021, and they give a preview of what's ahead in 2022.

Don and Mark talk with Randy Beutler. Randy served as president of Southwestern Oklahoma State University from 2010 to 2021, making him the fourth longest-service president of that institution. Before that, he had served as vice president for public policy and student leadership at SWOSU and earlier as a history and government teacher at Weatherford High School. He served as member and later majority whip of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Read more about Randy here and here.