Dawn Alston serves as Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs and Chief Financial Officer for Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. This week on the show, Alston joins Megan Strand for a conversation on finding humility and patience in leadership through crises such as our current pandemic. "As I have gone through this process, I feel one of the changes is that I have become more confident,” she says. “There is less time for planning. At first, we had to make strategic decisions very qu...
Oct 23, 2020•21 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Debbie Adishian-Astone serves as Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer for California State University, Fresno, in Fresno, California. This week on the show, Adishian-Astone joins Megan Strand for a conversation on purposefully slowing down, appreciating the small moments, and checking in as campuses navigate the pandemic, as well as learning to appreciate all levels of leadership, including that coming from upcoming CBOs. “Be ready for those opportunities. Be ready for s...
Oct 09, 2020•21 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Angela Blanton serves as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This week on the show, Blanton joins Megan Strand for a conversation on patience and understanding with the hybrid education model, the impending shifts in post-secondary education because of COVID, and diversifying the field. “When you’re uncomfortable, you’re really learning,” says Blanton. Her push for intellectual curiosity is more important than ever with constant shifts in t...
Sep 25, 2020•14 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Leslie Brunelli serves as Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Treasurer for the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. This week on the show, Brunelli joins Megan Strand for a conversation on flexibility and thoughtful communication as campuses navigate the pandemic, race, and diversity in operations across the organization. “Representation at the table is important,” says Brunelli. Her campus leadership made a concerted effort to increase development projects that incorporate diverse busi...
Jul 03, 2020•11 min•Season 6Ep. 12
David Bea serves as Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration for Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. This week on the show, Bea joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the challenges of teaching, learning, and leading through COVID and more. “There are two approaches that are core to how I manage,” says Bea. “The first is teaching. If the audience doesn’t understand what I’m talking about, the organization isn’t growing. We’re all educators in that realm. Second, explaini...
Jun 19, 2020•19 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Ketan Gandhi serves as Executive Vice President for Finance and Operations for Sussex County Community College in Newton, New Jersey. This week on the show, Gandhi joins Megan Strand for a conversation on some of the early lessons learned from this year’s challenges. “I like our shared decision making, but it does take time,” says Gandhi. “When you know something is efficient, find some way to get it implemented. What we are going through now has told us that the things that are efficient should...
Jun 05, 2020•25 min
Teresa Constantinidis serves as Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration for the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This week on the show, Constantinidis joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the impact of COVID-19 on her work as a higher ed leader. “I’ve had to lean into being a better leader,” she says. “Good leaders communicate a lot. I have really been working on over-communicating during this time. Everyone needs to understand what is going on, why we’re doi...
May 22, 2020•12 min
Susan Allen serves as Vice President for Finance and Administration for Georga College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. This week on the show, Allen joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the universe of factors impacting higher education’s immediate future. “The biggest factor that we’ll see is that high school graduation pipeline that we’re already seeing in other states,” she says. “I know for Georgia, we’re expecting a 13% decline starting from 2025 and probably peaking in...
May 08, 2020•20 min
Craig Hadley serves as Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer for Husson University in Bangor, Maine. This week on the show, Hadley joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the pressures of attempting to diversify in a state challenged with a paucity of diversity itself. As a result, Hadley has instituted a number of interesting strategies from which we can all learn. “What I’ve tried to do here is build an internal feeder system,” he says. “We’ve been active in building a n...
Apr 17, 2020•22 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Sherri Newcomb serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Queensboro Campus of the City University of New York. This week on the show, Newcomb joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the pressures forcing institutions to adapt quickly in very short order. “It’s an elaborate process to change curriculum, for example, to introduce new programs and sunset old programs,” she says. “There decades invested in the way things operate now, there are lots of constraints around sc...
Mar 27, 2020•20 min•Season 6Ep. 6
David English serves as Vice President for Finance and Management for Denison University in Granville, Ohio. This week on the show, English joins Megan Strand for a conversation on preparing not just for the next decade, but for the next fifty years and beyond. In the near term, he says we have to live through the legacy of amenity competition. “Before 2008, industry wide, we were able to increase amenities and pass those on,” David says. “For the last 10 years we’ve been laboring under these co...
Mar 06, 2020•15 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Aaron Howell serves as Vice President of Business and Finance and CFO at Averett University in Danville, Virginia. This week on the show, Howell joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the changes and challenges facing the future of higher education. “We all know what the demographics look like over the next six to ten years,” says Howell. “It’s going to create different levels of competition than we’ve seen over the last twenty years at least … that competition does interesting things.” He sha...
Feb 14, 2020•19 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Laura Hubbard serves as Vice President for Finance and Administration at the University at Buffalo. This week on the show, Hubbard joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the issues most impacting the way colleges and universities do business over the next decade. For Hubbard, that conversation starts with access. “I feel like we’re at a crossroads,” she says, “there are increasing challenges in getting a college education and increasing disparities about who gets access… what it costs, who’s a...
Jan 24, 2020•26 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Robert Moore serves as Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This week on the show, Moore joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the coming wave of change to higher education. For Moore, it all starts with cost. The economic model has to change, says Moore. While privates are seeing net tuition revenue fall due in part to increased merit aid, public institutions are facing direct impacts from state revenue contribution declines....
Dec 20, 2019•14 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Susan Scroggins serves as Senior Vice President for Finance at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. This week on the show, Scroggins joins Megan Strand for a conversation on the dramatic trends that are shaping higher education institutions — public and private alike — from demographic changes to budgetary changes to technology and student expectations and beyond. The Boomers are retiring, says Scroggins. It’s time to listen and promote diverse points of view to best fill the pipeline o...
Dec 06, 2019•16 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Karen VanDerhoof serves as Vice President of Business and Finance at County College of Morris in Randolf, New Jersey. This week on the show, VanDerhoof joins Megan Strand for a conversation on leadership, mentorship, and the critical role of integrity in maintaining relationships and performance across the organization. She teaches her younger staff the value of soft skills — from change management to building teams and collaboration — and shares her strategies for successful growth in the field...
May 27, 2019•17 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Michael Hager serves as senior vice president for finance and operations at the University of Northern Iowa. He brought 20 years of student affairs experience to the CBO role, making the transition to the business office as a bridge between the student experience and operations. Surprises? Not many, says Hager. “I was a little more surprised the approach was focused on operations and not students … the student experience I brought from that role helped us in this division.” At Northern Iowa, Hag...
May 13, 2019•22 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Carolyn Head serves as senior vice president and CFO at Lewis University. She came to higher education from the practice side of the healthcare field. From there, she landed in operations in a college of medicine and discovered that higher education was her calling. Through the challenges in the field, her infectious optimism helps her and her team to steer through difficult times. At Lewis, the leadership team has pivoted to focus on their most important programs in graduate education and healt...
Apr 22, 2019•19 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Al Little serves as vice president of business services at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He brings his experience as an auditor assigned to the higher ed space as his entre to our field. That experience kickstarted a rich CBO career that continues to expand today. In our conversation today, Al Little shares his insights into mentorship and how to hire and cultivate an engaged and capable staff. “Not everyone makes a great CBO, but everyone is fulfilling a very important role and there a...
Apr 01, 2019•23 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Gary Logan serves as vice president for finance and administration at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He found higher education not as a CBO initially, but as an accounting service service provider whose clients were institutions. He made the transition to higher ed and leads a division with authenticity and transparency. In our conversation today, Logan introduces us to the “rule of the angry eight,” and the leadership and diplomatic tools he uses to engage his campus with an orientat...
Mar 11, 2019•27 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Derrick Singleton serves as vice president of operations and sustainability at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Berea offers one of the more interesting models of any institution we’ve profiled on this show: they charge no tuition to their students. What arises from that sort of promise to students? As Singleton says of their financial concerns, “we are not immune.” His background in corporate finance served his urge to work for a non-profit. From Coors to Sherwin-Williams to Berea College mark...
Feb 18, 2019•23 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Nancy Schoonmaker serves as vice president and chief financial officer for Indiana Wesleyan University. When she landed there, she’d had no experience in higher education, coming from a position at a local mega-church where she’d been happily employed. But the call to serve IWU was strong, so she jumped in to learn the ropes of higher education and in the process brought her unique experience to her leadership at the institution. She learned unique accounting structures, shared governance, and a...
Jan 28, 2019•23 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Harold Hewitt serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Chapman University. After an academic career spanning philosophy, religious studies, and a clear path to professorship, Hewitt suffered a transformational ah-ha moment: “I discovered I didn’t like teaching.” But what does one do when so deeply invested in higher education, minus the drive to teach? “I asked for help… and I was given the opportunity to interview the various administrators,” at the Claremont Colleges. ...
Jan 07, 2019•30 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Darrell Bazzell serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at University of Texas at Austin. Two decades in public service taught Darrell Bazzell a few things. His experience working with governors and policy makers helped him navigate government and thus how to move projects forward in academia. “I think the thing that really carried forward was the ability to think broadly, to quickly diagnose an issue,” says Bazzell. “I understood how fiscal and administrative matters worked ...
Dec 03, 2018•22 min•Season 5Ep. 5
ASU Executive Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Morgan Olsen faces the value proposition of higher ed and works to drive change in public and stakeholder perception. He’s served higher education for over 30 years, but he cut his teeth on higher ed in public service, serving on the state board of education. The difference is striking. “Perhaps the biggest thing that’s changed … is the placement of higher education in society,” Olsen says. “When I was starting, higher education...
Nov 12, 2018•27 min•Season 5Ep. 4
SVP for Administration and Finance at George Mason University JJ Davis says the community deserves the credit for facing the most daunting challenges. Stakeholders bring creativity and goodwill and when presented with new problems, they work together to bring change. Davis’ years in public service working with elected officials on public policy issues led her eventually to higher education by way of adjunct teaching. That portfolio of skills enabled her to see beyond the tactics of financial ser...
Oct 22, 2018•24 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Robert Keasler serves as Vice President for Administration and Finance Shenandoah University in Winchester Virginia, but he started about as far from higher education as he could manage. “I started in a textile mill… I ended up in textiles for five years or more,” says Keasler. “I ended up in higher education by happenstance as well.” He says it’s not his job to protect the assets of the university, rather to use those assets efficiently and effectively in service of the mission. That perspectiv...
Oct 01, 2018•29 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Experimentation is central to success for University of Alabama Vice President of Financial Affairs, Matt Fajack. After 21 years in the private sector, Fajack has been on a 14-year journey of exploration himself in higher education. Over the years, he's discovered that interests aren't always aligned, that everyone is in higher ed for different reasons, be it research, public service, growth, and more. As CBO, it's sometimes challenging to align intentions around key initiatives. His effort day-...
Sep 12, 2018•24 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Coming to finance from politics has offered this week's guest a special perspective on data, and adaptation in higher ed. Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer for University of Colorado, Kelly Fox brings a public policy background to her finance work in higher education. She brings her savvy for data-based decision-making to her work in leadership, looking for ways to lead her institution in their efforts to adapt to an ever-changing student body.
May 10, 2018•22 min•Season 4Ep. 9
On the verge of retirement after a career as a CBO, Enterprise State Community College Dean of Finance and Administration Alonzetta Landrum-Simms shares valuable lessons for those who follow in her professional footsteps. Landrum-Simms shares her accomplishments as CBO, as well as her challenges and those facing CBOs following in her footsteps. The industry is changing, she says, and it’s incumbent on all new CBOs to be open to a career of learning, exploration, and change.
Jan 17, 2018•19 min•Ep. 44
