Opportunities: Organizations need to effectively resolve many challenges that will result in improved student learning and organizational effectiveness. To accomplish this…
- … upon assuming a senior management position of a non-profit organization, it quickly became obvious that the antiquated technology needed upgrades but no funds were allocated in the budget. To address the problem, I forged a first-in-the-nation partnership with Lockheed-Martin to provide annual donations of computer hardware to all classrooms, offices, and tech labs. In addition, I led research teams to identify, test, and implement affordable software solutions. This was sustainable over five-years.
- An international boarding school where I served as Academic Dean utilized an antiquated UNIX system to manage all facets of business and school administration. The school operated with razor-thin margins and a widespread belief that it couldn’t afford technology upgrades. An influential officer was entrenched in control over the system and there was a growing litany of complaints from stakeholders. To break the logjam, I partnered with the president, headed three research teams, increased stakeholder support, and gained passage of sweeping reforms that modernized the tech system with support from the rest of the administrative team and a unanimous vote from the Board of Trustees.
- I created and managed the cycle of improvements along with the company’s strategic planning process. These two aspects were touted by the most recent SACS accreditation team as highly functional aspects of the organization.
- In order to create an additional revenue stream for a school, I created a complete distance education program that enrolled students in 5 states.
- While serving as Academic Dean, the marketing department theorized increased enrollment with the development of an Equine program. Existing alumni and donors were not giving enough to the new program. One of the more significant costs was the riding arena. I partnered with Priefert manufacturing, the largest farm and ranch fencing company in Texas. The company donated all of the products needed for the riding arena at their cost.
- A school did not have an adequate research-based teacher evaluation system. As a result, I led a team of faculty and staff to sync and adopt the formats of the Professional Development Appraisal System (PDAS) that was approved by the Texas Education Agency and the much better research-based standards from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). This resulted in improved learning as evidenced by results from the standardized tests as well as much improved survey data from the various stakeholder groups.
- An intractable conflict occurred between the Residential Life and the Academics programs of a school regarding learning support of at-risk students. I worked with both entities and created a program that utilized the latest research in behavior management, brain development and motivation theories, which ended most of the conflict, improved learning, and became a cornerstone of the school’s learning programs.