In-the-Trenches Leadership

My executive and system-level roles have centered on a common task: diagnosing complex challenges and building stronger, more sustainable structures in their place. From leading a college through crisis to architecting statewide workforce solutions, the focus has always been on creating tangible value for students and communities.

Executive Leadership & Institutional Turnaround

Interim President | Dawson Community College

• The Challenge: Inherited concurrent crises of a 19% budget shortfall, accreditation warning status, and broken core transfer pathways.
• The Build: Led a transparent, inclusive stabilization effort. Restored fiscal integrity, **led the college off warning status to full accreditation reaffirmation**, and rebuilt critical college partnerships.
• The Growth: Instituted strategic enrollment management that **reversed a six-year decline**, **increased summer FTE by 81%**, and expanded dual-credit and workforce training offerings by over 130% to lay a new foundation for growth.

System-level Innovation & Partnership

Director of Work-Based Learning | Montana Department of Labor & Industry

• The Challenge: To better align the state’s education output with the needs of its key industries (energy, manufacturing, construction).
• The Build: Served as the architect of partnerships between the Montana University System, state agencies, and industry. **Designed and implemented integrated apprenticeship and work-based learning models** that created clear, funded pathways from colleges into high-demand careers.
•  The Outcome: Translated policy into practice, cultivating sector strategies that positioned community colleges as essential drivers of regional workforce development and economic vitality.

Foundational Leadership & Operational Excellence

VP of Academic & Student Affairs | College of the Marshall Islands

• The Challenge: Inherited concurrent crises accreditation warning status, and debarment of Title IV funds.
• The Build: Led a renewed focus on college completion. Created a workable vision and strategic plan that fit the culture. **full accreditation reaffirmation achieved**, and instituted new Climate Change certificate through which the nation coalesced.
• The Growth: Oversaw construction of new branch campus (Arrak) library, from ground-breaking to ribbon-cutting.

Dean of Students | United States Sports Academy

• The Challenge: Inherited significant enrollment declines across bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.
• The Build: Developed and implemented a three-year strategic enrollment plan with multiple stakeholder (faculty, staff, students, alumni, community) input.
• The Growth: **Exceeded headcount projections through one year**, **increased retention and persistence by 30 percentage points from previous year**, and **increased Yield Rate by 13 percentage points (to 71%)**.

START Coordinator | Idaho State University

• The Challenge: Manage a grant-funded program focused on successful transition and retention into technical programs, of educationally disadvantaged learners who were high-school dropouts–over half of whom were felons.
• The Build: Developed and implemented theory-based persistence & retention model program.
• The Sustainability: Retained 107 of 141 participants admitted into program over the initial two-year project; secured additional supplemental ($0.8M) university funds, matching-fund grants, supplemental grants and donations; and **secured additional funding at State and university levels to permanently fund START program in a *state budget-cut year***.

Organizational Development Consultant | Firmenich Aromatics China, Ltd.

• The Challenge: Develop a staff of Chinese nationals going through a joint-venture/acquisition with a Swiss parent company.
• The Build: Built from-scratch “Strategic Leadership” curriculum and hired two additional Chinese speakers to assist; led twice-weekly meetings with the leadership team to build capacity in strategic management, leadership, and international business communications. Partnered with HR to formulate and implement competitive and equitable compensation plans.
• The Outcomes: Organizational commitment to the parent-vision, minimized translation/communication conceptual miscommunications, and increased retention of critical managers.

Vice Principal / OD Consultant | Kunming Haina Panlong Training School

• The Challenge: Open a successful language school in China
• The Build: Built-out the rented space, wrote the curriculum, hired and trained the teachers, and marketed the program to adults.
• The Outcome: In one year, achieved #3 ranking (out of ~200 schools) in Kunming.

Assistant Registrar | Washington State University

• The Challenge: Reduce “10th day” reporting time and eliminate data errors.
• The Build: Scoured programming (mainframe application) and detected offset-errors; re-calibrated the export functions along side the state budget office’s (Windows application) import functions, and re-wrote batch functions.
• The Outcome: Reduced FTE (full time enrollment) State budget reporting window from 24 days **to ten days** over a one-year period.

Assistant Dean of Students | Washington State University

• The Challenge: Rebuild relationships between Greek-Life and university administration.
• The Build: Crafted a “knock & talk” initiative where the dean and I went door-to-door (fraternity and sorority houses) introducing ourselves every afternoon/evening; we sat and listened.
• The Outcome: Recovered over $1M in lost alumni donations after one semester, and nearly $2M after three semesters.

Plant Manager | Oxford Wire & Cable Services (now Hayakawa Electronics America)

• The Challenge: Address low productivity, high employee turnover, and increasing unemployment tax rates.
• The Build: Created and implemented enhanced training & development programs, built and administered monthly employee awards, and used temporary agency workers for seasonal order upticks.
• The Outcomes: **Increased productivity from 64% to 89%** over five years, **slashed annual employee turnover from 30% to 12%** over a three-year period, and reduced unemployment tax rate **from 14% to 0.7%** over nearly a six-year period.