CBO Speaks

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 confide...

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 lea...

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," say...

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 camp...

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'...

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 ge...

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...

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 say...

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...

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...

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...

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 tha...

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...

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 increase...

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 retirin...

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 managemen...

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...

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 l...

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...

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...

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 fi...

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 h...

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… a...

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 q...

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 …...