CBO Speaks

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...

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 universit...

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...

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 instit...

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 incumben...

Tokumbo Shobowale serves as Chief Operating Officer at The New School. How do you navigate from Chief Operating Officer for the City of New York into higher education? By cultivating a network of experienced communicators inside and outside higher education. With his public sector experience, Shobowale has been exposed to the broader impact of higher education on his city and the value that instit...

Brett Sweet serves as Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Vanderbilt University. He's a former submariner and special projects officer with the National Security Agency, so you might understand why he refers to himself as "the accidental CFO." This week on the show, Brett shares the winding road that led him from the military to higher ed. Brett's experience in higher educa...

Joe Mazur serves as vice president of administration and finance at College of Central Florida. His path was clearly winding its way through corporate accounting when he found himself in higher education. His six month temporary stint has lead to 19 years and counting. What keeps him in the field? Quality of life and job satisfaction, says Mazur. Catering to a wide variety of demographics in their...

Gaye Manning has served Southern Arkansas University Tech for over 33 years. Today, as Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, she's faced with navigating the challenges of enrollment decline, significant budget cuts, and services reductions, and has managed to work with her team to do just that without cutting a single member of staff as a result. Today on the show, Manning shares her lov...

Nicole Trufant serves as Vice President of Finance and Administration for University of New England. It's one of the fastest growing schools in the country, recently opening three new colleges, growing 40% online presence, and a new extension campus in Tangiers, Morocco. "I have experienced every emotion… except for boredom," she says. Unlike so many of our CBO guests, Trufant says she has educati...

Central Methodist University CBO Julee Sherman has seen it all. Since she's started as a business manager in 1985, she's helped to maintain a leadership role in student success measures, from building the first 2+2 program in collaboration with the state in the late 90s to innovative online initiatives today. And it's those partnerships that make the place thrive. Strategy, HR, facilities and cons...

Barbie Jefferson serves as chief financial officer for Wofford College in South Carolina and celebrates the broad variety of challenges before here. From dining to facilities and construction management to, of course, ensuring the college is on a sound financial path, her team make the college a better place for students, faculty, and staff. Her biggest lesson, count on the expertise of mentors wh...

Choi Halladay serves as Vice President for Administrative Services at Pierce College. He found his way into higher education first as a faculty member in economics and finance as a way to make up for his student experience with "too many bad teachers!" He started his career in higher ed as a faculty member, learning the ins and outs of the instructional side of the institution. His experience in t...

As it turns out, fortuitous accidents can kickstart incredibly rewarding careers. From her work in public service, University of Maryland Baltimore County Vice President for Finance and Administration Lynne Schaefer picked her field of study out of a hat. On the show today, Schaefer shares the story of her discovery of higher education and the rewards that have come with it personally and professi...

Hospitality and higher education have a striking degree of similarity says Lynn Valenter, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations as Washington State University Vancouver. From facilities to customer service to security and police, Valenter brings experience from her first career in hospitality services to her role as CBO every day. Valenter shares her focus on public-private and public-public p...

Hezekiah "Heze" Simmons serves as CFO and Vice President for Administrative Services for Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. Before serving as CBO, he would have been as surprised as anyone on being asked to lead the charge to build a new college campus. But Simmons is all about stretch goals, and that very college campus is on schedule and under budget, targeting a September opening....

For Dawn Rhodes, shared governance made for a big transition as she moved from the private sector into higher education. "That first time you go through that process and try to get a decision made, you're asking yourself, why is this taking so long?" But the value of the shared governance model, the balance and transparency offer key benefits in her role as chief business and finance officer and v...

After 23 years at University of Redlands, CBO Phil Doolittle was ready for something new. He found it in Brandman University and their target population, adult learners. Today, he serves Brandman as executive vice chancellor of finance and administration and chief financial officer. We've created an environment were innovations are accepted and embraced by all the constituents including faculty,"...

Craig Woody serves as vice chancellor for finance and business at the University of Denver, and in his over-30-year tenure at the institution, he's seen a lot of change. "Half our footprint is new in the last 20 years," he says. With new infrastructure, comes new leadership, new strategic plans, and a shifting board. Woody celebrates his place in an organization that has learned to work together,...

In her role as vice president for administration and finance at Presbyterian College, Susan Maddux practices both the skill, and the art of the CBO. "When I first entered the profession it was much more about crunching the numbers and giving presentations to the board of trustees and making sure the budget got balanced, and now it is much more relationship driven," she says. "When I first started,...

Michael Mayher came to Lakeland Community College by way of big accounting. After weathering the whims of mergers and downsizing, he networked his way into business services and fell for it completely. Fifteen years later, he serves as executive vice president for administrative services and treasurer, and loves the CBO job today every bit as much as the day he started. "I love being a CBO. I mean...

For Mike Gower, the world of public accounting gave him key insights and new perspectives when approaching financial challenges of his higher ed projects. It is that broad horizon that led him into the role of executive vice president for finance and administration and treasurer for Rutgers University. Gower faces change, but says driving change across sometimes competing cultures and systems can...

Gerald Whittington can thank Richard Nixon for his career. It was 1968, and Whittington was a freshman. Amidst campus protests to the Vietnam War, he received a letter that, perhaps for the first time, connected national politics, fiscal policy, and education, directly to his personal trajectory. This is how our conversation begins today, but his journey to senior vice president for business, fina...

Joanne Yestramski hasn't always been in higher ed, and it's that long road away from the field that led her back to her role at her alma mater, vice chancellor of finance and operations at U. Mass Lowell. "I couldn't believe my fortune," she says, "to be able to come back and serve my alma mater in this very special time in the institution's success story." For Yestramski, the decision to transiti...

CBO Barbara Larson took a winding road into finance administration. She landed in her executive vice president for finance and administrative services at Johnson County Community College through environmental economics and solar manufacturing. But the allure of the campus was too great to resist, and within a few years, she brought the breadth of her skills to the community college. "I've learned...