Dr. Ed Steigerwald holds five jet aircraft type ratings and is a former FAA Designated Pilot Examiner in experimentally certified military jet aircraft. He is the former Dean of the School of Aviation and is now full-time faculty teaching advanced aviation courses and in the Regional Jet Flight Simulator. His MS degree is from American Military University in Aerospace Science – Space Studies with a Doctorate in Engineering and Technology Management from Northcentral University. Teaching in these technical fields led him to explore better ways to present course content, and he now designs, creates, and teaches all levels of interactive training courses using Articulate Storyline and PowerPoint.
Deb manages the overall operation of West Campus including the supervision of the residential staff and management of facilities and budgets. She has a B.A. in Health Education from Montclair State College and a M.Ed. with an emphasis in Counseling from the University of Georgia.
Kim is passionate about creating innovative strategies to enhance nursing student learning outcomes and ultimately improve patient safety in our communities. She has 15 years of teaching experience in nursing education and simulation, and holds several national certifications as a Nurse Educator, a Simulation Healthcare Educator, and a Nurse Practitioner. She was the curriculum project manager of the ARISE project, funded by the Department of Labor, that created 150 augmented reality simulations and serious games. The ARISE project won the second-place award in the Academics Category of Serious Games and Virtual Arcades competition at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in January 2018. She co-authored “Impact of Interprofessional Education on Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward Teamwork and Collaboration with Physicians” in the Journal of Nursing Education and has also presented at several international and national conferences, including: the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH), the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), and the National League for Nursing (NLN) Summit. Kim is currently the grant project director of the Open RN project, funded with a $2.5 million dollar grant from the Department of Education, leading a statewide effort to create five Nursing OER textbooks and 25 […]
Dr. Julie Furst-Bowe currently serves as the Academic Vice President at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC), a multi-campus institution serving more than 16,000 students annually in credit and non-credit programs throughout Wisconsin. Prior to her arrival at CVTC, Dr. Furst-Bowe served as the Chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from 2012 to 2015 and as Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Stout from 2005 to 2012. She also served as a tenured faculty member, graduate program director, department chair, associate vice chancellor, and assistant chancellor for assessment and quality improvement at UW-Stout. While at UW-Stout, Julie led efforts in accreditation and continuous quality improvement using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. UW-Stout became the first and only university to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Julie continues to be active as a senior Baldrige examiner and recently completed a term on the National Board of Overseers for the Baldrige Awards Program. She has written several articles and edited two books on the topic of quality improvement in education. She has presented and consulted on this topic in more than 15 countries. She served as a Fulbright Specialist assisting with the development of a new […]
Erika has spent the last eight years working to connect with students and to tell their stories on the internet through innovative content creation. Previously, she held roles at Virginia Commonwealth University and VCUarts, where she held a few different positions that touched different areas of higher ed, including admissions, recruitment strategy, crisis monitoring and communications, and training and development for large groups. She’s definitely the one to send your social media accessibility questions to. She is also an ally and activist in both the LGBTQIA+ and disability communities. You can find her on social at @EFBoltz.
Nathan served as the Director of Organizational and Professional Development at the University of South Carolina from 2011 until 2023. He has over 35 years of experience in the fields of organizational development and performance improvement. His primary areas of focus were organizational assessment, supervisory and management development, process improvement, and individual and group performance enhancement. Nathan led efforts to identify work climate and employee engagement issues and develop strategies to enhance both employee performance and satisfaction. He designed organizational planning and problem-solving sessions and provided leadership, conflict resolution, team development training and executive coaching. He also facilitated strategic planning, team development, goal setting and metric development sessions. At USC, he created and facilitated the Pipeline for Academy Leadership (PAL) program, oversaw the university’s staff professional development and training operations, and led organizational development activities across the Columbia campus. In addition, Nathan has consulted with over 70 public, private, and non-profit organizations on organizational performance issues since 2008 through his company Strong Performance-Based Solutions. His favorite saying is: “Ideas compete, people collaborate.”
Aaron Helander graduated from Oakland University’s Honors College in 2017 with a degree in Integrative Studies and is currently pursuing an MBA with a concentration in finance. Aaron has had the honor of being the keynote speaker at several leadership events in the community. He also holds down a full-time position as the Director of Marketing and Operations for KARMA Jack Digital Marketing. Aaron coordinates all student engagement initiatives for the office of alumni engagement with the primary responsibility of managing the Leadership OU program. A graduate of Leadership OU himself, Aaron looks forward to helping high-achieving students reach new heights by connecting them with impactful alumni mentors and speakers.
A two-time alumna of Western Michigan University, Erin Sudrovech began her career in alumni relations at her alma mater in 2001, where she served as the coordinator of student and young alumni outreach. She took the Assistant Director position at Oakland University in 2005 and was elevated to Associate Director in 2010. She was appointed to her current role as Director of Alumni Engagement in 2016. Under Erin’s leadership, the office of alumni engagement develops strategies and initiatives to engage the university’s 118,000+ alumni population through meaningful programs, events, mentorships and volunteer opportunities. This work has resulted in four consecutive years of recognition through the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including Pride of CASE V awards for Best Practices in Alumni Relations and Best Volunteer Engagement Program for Leadership OU.
In her role at Appalachian State University, Kim leads a team that recruits, engages, and retains transfer students. One-quarter of the undergraduate population at App State began as transfer students, and the office of Transfer Admissions and Engagement recruits future students through community college visits, innovative transfer pathway programs, and admission counseling and pre-transfer advising. The work doesn’t end once the students are enrolled, however, and Kim’s team collaborates with campus partners to coordinate orientation and welcome weekend events, provides community in a transfer residence hall that doubles as a Transfer Students Center, and plans and hosts transfer-specific programming throughout the semester to help transfer students connect both socially and with campus support services in their new environment. Working with both Transfer Student Mentors and Faculty Transfer Mentors, Kim provides transfer students with the resources, support and advocacy they need for success at Appalachian. She also chairs the Transfer Services Team, which is a campus-wide advisory board where faculty, staff, and students identify and address transfer student needs. Kim has spent 25 years in higher education, including 10 years at a community college, where she first began working with students starting the transfer process.
Jonathan has spent the past 9 years working directly with transfer and non-traditional students and developing transfer retention initiatives to support them. He recently started at the University of Virginia (UVA) in June 2022, working in the University Career Center. He oversees the Business Community and is also part of the Exploration team, where he helps first- and second-year students explore their major and career options. Before starting at UVA, Jonathan spent 15 years at the University of Lynchburg. During that time, he had many different roles. In his current last role as Director of First & Second Year Initiatives, Jonathan oversawsees Transfer, Adult Learner, Commuter, and Second-Year student services, as well as first-year initiatives. This includeds overseeing the transfer peer mentoring program, Transfer Orientation, Adult Orientation, Second-Year Welcome Week, Tau Sigma: Transfer Honor Society, and the Commuter Student Association. He spent the past 9 years working directly with transfer and non-traditional students and developing transfer retention initiatives to support them. Jonathan has presented at numerous conferences on Transfer, First-Year, Second-Year, and Commuter students. Some topics have included “Creating an Innovating Transfer Student Experience,” “Creating Successful Transitions: The Transfer Orientation Experience,” “Lynchburg College Legacy: Blazing the Path to Staying Relevant […]
