(Photo: Emily Schneider)
By: Samantha Jewell, Social Media Editor
What brought you to Regis University?
I came here five years ago to start our teaching and learning center. I had been invited to Regis’ campus before that to give a couple of talks before I came here I had taught at the Air Force Academy, and that is a mission-based institution, and this is a mission-based institution. Part of my desire to come here was that mission. I have worked at a lot of different institutions and Regis has the most potential out of all those institutions. The Air Force Academy is always going to be the same Air Force Academy, so the clarity of ‘Men and Women for Others’, just makes Regis feel like a world-changing institution.
Are you teaching and classes at the moment?
I have taught for years in the integrative core in Regis College and I have also taught in Exercise Science in the Physical Therapy School and now I teach in our MBA program. I taught Issues in International Business this fall and I taught Innovation in Business last fall.
Are you teaching any classes in the Spring?
One of the things we are trying to do in the Innovation Center is to start and run student businesses. My goal for this year is to start and run 4 of them. This conversation originally began with asking the administration to see if the business school could take over and run Walker’s Pub as a business laboratory. Our management students in the MBA can manage it, our HR students could figure out how to get people to work there and with the rotating student body keep students working with the same goal of service. Our marketing students can figure out how to actually fill it. Our accounting students can do the books. There are all kinds of stuff that we can figure out from a business school perspective. So, running Walker’s Pub is one of those things that I am setting out to try and get permission from the institution to do and so I may run a class in the spring which will get a group of interested students to write the business plan to present to the administration and say we think this can actually work.
How did you get the idea for the Innovation Center?
The Innovation Center is a year old so I started last August 16th, 2016 and the Business Dean asked if I would be interested in this and I told him that I did not have the background. He answered with, “you ran a one person teaching and learning center for the whole university and despite having little support you are getting all the stuff done and that is what I am looking for, someone who can get stuff done”. It was something that I had to do a lot of thinking about it, but then said, okay let’s do this! In October, I said to the Dean I want a design studio to bring design thinking to bring design thinking to the Business School. I wanted people to be able to write all over the walls. You can lay on the floor and write on the walls from the floor level, you can climb on the stools and write up to the ceiling it is all erasable, everything is on wheels so that you can move. We had the renderings drawn in October, started talking to donors in November, and we got a million-dollar pledge on January 6th and we were built by April. It was all about defining Innovation. The definition of innovation is because we have been tasked to be a different kind of Jesuit business school because there are other really good business schools in the state of Colorado but what is the definition of a Jesuit business school. With that mission of Men and Women in Service of Others, we want to help our business students be stewards of society with the goal of improving the quality of life on Earth. That is Earth. That is ultimately what brought me to Regis if you are going to improve the quality of Earth, why not have business help!
What events does the Innovation Center have planned?
We have the Innovation Challenge, and that is a business challenge where three winners will get a 10,000 5,000 and a 1,000 dollar prize. This is to help students say that Regis is about entrepreneurship. It is about taking some chances and getting out in the world and that we want to invest in the world. We are kicking off the Alumni Matrix where we get a panel of our successful alumni and the Denver Leaders Network which is a group of business owners and leaders that are alumni of Regis that got together to create this network to connect with our students to teach them how to network.