Note: This interview in the Weekly Wisdom Series originally aired on September 25, 2023 as part of the University Innovation Alliance’s Innovating Together Podcast, appearing live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The transcript of this podcast episode is intended to serve as a guide to the entire conversation, and we encourage you to listen to this podcast episode. You can also access our summary, along with helpful links and audio from this episode.
Chris Howard:
Well, Bridget, I think that you're starting off with sort of this idea of self-awareness. I give a talk called “Eight Ways to Accelerate Your Leadership Odyssey,” and one of the things I say is that to be successful, you got to get a Ph.D. in yourself and be self-aware, understand what motivates you, why you're motivated by that, and just being brutally honest about what you like, what you don't like, what you're willing to kind of crawl through the fire for, hills you're willing to die on, et cetera.
So if you think, and a lot of people ask me about being college president, so many so that I created a 300-page, and anybody wants it, just email me, a 300-page or 250-page PDF that says Pathway to the Presidency, which includes reports and things that I've read over the years, some pieces that I've written, some things that I've given to my staff when I started my first day as president in Hampden-Sydney College and at Robert Morris. And one of the key things in there is self-awareness and fit. Sometimes, Bridget, not just wanting to be a president, but wanting to be so badly you go to a place where it's not a good fit. So you have to be honest about these things.
Bridget Burns:
Welcome to Innovating Together, a podcast produced by the University Innovation Alliance. This is a podcast for busy people in higher education who are looking for the best ideas, inspiration, and leaders that will help you improve student success. I'm your host, Bridget Burns. Each week, I partner with a journalist to have a conversation with a sitting college president, chancellor, system leader, or someone in the broader ecosystem who's really an inspiring leader. And the goal is to have a conversation to distill their perspective and their insights gathered from their leadership journey. Our hope is that this is inspiring and gives you something to look forward to each week. This episode, my co-host is Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and CEO, Doug Lederman.
Hi, and welcome to another episode of Start the Week with Wisdom. I'm your host, Bridget Burns with the University Innovation Alliance.
Doug Lederman:
I'm Doug Lederman from Inside Higher Ed.
Bridget Burns:
Each week, Doug and I team up to have a conversation with a sitting college president or chancellor or a leader in the field that we think you should be learning from. And today is going to be a very special episode, because not only do we have a distinguished college president, but also, someone who's expanding and thinking about their career in a way that I think is going to be helpful for our audience to imagine alternative ways to grow and evolve and to expand their impact. So very excited about this, and that's why we call it Weekly Wisdom.
Doug Lederman:
This week, by Chris Howard, who's the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Arizona State University. And he moved to that job after two college presidencies at Robert Morris University and Hampden-Sydney College. As Bridget said, a pretty unusual path. So, welcome Chris.
Chris Howard:
Thank you very much, Doug. And I'm unusual for more reasons than just that.
Bridget Burns:
Years ago, we had you on the show for when you were the president of Robert Morrison. And we talked about how you had also a distinguished military career prior to all of this. And you were also a college athlete. So, you've done more than most people. And I just want you to talk us through this experience of, oh, you're a very successful college president. You could just go on and be a president anywhere, you've done that job twice. But the decision to push yourself in this way of serving so many students but from a different seat, I just think it's so interesting. Talk to us about, what were you thinking? And not meaning what were you thinking like, "What were you thinking?" But what were you thinking? And tell us about your headspace and what you were trying to accomplish.
Chris Howard:
Oh, thank you, Bridget and Doug. I'm really excited about being on the show again.
So, the process was something like this. I had been at Robert Morris University for about five years, four or five years, and my board, thank you to them, they extended my contract. So, I had a ten-year contract, which is really affirming. COVID hits, that was a tough time for all of us, but we weathered that storm quite well. I'm very proud of our executive team. But I just had to take a step back, and like you said Bridget, get into my sort of headspace and say, "What do I want to do now? I can stay here at Robert Morris for several more years, hopefully, knock on wood, the contract played out that way." I had an opportunity and was heavily recruited to run and was actually asked to run a public university in the south, smaller than Arizona State, but of course, everything is smaller than Arizona State, but a really fine group of five universities, which I will not name. And then, there was this opportunity to come here.
Well, as President Crow, Michael Crow does, you meet him, and then he kind of collects people. And I'd met him years ago on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and stayed in touch. And I just remember getting an email, "Hey Chris, let's talk." And all these things were happening in parallel. And finally, after many Zoom calls, we probably did six or seven Zoom calls on Saturday mornings, it'd be, I don't know, maybe six o'clock in Phoenix time and maybe nine o'clock Pittsburgh time. And we would just talk about in design with Jim O'Brien, his very trusted Chief of Staff and a dear, dear friend, and just say, when we say Chief Operating Officer this is what we mean.
So ultimately, I said, "I'm in a point now where I can work at a level of scope and scale and do some of the things that I wanted to do in Hampden-Sydney, I want to do at Robert Morris. We did well," and I say we, collective team effort, "improving retention, improving diversity, improving outcomes, moving up in ranks, all these sorts of things, but at a scale that could only be done in a place like Arizona State University." So just put it like this and I'll stop at this point, in talking to my executive coach about the same thing, was like impacting the lives of 5,000 students to impacting the lives of 180,000 students, not to mention 350,000 learners that aren't even degree-seeking. So, I wanted that challenge. And as a former military person, the idea of moving up in command, moving over in a high-level support position and back the echelons of command, it's very common. So, it was not that alien to me.
Doug Lederman:
On that last point, there's kind of a careerism in higher education, like a lot of industries, and there is this sense that you're constantly moving up. It sounds like the military may be a little bit different there. So essentially, you believed there was an opportunity to make more impact even if the title was "less impressive." Is that the way you're thinking about it?
Chris Howard:
Well, I think my title is pretty impressive, Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President. But anyway, it's funny though, in the world of higher education, Doug, in all seriousness, I remember I started off as an associate vice president. I said, eventually, I'll start knocking off adjectives and I'll be the boss, right? Associate VP at Oklahoma, VP, president.
Doug Lederman:
Right. [inaudible 00:06:25].
Chris Howard:
No, a hundred percent. But I was thinking about the fact that when I was named president at Hampden-Sydney College in 2000 -- I guess -- 9, I was 39 years old. Most university presidencies work this way, you start off as a student, graduate student, assistant professor, associate professor, a full professor, chair, dean. And still, to this day, look at the ACE analysis, many times, it's usually a provost. A lot of people who are not provosts [inaudible 00:06:54]. And the average president is usually a 61-year-old white guy who has worked their way up and then they serve, on average, for about six years.
So, I thought to myself, “Well, I've served as president for 13 years almost.” I was named president when I was 39. I've served, like I said, more than 10 years, which is well past the average. And I thought to myself, “I have nothing to prove, but lots that I want to do.” So I kind of went to that headspace, Bridget, that moment of Zen, and my wife said, "Okay, Chris, you've been the boss for a long time, you've been sitting at the head of the table. Are you ready for this?" And I said, "Well, it's not about me personally, but what I can do."
And I'll say that, it's just, the places I was before were outstanding. Even Oklahoma was outstanding, but this place is just such a juggernaut. You were mentioning Georgia State, I mean, we're working with Georgia State, we're working with Michigan State, University Innovation Alliance. I mean, the scope and scale of what we do overseas in China and India and the students that come here, it's just different. And in a given day, I'm talking to people at Propulsion Lab and the next day, I'm talking to the United Negro College Fund in a way where we can actually move the needle in a way that most institutions of higher education just simply can't do. So, I checked my ego at the door. I still have a little bit left. And I just said, "This is the team I want to be on for now." And I've enjoyed being, not just with Michael, but my other five executive vice presidents who are also outstanding.
Bridget Burns:
Well, and I agree, you have a big-deal title. I was just at ASU earlier this week. Again, more than a hundred thousand students, the range and depth of the work that now people report up to you. I'm curious about what it's been like, because I have this experience of getting a chance to work with Michael Crow closely, and I learned a ton, none of which was traditional leadership stuff. He's a unique leader. I think you are also a unique leader. Again, a helicopter pilot in the military, doing all these things, just your extensive background. So, I'm curious about what it's like to lead side by side with someone and what you learn. I'm curious about what you've learned from him, but also, if you have a sense of the things or he probably will tell you what he's learned from you, or what kind of stuff he's really appreciates about you. But I'm just curious if you can share some of those lessons that either you impart or he's imparting.
Chris Howard:
Yeah, there are a couple of things about Michael which are really fascinating and very motivating, is his intense focus on opportunity and access. The idea of our charter, we're going to judge ourselves by whom we include and their outcomes as opposed to whom we exclude, is something he wrote 22 years ago, but probably been thinking about for 20 years before that. In fact, I know the story, I won't relay it now. He tells me sort of how technology and science and opportunity and all that collided when in 1969 he had an Eagle Scout project he was working on, and some really interesting things happened in that period that really formed his idea about access and how technology can improve access and so forth.
So the fact that he's so driven and focused on doing that and creating a paradigm that's truly an American university, it would be democratic, not just on research like the Germanic model, not purely elite like the British model, but something that's really unique to America. And then, just all in for decades on that, right? So, the focus, the ability to stay on script, on message, and then, as Jay-Z would say, "Get that dirt off your shoulders."
I mean, 13 years as a president, pretty much for me, not easy, unique also as an African American leading predominantly white institutions, Michael, for 22 years. These are get punched in the nose type of jobs, the toughness, the grittiness, but the focus has been amazing. I've learned that from him. It's the intense focus and commitment, the intellectual underpinnings to make this thing work. I've seen him give speeches in Galala University with our Cintana University, over there in Egypt. I've seen him give speeches to our African American community here. I've seen him speak to our faculty. And there's just an authenticity and an energy and it hasn't changed over 22 years.
What does he learn from me? I think that I probably take a slightly more humanistic approach to things, reading rooms and making sure that people are okay in a way that he's thinking about that, but I'm thinking about it a bit more. He has a great sense of humor. I always tease him, I say, "You look like Bill Belichick, man. You need to smile more." But he has a hearty sense of humor. I've got a good sense of humor, I'm willing to put it out there in a way, probably a little bit more informally. And I think that there's a yin and yang that's useful, again, not just with me. I play a role. The other leadership at the campus in us as a public enterprise, play a role. But I think I usually get him smiling in a way that maybe not everybody does, and I think that's probably a good thing.
And then, I bring the insight. And often, I'll say, "I know it's hard, Michael, but I've been in that seat too, so we're all doing --" In fact, one of our other executive vice presidents, Sherine Gabriel, actually, was a former president of Rush University, and she's now running our ASU Health initiative. So, it's neat to have. It's like a joke, how many presidents does it take to launch a medical school? How many presidents and former presidents does it take to raise $3 billion? So, we're working together.
Bridget Burns:
Today's episode is sponsored by the University Innovation Lab, which is a digital ecosystem designed to help higher ed professionals just like you and I accelerate innovation with a wide array of tools, trainings, resources, and community, all in one location. If you also want to drive change and advance student success on your campus but feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, and frankly, you don't always know where to start, the University Innovation Lab can help. It was created with tools and templates and professional development uniquely generated by the UIA. The Lab helps student success administrators and innovators advance student-centered change and improvement more effectively with more clarity, collaboration, and impact. To join our wait list, go to TheUIA.org and click the resources page.
Doug Lederman:
So, it's interesting, the COO is typically a very internal-focused job. I'm curious, is a major difference -- Maybe just build into your answer to this question a little bit more of a sense of what your domain is, mostly to focus on the differences between being the person in a role that is typically very outward-facing as well as inward-facing, whether that is working different muscles for you or -- Talk to us a little bit about that.
Chris Howard:
That's a terrific question, Doug, because coming from industry, the COO role has a very specific moniker, vis-a-vis, or CFO. We have a very talented CFO named Morgan Olsen who came from Purdue and SMU. So, this COO role is not the sort of pure, right here and stays internally and watches everything when the CEO goes away. There was a joke about Theodore Hesburgh when he was the great president of Notre Dame that, "The difference between God and Theodore Hesburgh is God was everywhere, Theodore Hesburgh was everywhere except for Notre Dame's campus." Because he had the equivalent of a father that was a COO, it might not been that title, but effectively, ran everything. Michael didn't need me to do that, he didn't ask me to do that.
I have a portfolio of really cool internal things like our university design institute, some of our initiatives around the military, our enterprise development, which helps our relationships with corporations like Starbucks, Uber, et cetera. Multiple threads that I like to joke and say, "They were so heavy in the office of the president, Michael and Jim had to give them to somebody else, and I said, 'Sure, thank you very much.'" It's a really cool, very ASU group, I christen it the COO Enterprise Council, AKA, the Avengers. They're these people with all these amazing skill sets running all sorts of cool things across ASU as a public enterprise, which includes the university pieces and also the other things that append to the university. So that's part of it.
And then, enterprise technology, which is run by Lev Gonick, our CIO, which is a thousand people almost, and $140 million operating budget in the most, probably, technology advanced university in the country. That all reports through me as well. So that's a big part of.
But then the other part, Doug, and I'll end it up here, we have a constellation of relationships where we either have equity or deep partnerships with programs that are tethered to ASU, like Cintana, which is an international education company that helps launch or helps support universities around the world where I sit on the board. Or InStride, which is what we use to replicate what we do at Starbucks with other corporations around the world. I'm the board member there. Or Dreamscape Learn, our immersive learning technology, which I'm the board observer, Michael's on the board. And in addition, serving in roles that support our academic enterprise, our knowledge enterprise and our learning enterprise on their various management councils. It's a very unique model, which is another lecture I need to put on a screen.
But I would say though, making sure the trains run on time internally, I'm actually pretty good at that as well, and I do a lot of that, but it's not purely what I do. It's probably one of the reasons that I decided to take this opportunity, was that other reach outside the purely making sure that these things are done internally. Our CFO does, probably, more than I do, although I do some. And actually, it's been a lot of fun. We've actually done some of this together in a way that's been pretty effective. And I have a big role in Sun Devil Athletics as well, which has been, obviously, the big 12 piece has been interesting to say the least.
Bridget Burns:
I feel like, often, and our audience might feel this way too, that, in higher ed, we're a little too obsessed with climbing the ladder in a linear way. I've seen a lot of people who aspire to the presidency that, frankly, it's not a good fit for their personality, it's not a good fit for who they are, but because it's the next step, then they end up being miserable in a presidency, which is a really complicated and difficult job.
What I'd like is for you to share some degree of coaching with our audience about how you think about that in terms of, in my mind, I like to call it filling the Bridget-shaped hole in the world, but you're filling the Chris-shaped hole in the world, and you were open to where that led you because you were pretty obsessed with impact. I'm interested in, for someone who might be thinking about their career, help us see that it isn't necessarily going for the next rung, but rather, going for the right rung for you and creating your own rung, or thinking laterally or different version of growth.
Chris Howard:
Yes. Well, Bridget, I think that you're starting off with sort of this idea of self-awareness. I give a talk called Eight Ways to Accelerate Your Leadership Odyssey, and one of the things I say is that to be successful, you got to get a Ph.D. in yourself and be self-aware, understand what motivates you, why you're motivated by that, and just being brutally honest about what you like, what you don't like, what you're willing to kind of crawl through the fire for, hills you're willing to die on, et cetera.
So if you think, and a lot of people ask me about being college president, so many so that I created a 300-page, and anybody wants it, just email me, a 300-page or 250-page PDF that says Pathway to the Presidency, which includes reports and things that I've read over the years, some pieces that I've written, some things that I've given to my staff when I've started my first day as president in Hampden-Sydney College and at Robert Morris. And one of the key things in there is self-awareness and fit. So sometimes, Bridget, not just wanting to be a president, but wanting to be so badly, you go to a place where it's not a good fit. So, you have to be honest about these things.
Now, in terms of me, well, I would say... Let me take a step back. Let me just talk more about the presidency. I mean, sometimes, people, and you alluded to this, they like the idea of being a president, but they may not recognize that, really, most of the job of the presidency is bad news. If things are going well, you're really not needed that much. I remember years ago when Dick Cheney was the Secretary of Defense, I heard him give a speech. He said, "By definition, a decision comes to me, then it's hard because if it was easy, it should have been made before." So, you're always dealing with finite resources having to choose one constituency over another. You're having to deal with bad things, bad messages. Something went wrong in an athletic program. Something went wrong with a school redesign. Something went wrong with fundraising. This is another big one, when people perish, it's so sad, I didn't know I was going to go through so many funerals. If your faculty, staff, students, they pass, if their families, they pass, alumni, trustees, it's amazing.
People think it's like, "I'm the president, I get put on the presidential robes." That's a small part. So, you have to spend a lot of time just dealing with people, making them okay as you kind of create the shared vision, you can't knock them over the head with it. You have to, hopefully, be in a place that fits with your personality. So these are just as importantly about me moving around or whatever is that if you think you want to be a president, make sure you look behind the curtain, because it is not fun as much as you think it might be fun because you think you sit at the head of table and you just dictate this, that, and the other. First off, you do that, you don't last long, and secondly, or you're not going to be effective.
So a couple of just sort streams of consciousness on that, and I think this is being honest with yourself. Me, I went kind of an unusual route. But also, again, being named president when I was so young, 39 years old, and doing it for a pretty good while, I don't say I got it out of my system, it's just I don't feel like I have to run out and prove anything, I just feel like I want to give and bring impact, as you alluded to, Bridget.
Bridget Burns:
That's good.
Doug Lederman:
So you've already done a little bit of this already, but in the couple of minutes we have left, it's clear that you are an accumulator of advice and guidance that you use to guide your own career. We always try and leave this audience with some thoughts on what they should be reading or watching. So, what are the things that have most helped you in your career so far that you would advise some of the people listening to read to understand themselves and what they might want in their careers?
Chris Howard:
Let me start off with the mantra first off, and then I'll go to a couple of, I think, documents that have been useful in my life. So, my mantra has been, the last 15 or 20 years or so, “lead, serve, grow.” I've got a tripod of how I make decisions. I was talking to a young man that I'm mentoring out here at ASU now. I look at those things, and I say, “If I'm not doing one of those things, it's time for me to move on.” Just, like, it's time. You've removed the pebble from the hand of the master. So, if I'm not leading, I'm not serving, I'm not growing, then I'm looking for something else. So, finding that Zen, that moment, that tripod has been very, very important to me.
In terms of on the journey, it's these people, and both of you have had them in your lives, they just come into your life, and they just give you these wise points at certain points that carry the day. I had a guy named Colonel Mark Hyatt, when I was at Oxford, the Rhodes Scholarship. He was an F-111 squadron commander of the nearby base. And I remember him telling me when I was a young lieutenant over at Oxford, he goes -- And I thought I was going to stay in 20, 30 years. My buddy's now, by the way, they're generals or retired generals. That was pretty amazing. And I remember him saying, when I was, I don't know, 23, 24 years old, he goes, "You know, Chris, you can serve your country in many different ways. It might be in uniform, it might not be in uniform. Just understand that the United States Air Force Academy, we're making leaders of character to serve our nation and serve our democracy." And I thought, "That's cool, but I'm going to be a pilot and be 30 years and maybe be the Chairman or Joint Chief of Staff." So when I made the decision to leave active duty, I thought, "It's okay because Colonel Hyatt said it." So, I would just say, listen to those wise women and men and people in your lives as you sort of go along.
The last two things I think about sort of reading, I may just do two things that've been that I read a long time ago and recently that have kind of helped me out. They're a little unusual. First thing is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X was a strong Black man. Ossie Davis, when he eulogized Malcolm X after he was murdered, after X was murdered in the early '60s up in Harlem, he just talked about how he stitched together his life going from prisoner, hustler -- Well, first of all, he was a great student, then a prison hustler, Nation of Islam, changed his mind and was not a Black Muslim, but a Muslim in general, and how he carried his authentic Black self forward. That was really reaffirming for me as a guy who lived in a bunch of different backgrounds. That was powerful.
There's another book called On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis, who had been a university president and a combat infantryman in Korea at the Marshall School. He taught there, and actually, he was a whisperer for many CEOs on the West Coast of Silicon Valley. In that book, it talks about leadership is a journey to becoming your authentic self. So, it's a very vulnerable sort of point. Talks about the importance of being the other. I was like, "This is great stuff." I taught that book on many occasions, that was very important to me.
And as I was saying a little before this recording, in terms of the thing I love about working with Michael Crow is that he builds pretty phenomenal teams. So, it's like the Marvel Universe here. I mean, you walk around ASU, I swear I saw Thor and the Hulk. Of course, I'm T'challa, the Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, so I've taken that title.
But there's a great book by a guy I worked for on a couple of occasions named General Stan McChrystal. And General McChrystal ran Joint Special Operations Command and was very successful down in Iraq and created this thing called Team of Teams. And it's amazing that he said a couple of things about shared consciousness, a common vision, taking complexity out, taking complications out when you're dealing with a complex environment. And he talked about the importance of this. He says, "Not every Navy SEAL needs to know every Army Ranger, and not every Army Ranger needs to know every Navy SEAL, but some Rangers need to know some SEALs and some SEALs need to know some Rangers." And so, he was running this operation where we had CIA, National Security Accounts, National Security Agency, Central Command, Joint Special Operations. He wove that together using technology to get effective outcomes in a world where we're getting our butts kicked.
Well, Michael's kind of like the General Stan McChrystal of higher education, because he's weaving together technology, industry, civil society, all these things, and not that other people don't do it, but Michael's done it at scale in a pretty masterful way. So that Team of Teams, as I was reading that and thinking about coming here and joining this Team of Teams, these great people at ASU, it felt right. So, there's a couple of points there, Doug, I hope they're useful for the audience.
Bridget Burns:
Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Chris Howard. We have really appreciated having you here. Thanks for sharing your wisdom. And Doug, as always, thanks for being a great co-host. And we hope this has served you all as much as it's served us today. And we'll see you next episode.
Bios of Guest and Co-Hosts
Guest: Chris Howard, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Arizona State University
Dr. Chris Howard works closely with ASU President Michael Crow and the other EVPs to coordinate enterprise-wide initiatives and advancement, oversee ASU Enterprise affiliates, advance new enterprise relationships and opportunities, and integrate ASU Enterprise planning and strategy. Dr. Howard is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, and a doctorate from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. His military career included service as a helicopter pilot and an intelligence officer, and he was awarded a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan. As a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, Dr. Howard co-edited the report "Re-Engineering American Security: Cultivating Talent for Competitiveness" and unveiled its key findings during the 2023 Aspen Security Forum. Prior to joining ASU, he served as president of Robert Morris University, helping it become a preferred strategic partner for corporations, organizations, and professionals in and beyond the Pittsburgh region. Before his tenure at RMU, Dr. Howard was president of Hampden-Sydney College, overseeing a growth in enrollment, improved diversity and retention, and an increased endowment. Previously, he served as a vice president at the University of Oklahoma, had a successful corporate career with GE and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and is a former member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Dr. Howard’s wife, Barbara Noble Howard, serves as an ASU Fellow for nonprofit leadership. Their sons Cohen and Joshua are graduates of The University of the South and Middlebury College, respectively.
Co-Host: Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Dr. Bridget Burns is the founding Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA). For the past decade, she has advised university presidents, system chancellors, and state and federal policy leaders on strategies to expand access to higher education, address costs, and promote completion for students of all backgrounds. The UIA was developed during Bridget’s tenure as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship at Arizona State University. She held multiple roles within the Oregon University System, including serving as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor, where she won the national award for innovation in higher education government relations. She was a National Associate for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and has served on several statewide governing boards including ones governing higher education institutions, financial aid policy, and policy areas impacting children and families.
Co-Host: Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder, Inside Higher Ed
Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country. His work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003, after working at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one for a 2009 series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug and his wife, Kate Scharff, live in Bethesda, MD.
About Weekly Wisdom
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that happens live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, we join forces with Inside Higher Ed and talk with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations will be filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. Hopefully, these episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and a bit of inspiration.
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