This Year’s Opening Keynote Speaker: Anne Doyle
Pioneering Radio and TV Sports Broadcaster and Founder of Anne Doyle Strategies
Anne Doyle, author of POWERING UP! How America’s Women Achievers Become Leaders, brings nearly four decades of trailblazing journalism, business and political credentials to our podium. From TV newsrooms to sports locker rooms, from board rooms to congressional hallways, Doyle has honed her skills in some of the toughest leadership laboratories.
One of the first women TV sports broadcasters in the U.S. (1978-1984), Anne was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame for her leadership role in opening sports locker rooms to female journalists. She earned her business stripes at Ford Motor Company (1987-2002), where Anne rose to become Director of North America Communications, during the Ford Explorer/Firestone Tire business crisis. In 2001, Automotive News named her one of the “100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry.”
After retiring from Ford, Anne founded a leadership/communications practice and began working on her recently-published book. Her research included over 100 hours of interviews with women leaders from diverse professions, generations, cultures and countries. She also ran for office and now serves on the Auburn Hills City Council, is a columnist for Forbeswoman.com and mother of a 19-year-old son.
An honors graduate of the University of Michigan, she has also studied at the University of Madrid, the Ford Executive Development Center and Northwestern, Duke and Harvard Universities.
Today, Anne Doyle is a fresh, national voice encouraging and inspiring high-achieving women to make the leap to leadership, while she continues to push the edges of possibilities herself.
Friday Morning Keynote Speaker: Robert (Bob) Smith
Provost and Senior Vice President, Texas Tech University
Dr. Bob Smith oversees fourteen colleges and schools at Texas Tech University, along with the libraries and several additional academically related units and programs. Prior to joining TTU, he served as the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville from 2000-2008. In earlier years, Bob served as Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Washington State University (1987 – 1997) and Dean of the College of Pharmacy (1985 -86). Earlier academic and administrative appointments include service as James E. Bauerly Professor and Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Bob is a native of New York. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 articles and nine books, including Where You Stand is Where You Sit: An Academic Administrator’s Handbook, published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2006. His latest book, The Way of Oz Complex: A Guide to Wisdom, Heart & Courage, will be published by TTU Press in the summer of 2012. At Texas Tech, he also edits the online journal All Things Texas Tech and co-produces AcademiCast™ a podcast series including interviews with TTU faculty and students.
Bob earned his PH.D. and master’s degrees from University of Michigan, and his B.S. degree (Pharmaceutical Sciences) cum laude from St. John’s University in New York
Bob’s research and scholarly interests have been in the pharmaceutical sciences, communication, personal and professional development, and university administration.
Friday Luncheon Keynote Speaker: Beverly Bower
Director of the Bill J. Priest Center for Community College Education
Dr. Beverly L. Bower has almost thirty years of experience in higher education. After teaching English and French in middle and secondary schools in the U.S. and South Korea, she began her career in postsecondary education at Pensacola Junior College where she worked for twelve years, completing her tenure there as Director of one of the college’s learning resource centers. After receiving her doctorate she continued her career as a faculty member researching and teaching higher education in graduate programs, first at the University of South Carolina and then at Florida State University.
In 2008 she became the Director of the Bill J. Priest Center for Community College Education at the University of North Texas where she holds the Don A. Buchholz Endowed Chair in the College of Education. As a university professor the focal points of her scholarship have included community college issues, distance learning, and the leadership of minorities and women in higher education institutions. She has published articles and on topics that include student satisfaction in distance learning courses and the experiences of African American women students and administrators.
Beverly has authored book chapters on minority student success, faculty of color in community colleges, and the challenges of online education and written books on distance education and leadership. Her work on a long-term project examining women’s leadership has been captured in two recent books by Stylus Publishing, Women at the Top: What Women University and College Presidents Say about Effective Leadership and Answering the Call: African American Women in Higher Education Leadership.
Dr. Bower is actively involved in several national education associations, serving on committees and/or holding offices in the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the American Education Research Association–Postsecondary Division, and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Council for the Study of Community Colleges, of which she is Past President, and Secretary of the AACC Council of Affiliated Councils.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Kansas, a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education with a minor in Public Administration from Florida State University.