National University | President's Circle 2023

National University President’s Circle

National University President’s Circle

About National University

Since 1971, Veteran-founded nonprofit National University has been breaking barriers in education. Our 190+ career-relevant degree programs, credentials, certificates and convenient 4- and 8-week classes are backed by Whole Human Education™, our holistic approach to student success. NU provides the academic, emotional, career, financial, and family support needed to break barriers students face so they can stay on track, finish faster, and achieve their personal and professional goals.

The NU community includes 230,000+ alumni worldwide.

80K 50% 50K

Degree-seeking learners

Workforce and professional development students Undergraduate students who are active-duty military, Veterans, and dependents

230K 130,000+

Alumni in 50 states and 20 countries Total learners served per year

Mission

To deliver accessible world-class student experiences by providing quality programs and services that ensure student success through meaningful learning.

Vision

To be an inclusive and innovative university serving lifelong learners who contribute to the positive transformation of society.

Great universities who serve the kinds of students we serve are challenged by what we call the AE-AE Balance – access and equity balanced with academic excellence.

We are and will always be deeply focused on access and equity. We are also deeply committed to academic excellence.

Many people think you must choose one or the other, but at NU, we choose both. We are succeeding at this equation because we are a university totally committed to access and equity and are also a stalwart champion of academic excellence.”

Dr. Mark Milliron National University President and CEO

National University President’s Circle

In June 2023, National University celebrated its inaugural group of President’s Circle students from among the graduating class. Graduating students will be named to this prestigious group yearly celebrating academic excellence and the student’s potential for positive impact.

The President’s Circle is an elite group of students from each of National University’s colleges:

• Sanford College of Education

• School of Arts, Letters, and Sciences

• School of Health Professions

• JFK School of Psychology and Social Sciences

• College of Law and Public Service

• College of Business, Engineering and Technology

The students represent learning journeys and degree pathways from associate degrees through doctoral studies with each school and college represented.

Students may be nominated by faculty or staff. The final selection is made by the Dean of each school or college.

Students are selected based on Academic Excellence, Leadership Today and Tomorrow, Ability to Represent NU, Personal Character, Initiative and Potential for Impact, and other special circumstances.

The President’s Circle is our way of celebrating exemplary students as National University continues our focused commitment to access, equity, and academic excellence.”

Dr. Mark Milliron

National University President and CEO

2023 President’s Circle Inductees

National University is proud to name these 2023 Graduating students to this prestigious group yearly celebrating academic excellence and the student’s potential for positive impact.

Linwood Alford, Master of Social Work

Katrina Cabauatan, Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Charles Courchaine, Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

Courtney Dandy-Fralick, Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Concentration in Mental Health Administration

Saladin Davis, Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, Concentration in General Family Therapy

Teresa Duncan, Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Concentration in Leadership in Higher Education

Joselyn Escobal-Luea, Master of Science in Cyber Security with a Specialization in Enterprise Cybersecuirty Management

Jeffrey Gorman, Master of Science in Cybersecurity

Lei Huang, Associate of Science in Human Biology

Marc Lessard, Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Brianna Rodriguez, Master of Science in Educational Counseling

Amy Roe, Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Development

Frank Roh, Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Michael Severi, Master of Arts in Human Behavioral Psychology

Khaled Sewidan, Master of Science in Nursing with a Specialization in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner–Lifespan

Elwin Stanaland, Bachelor of Public Administration

Alexander Stevens, Doctor of Philosophy in Technology and Innovation Management, Concentration in Data Science

Samantha Valenzuela, Bachelor of Arts in Management, Concentration in Human Resources Management

Jessica Ward, Juris Doctor

John Russell Wengel, Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership

Wenting Yao, Master of Arts in Human Resource Management

The 2023 President’s Circle inaugural graduates are all inspirations.

Many are first-generation, many are earning and learning, balancing multiple priorities. The students come from all walks of life and are walking into a myriad of professions.

These future professionals will be leading in healthcare, education, military, mental health, public service, business and innovation, and IT sectors.”

Dr. Mark Milliron

National University President and CEO

Linwood Alford, MSW, QMHP A/C

Master of Social Work

Service Leadership

A recent graduate with a Master of Social Work degree, Mr. Linwood

L. Alford will quickly tell anyone listening that his mission in life is to be of service to those who served. A disabled Gulf War Veteran who served twelve years in the Army, he knows first-hand some of the issues Veterans, especially disabled Veterans, face when returning to civilian life.

Many years ago, he decided to leave his secure federal employment with the Department of Veterans Affairs regional office in Atlanta, along with its regular pay and benefits, and stand on his faith to create the non-profit Open Door Resource Center, Inc. The Center was envisioned as a place Veterans could go to for help navigating the complex system of VA benefits so they could get the services they needed either from the government or from their community. Alford’s experience showed him that too many Veterans were coming back home and getting lost in the system, unable to get the services they needed or the benefits they earned.

One such Veteran who benefitted from Alford’s help is Ronnie Williams who served four years in the Navy many years ago, but had struggled to get the benefits he needed ever since. One of his first clients, Ronnie Williams was in dire need of a liver transplant but was not successful at navigating the system for Veteran health services. Alford stepped in. Today Williams has a new lease on life and is forever grateful for the help to secure the medical services he needed to live.

Expanding Credentials and His Business

“At the time I had no degree,” said Alford. “I decided to take the substance abuse counseling program at J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College. It was a nine-month program, so I figured I would be in and out, and still be able to spend the enormous amount of time at Open Doors Resource Center, Inc. needed from me to be a successful organization.” As he was nearing the end of the program, he was urged by another student to consider an associate degree in human services. So close, he decided the few extra courses would not be that bad.

Alford did not see himself as an eager college student and had more energy and interest in business operations. Thinking he was nearing the end of his education as he was wrapping up his Substance Abuse Counseling Certificate and his associate degree, once again a person came along and recommended additional schooling, this time telling him about Bluefield University, a private Christian University in West Virginia. He learned that his substance abuse counseling course credits and associate degree work thus far would transfer into a bachelor’s degree. He also simultaneously was invited into the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, a historically African American fraternity founded at HBCU Howard University in 1914. He was drawn to the fraternity’s focus on brotherhood, scholarship, and service. He enrolled in the bachelor’s degree program in Human Services and joined the fraternity.

“By June 2016, I was receiving my substance abuse counseling certificate, and my associate degree, and in July 2016, became a Phi Beta Sigma. A few months later in December 2016, I finished my bachelor’s degree in human services. During those college years, every single minute of my day was accounted for,” he said. “I was running my organization as CEO; I was supervising a team of interns working on their own bachelor’s degrees, and completing all the paperwork that was required. I was balancing my studies with my work and family. I had multiple speaking engagements and was helping work with my family’s business of residential homes for those with special needs. Every minute of my day was planned. Luckily, my work in the army prepared me and gave me a lot of self-discipline.”

The Decision to Earn a Graduate Degree

By late December 2016, with his coursework behind him, he thought he was done pursuing education, and enjoyed getting some time back in his schedule. “But as a man of faith, I felt called to earn a master’s degree in social work, though I resisted at first,” he said. “I told everyone any time it came up that I was not going back to school.” From a very young age, Linwood was always more interested in entrepreneurial pursuits than being in class. “Then one night I was online and an advertisement for Northcentral University (now part of National University) came across my screen. It was advertising a scholarship for a master’s degree in social work. I knew that was a sign for me, so I looked at what I had to do to be considered.” He needed to write an essay and be enrolled in one class to apply. Without a scholarship, graduate education was completely out of reach since Alford was putting all of his personal wealth in addition to all of his time into his business serving Veterans.

A Legacy of Service

The scholarship application wanted to know what legacy the candidate wanted to leave behind. “That was easy,” said Alford. “As the parent of a young man I knew what legacy I wanted to leave behind for him. I wanted to leave him knowing that caring for people - that’s where the real wealth is. I’m not talking about financial wealth. I’m talking about the real wealth of knowing the fullness of success within yourself that comes when you are in service to others. As we say in social work,

As the parent of a young man I knew what legacy I wanted to leave behind for him. I wanted to leave him knowing that caring for people – that’s where the real wealth is.

I’m not talking about financial wealth. I’m talking about the real wealth of knowing the fullness of success within yourself that comes when you are in service to others.”

– Linwood Alford, MSW, QMHP A/C

success comes when you become a change agent. I wanted him to understand that. I think he does because he’s a disabled Veteran as well, and now he is serving others as a teacher of English in China alongside his wife who is also teaching. My whole family is wrapped up in service to others.” Alford sent off the application to enroll in the Introduction to Social Work class and included his essay. Then he waited.

Birthday Scholarship News

“I will never forget my birthday in 2019,” he said. “I was out for dinner with three friends and was waiting to hear about the scholarship, and knew I was not going to go to graduate school without it. I got a call from a gentleman who identified himself as the Dean of the School of Social Work. He said he had read my essay, looked at my website (which still needs a lot of work), and was intrigued by what I was doing with Open Door Resource Center, Inc. He said he shared my story with the board within the university. He told me on the phone that I had qualified for a scholarship, but they were not going to do a partial scholarship, they were giving me a full scholarship for the master’s degree program! I’m a big man. I’m 6’5” and 300 pounds and I started crying like a baby right there in the parking lot. The Dean asked me if I was okay, and all I was able to mutter out was, ‘This is my birthday.’”

That birthday present ended up opening doors for Alford. “I was back to the strict time management schedule. I knew a paper or project was due every Sunday. I did my reading and research on Monday and Tuesday, allowed it all to soak in on Wednesdays, then on Thursday something in me just took over and I did work through the weekend on projects and papers, sometimes at 3 a.m.,” he said. “But I had such amazing help. My instructors were so real, and the things we were learning were important.” He is especially thankful to Dr. Darron Garner and Dr. Robyn Hudson. He smiles about his cohort finding Dr. Garner in the faculty lounge just before

the recent commencement ceremony in San Diego. “He came over and joined all of us and we had a great time visiting and got a photograph together.” He says his biggest learnings came from his internships in the master’s program “I saw how much need there was in my community for mental health services.”

Expanding Services

The new credential allows him to offer more to the Veterans at Open Door Resource Center, Inc., and work to begin acting on his dream to expand opportunities for mental health support in the community. He is currently beginning his 3,000 hours of residency to qualify to sit for the exam to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. “I also have gotten my other company Camwood Corporation, LLC certified as a service-connected disabled veteran-owned company, serving as a Health and Welfare organization, so I can work with government contracts to expand mental health services,” he says.

As he grows and expands his work, he is currently deeply focused on providing support to Veterans with PTSD, as well as to their families. He finds that many times the spouses and family of Veterans with PTSD do not understand the way it causes a person to act and think, and often alienates the family from the Veterans even further. Through understanding comes empathy and a better chance at keeping the family together and functioning better, he says.

He also is very interested in working with National University Social Work students in Virginia who would be interested in interning with his business. “Today, Open Door Resource Center, Inc. has served more than 4,000 US veterans,” he says. “Some internationally. It’s all from referral and word-of-mouth, we don’t advertise. It’s growing all the time. There’s so much more to do.”

Dr. Charles Courchaine Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

Keeping the Dream

This year Charles Courchaine did something not a lot of successful software developers do. He earned a PhD in computer science. In fact, according to the National Science Foundation, approximately 55,000 doctorates were granted in the 2020-2021 academic year and statista. com reports less than 2,600 were in computer science.

His bachelor’s degree is in Management Information Systems with a minor in Philosophy and his MBA is in Project Management, both from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He planned to go on to a PhD program, but life had other plans. “The year I earned my MBA was a challenging year. In addition to earning the graduate degree, life happened, and I had to put my PhD aspirations on hold for quite a while,” he said. “I got married, I moved states, and I started a new job. It was a lot all at the same time.” But his dream of taking his education ‘all the way’ to the doctorate stayed with him.

With a very successful 16-year career as a software developer and an enviable job at Nike, why did Courchaine challenge himself with this PhD goal? “Several reasons really,” he replied. “Education was highly valued in my family. My parents did not have college degrees, except my stepfather who earned his MBA while I was growing up, but the discussion was always about the importance of education. I also loved the idea of taking my education as far as I could and earning a terminal degree. And it opens up the possibility for an entirely new career pathway for me if I choose to go that route in 10-15 years.” Dr. Courchaine also liked that it gave him a chance to do a research deep dive into a topic he found interesting.

The Emerging Field of e-Discovery

“I’ve always been interested in language and reasoning,” he said. “So, I thought I would make the topic of document summarization my area of research. However, after my initial literature review, I found nothing in the literature that said document summarization was a problem

that needed to be solved. So, I pivoted to the more narrow field of e-discovery.”

For those not familiar with e-discovery, Courchaine offers a high-level explanation of it being part of the legal process where the parties show each other the information they think is relevant to the case. “When that information is stored electronically, it becomes what is known as e-discovery. If you ever saw the movie Erin Brockovich, what she was doing with all of the documents in the banker’s boxes was discovery. With the advent and surge of digital assets, the field of e-discovery allows us to sort through massive amounts of data on a computer or thumb drive,” he said. “The problem with those systems is they have not been interpretable unless you are an expert in the field. Most lawyers and litigants don’t understand how the systems work, which makes defense a challenge.”

“The case that really started it all for the field of e-discovery was an equities trader who was suing her company for being passed over for a promotion, and she referenced emails to prove her point,” said Courchaine. The case was Zubulake v UBS Warburg, and as noted here in the Digital Warroom blog, “The problems pushing these changes forward were the increasing volume and multiplicity of data in electronic formats. Examples of the types of data included in e-discovery are not just standard business documents such as letters, agreements, memos and even spreadsheets but also e-mail, databases, websites, instant messaging, and any other electronic

information stored in the ordinary course of business that could be relevant evidence in litigation.” This led to a change in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as it relates to discovery in 2006 and the field of e-discovery was born.

Neural Networks and Technology Assisted Review

Courchaine was interested in testing if the ARTMAP neural network model which had existed for some time could be used in the context of e-discovery to do these document reviews in a way that was interpretable. Neural networks are a type of machine learning algorithm (also called deep learning) that are modeled after the way the human brain processes data. They are typically used to model complex patterns in data.

His dissertation title is: “Empirical Characterization of the Fuzzy ARTMAP Algorithm For E-Discovery: Towards Explainable Technology Assisted-Review.”

“ARTMAP is based on the Adaptive Resonance Theory developed by neuroscientist Stephen Grossberg. It’s basically a theory of how the brain learns and predicts changes,” said Courchaine. A professor emeritus at Boston University, Grossberg published a pivotal book on brain research called Conscious Mind Resonant Brain: How Each Brain Makes a Mind. The book explores whether technology can emulate biological intelligence among other large research questions.

Fuzzy Logic

Courchaine’s research also involved the use of fuzzy logic, a type of logic that allows for approximate vs finite reasoning, again mimicking more effectively the way the brain makes decisions about what is true, using variables vs absolutes.

“Stephen Grossberg showed the practicality of the neural network and adaptive resonance theory in his work with the brain and his wife Gail Carpenter did a lot translating of the work into algorithms, and then many graduate students and doctoral students continued to develop extensions, so now there is a whole family of algorithms based on ART,” said Courchaine.

Using a small data set, Courchaine tested his experiment and found ARTMAP successful in technology-assisted review, and in ways AI and other machine learning models had not been. “Once I did the small experiment and realized I wouldn’t be researching for a year just to find it didn’t work, that was the empirical characterization part that opened up the pathway for my theoretical framework, experiment and research questions.”

One of the interesting learnings Dr. Courchaine had was that technology-assisted review isn’t just helpful in e-discovery, it also has applications for use in other disciplines including evidence-based practices in healthcare, and literature reviews, as well as other areas

Education was highly valued in my family. My parents did not have college degrees, except my stepfather who earned his MBA while I was growing up, but the discussion was always about the importance of education.

I also loved the idea of taking my education as far as I could and earning a terminal degree. And it opens up the possibility for an entirely new career pathway for me if I choose to go that route in 10-15 years.”

– Dr. Charles Courchaine

where a person is seeking specific insights and meaning from a massive amount of data and documentation.

Testing Algorithms

While the ARTMAP neural network existed, it had not been used in this context. “There are a lot of good ideas that don’t get traction in society for one reason or another. Maybe they are not the new bright and shiny thing, maybe they didn’t get the research dollars,” he said. “These algorithms were there, and were working, but in the rush to Artificial Intelligence people passed them by for the large language models and neglected to see their potential.”

He took his research and presented at the IEEE BigData conference in Japan. IEEE – the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – is the “largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity” per www.ieee.org.

Learning how to Succeed

But his doctoral program also opened a world that needed whole new skill sets in addition to new research. “People forget that being a student is a skill set,” said Courchaine. “Earning a doctorate degree is a very challenging goal and it is hard work. My chair Dr. Ricky J. Sethi was amazing. He was incredibly responsive to all of my questions and emails and helped tremendously with the experiment’s design. He was with me each step of the way. But there was a lot I had to learn.”

Unlike so many who attempt a PhD and stop “ABD” – all but dissertation – Courchaine committed to the finish line. “Failure was simply not an option. You know it’s going to be hard. You know you’re going to want to quit, probably multiple times. That just can’t happen.” Asked what character trait helped frame this determination he answered “Stubbornness, but let’s use

the positive take on it and call it grit,” he said referring to Angela Lee Duckworth’s work on tenacity and grit in student success.

“I dug in. I researched how to write a dissertation; I got my coursework done as quickly as possible. I watched people defend their dissertations. I understood a lot about what constituted a successful literature review and dissertation defense well before I ever started to write mine. And I wrote a lot of papers because that is part of this process.”

Although Courchaine crossed the commencement stage in the summer of 2023, and his PhD did help open up a new career opportunity in software development at his new place of employment in e-commerce, his work with his chair did not end.

Lifelong Learning

“The research and work continue when you’re interested in learning and publishing,” said Courchaine. “My chair, one of his PhD students from National University, his graduate student from another university, and I are collaborating on Fuzzy ARTMAP exploration. We’re writing a paper we plan to submit for an AI in the legal industry workshop at this year’s IEEE BigData conference,” said Courchaine.

Dr.

Courtney Dandy-Fralick, DMFT, LMFT, LCADC, CAMS-I Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Concentration in Mental Health Administration

Social Mobility and Credibility

Courtney Dandy-Fralick recently crossed the stage at National University’s commencement in San Diego and moments later, exited the stage having officially been acknowledged as Dr. Courtney Dandy-Fralick. The driver for the years of hard work that short walk represented was born at another commencement stage where she earned her master’s degree in counseling at 6 weeks pregnant. At that moment her head was filled with thoughts about her son’s future. “As a black female, I am sensitive to how seriously I am being taken in certain situations,” she said. “I knew that as my son grew, I would want to go to school with him, and I would want to be heard when advocating for him. I have seen how Black and Brown children are treated in educational settings, and I wanted to be able to walk in and introduce myself as Dr. Courtney Dandy-Fralick, and be taken seriously, helping open pathways for him.

But that wasn’t the only pathway that drove Dr. Dandy-Fralick’s commitment to completion. “My parents were working class, and they sacrificed and got creative to make things work so I could have the opportunities I have had. My paternal grandparents were sharecroppers and my father’s first and middle names are the first and last names of the owner of the plantation where my grandparents worked and raised their family. I come from the people who were the descendants of the Africans enslaved on this continent. Every day I was in my doctoral program I kept pushing forward so that I could make my family story one of incredible social mobility that goes from sharecropper to doctoral degree in just three generations!” she said.

Finding Career Mobility

Professionally, her priorities and drivers were a bit different from the very clear personal ones. Dandy-Fralick did not require a doctorate to advance her practice. “I was already a licensed marriage and family therapist and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor. I have owned

my mental health practice with my business partner since 2014, so earning the doctorate wasn’t essential in moving the counseling part of my career forward.” She does see the credential as bringing career opportunities in advancing her dream as a published author. With one book under her belt, she aspires to write many more. “I think it will help me be successful as an author and speaker,” she said. In addition, her studies in her doctoral program provided her with exposure to mentors, peers, research, and training that became pivotal not only in her doctoral project but also in her work now training clinicians in the field.

Mentorship and Network Building

“The things that impressed me with this program at NCU and now (post-merger) National University were my instructors and the staff. These people are licensed marriage and family therapists working across the U.S. In addition to the great instruction, and the mentorship that comes with the supervisory aspects of this program, they took it a step further and treated me like a colleague. When I spoke about what I was interested in, they were excited about it too. That helped me keep going to see that what was important to me was important to other people as well.”

But like many successful professionals, she experienced a bout of imposter syndrome. “My sister tells me that at some point in every single class in my doctoral program, I would call and tell her this was going to be the class where the professor would discover me as a

fraud. What I appreciate is that throughout this learning journey in my doctoral program, I had black female therapists on the instruction staff. Nationally we tend to see women weeded out of doctoral level pools, and even more so women of color, but in my program, I saw women who looked like me in leadership and instructor positions with their doctorate degrees. Their support helped erase the imposter syndrome because I knew that they believed in me.” Today, with a doctorate in hand, she no longer worries about being an imposter. “There’s no stopping me now,” she exclaimed. “I know I can do this. I know I have something worth saying, that people want to hear!”

She is deeply appreciative of many instructors but especially thankful to her dissertation chair Dr. Kraus, and to another instructor who served on her committee, Dr. Sutton, as both women were amazingly supportive in her refining her doctoral project and creating a positive culture for learning and exploring ideas. She is also grateful to have worked with Dr. White, who bookended her doctoral journey. Dr. White interviewed and accepted her into the doctoral program, then served as her Academic Reader for her doctoral project. A full circle moment.

Courageous, Constructive Conversations

The area of interest that became the core of Courtney’s doctoral project focuses on racial anxiety. “It’s centered around a therapeutic perspective that I studied which works to shift subconscious responses to anxiety. I applied this perspective to the context of

Every day I was in my doctoral program I kept pushing forward so that I could make my family story one of incredible social mobility that goes from sharecropper to doctoral degree in just three generations!”

– Dr. Courtney Dandy-Fralick, DMFT, LMFT, LCADC, CAMS-I

helping white supervisors decrease their feelings of racial anxiety when they are in supervision dyads with Black supervisees. The purpose of my training is to enable White supervisors to have tough conversations about race without the physiological responses that can come up when someone experiences racial anxiety,” she explains. “Racial anxiety can happen from both sides, but the issue tends to be that the person in the power position is the one who’s responsible for making space to discuss things that have to do with race and power, and if that person is dealing with their rising feelings of racial anxiety oftentimes, they shut down those conversations because they’re afraid of being perceived as insensitive,” she said. “The result is the person in the position of power moves away from conversations they really should be moving toward.”

The training uses techniques that are grounded in a type of therapy called Rapid Resolution Therapy™ that Dandy-Fralick says shifts how people respond to anxiety on a subconscious level. “We focus on helping a person distinguish the difference between a perceived threat and what is happening. That surge of anxious energy is helpful if you are running from a lion who is trying to attack you, but it’s counterproductive if you’re trying to have a conversation,” she said. “So, we use techniques to shift how the mind is reading and responding to information. This shift at the subconscious level moves the person from believing there is a threat to believing something beneficial can happen.”

Finding her Calling

Dandy-Fralick didn’t always know she wanted to be a therapist, but she did know she wanted to help people. “I come from a helping family who have all been active in their community. My paternal grandmother was a charter member of the NAACP in the city where I was born. My cousin was the first Black school board member in the town where I grew up. My family has

been very active politically, and our church was involved in activism and community outreach, so I’ve always been around people helping people. My family includes social workers, nurses, and more. I wasn’t sure what my path would be initially, I just knew I wanted to help people. As a child, I went around for a few years saying I wanted to be a cultural diversity sensitivity seminarist because I heard a woman speaking on Martin Luther King Day at my church introduce herself with that job title and lights went on in my imagination. I thought that sounded like a great career.”

After starting a bachelor’s degree program in Education, she switched to Speech Communications. After graduation, she was working with a women’s homeless shelter where the executive director suggested she apply for a mental health case worker position. She did, and as she worked with clients and suggested therapy for them, she repeatedly heard them say “I don’t need a therapist, I have you.” She knew she wasn’t a therapist but heard it so often she decided to seek the credential via a master’s degree. That led to the opening of her successful private practice in 2014.

On Leading as a Catalyst for Change

The primary impact she wants to have now is around supervision and training. “I work as a therapist with my caseloads, but I also am very interested in expanding my reach and impact by training clinicians, which I am now doing. I can provide training to clinicians across my

community to meet their continuing education requirements. Because I have a doctorate with a specialization in mental health administration I am recognized as an expert and hope to expand my reach by training in corporate spaces as well.” Her work studying racial anxiety involved her doing an intensive literature review on race in mental health settings, which now has placed her in a leadership role in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) training and workshops.

She also wants to help make sure all who are called to this profession get to bring their authentic self. “I want my impact to be in letting people know you don’t have to look a certain way to be a therapist. I want to be sure each clinician knows they can show up as their authentic self,” she said. “I want to provide training that ensures all people – especially people of color – feel supported as therapists. We need them all.”

Saladin Davis

Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, Concentration in General Family Therapy

Mr. Davis came to the counseling profession later in life after first building a successful career in banking after graduating with his bachelor’s degree. Living in Charlotte, NC, he worked with large banks in client-facing roles all week and then did volunteer work, as well as paid speaking engagements, and workshops on weekends. “I wasn’t in my banking career long before I realized that even though I was good at it, I didn’t want to do it long term. So, I started out on some little adventures of my own on weekends working with nonprofit organizations and universities,” he said. A natural leader with a strong and welcoming presence, Davis is comfortable on the microphone leading sessions, and people are comfortable listening attentively. “One of my contracts was with a mental health agency where I was leading a cognitive behavioral intervention, and I met a therapist who became a close mentor and friend.” He did the weekend work for three years after working full-time Monday- Friday. His friend kept telling him he should go into the counseling field, but he wasn’t ready to leave his successful day job in banking just yet.

Small City with Big Changes

Davis said things took a tumultuous, but eventually beneficial, turn when his wife graduated medical school and began her residency causing the family to move from Charlotte to Fayetteville. Charlotte is a bustling city with an international airport and big banks. Davis was met with a much smaller city, smaller banks, and a disappearing network of friends and colleagues for the work that fed his heart on weekends. He couldn’t do the 2.5-hour commute each way, so he had to leave his life in Charlotte behind. Eventually, he found a job at a small bank, but shortly after joining, the bank experienced downsizing and Davis’ role was impacted.

He found himself with a tremendous skill set and no place to use it. After days and weeks with lots of time to contemplate, he began thinking about going back to school. “I knew I wanted to have an impact on people’s lives. I enjoyed these short seminars I would do, but it’s hard to gauge impact, if any, in such a short exposure to a person,”

he said. “It’s hard to know if I moved the needle. But with counseling, my actual job is to gauge whether something changed and improved for that person,” he said. The idea appealed to him. “Additionally, one of the primary reasons for choosing the counseling profession was my experience of becoming a father at the age of 13,” he said, referring to his older daughter whom he obtained custody of when she was 12. He wrote a book about the experience (available on Amazon) called Life 101: Lessons from a 13-Year-Old-Father about this journey through that process.

Professional Soul Searching

“So, reflecting on all of that, I got in the car and drove back to Charlotte and began a long conversation with my therapist friend and mentor I had been doing the weekend work with. I decided he saw something in me in 2013 that I didn’t see until 2019.” Davis decided to pursue a master’s degree in counseling as soon as his wife’s residency was finished, and they returned to Charlotte. He enrolled at a brick-andmortar university and began his graduate work while balancing home life and the needs of their two young children.

The Move to National University

As he was preparing to start his final year in his master’s program, he learned his university was sunsetting the program. “They said they would allow us to finish, but I also started to hear that the accreditation was now in question, and in my field, that’s important. I reached out to

friends and contacts in therapy roles and therapy adjacent professions for advice and decided to transfer to a different university for my degree, despite being close to completing my program.” Davis was deeply, and legitimately concerned about the loss of time and money in transfer credit approvals. “My experience with National University was amazing,” he said. “They saw my potential, honored the work, and transferred in all of my existing credits for my degree work into their master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. Most of us think it’s absurd how many credits good students lose when they transfer, but few institutions do something about it, and NU stepped up. That decision not only changed my experience with education, it also changed my experience with my family because the online format literally gave me back 10 hours a week to spend with my family.” Davis had also wanted to do his clinical internship at his mentor’s practice, but the brick-and-mortar university had an agreement with another practice. With his move to NU, he was able to intern where he felt he would really thrive and learn the most under a licensed therapist he had come to know and trust.

“The internship process is very eye-opening,” he said. “Nothing, literally nothing can prepare you for the first time you are sitting behind a desk in front of clients. The coursework, the professors, all the reading and writing prepared me for what to do once I got comfortable, but the getting comfortable part is an individual journey.” Fortunately for Davis, moments before he opened the door for his first session another therapist at the practice found out it was to be his first session and

offered advice that has changed his life forever. “She said ‘Just relax and be present because when you’re present, it informs you on what you should do next.’ That’s informing my interactions with all people in my life to this day,” he said.

Professional Goals for His Practice

Two of the goals he has as a professional counselor are to attract more black males to the therapy profession and to encourage more people to seek therapy. “As a black male, I comprise about 2 percent of the therapist population. I am specializing in couples therapy and people seek me out because it’s important for black males to see a black male therapist. They are more comfortable and have more trust that I will understand some of the challenges they are facing.” Davis is also getting involved with a growing organization founded by Maurice Harvey, “The Black Male Therapists of Charlotte” – a group of men who support each other and will also be working to recruit more college students into the profession.

“I also want people to know that choosing to see a therapist doesn’t mean you have to have some kind of mental illness diagnosis – though it is highly recommended for those who do. It also makes sense for smaller things like if you are just having a problem working something out in your life. We provide a judgment-free zone and can be someone you can trust to speak openly with knowing whatever you tell us will not be repeated. Give it a shot and see how it is, and if you don’t connect

with the first therapist you speak with, try again with a different person so you can find someone who can help you heal and feel better as you create this new helpful resource for your life.”

Balancing Acts and Managing Family Priorities

As an adult learner with a family, balancing his graduate program and life commitments wasn’t easy and Davis has some advice for others preparing to do the same. “I was a stay-at-home dad at the time, raising two young children. My wife and I had decided we didn’t want our kids in daycare until they reached a certain age. So, I had them. And then once they got to be school age, I was the transport, the one helping them study, the one holding down the fort cooking the meals. For me to study I had to get out of the house. I found a workspace I could rent by a local coffee shop for a quiet private place to study on Sundays when local libraries are closed. See what you have near you. It may be that your home is not the best solution all of the time,” he said.

He also recommends getting to know yourself and your best times to do this work. “Some people are night people,” he said. “I am not. I do my best work early in the morning when most people are sleeping. Prioritize for the type of person you are. I like the morning for fewer distractions, and then if something goes sideways later in the day, I have something done. I’ve also realized to be effective in the morning, I need to go to sleep at night.”

I knew I wanted to have an impact on people’s lives. I enjoyed these short seminars I would do, but it’s hard to gauge impact, if any, in such a short exposure to a person. It’s hard to know if I moved the needle. But with counseling, my actual job is to gauge whether something changed and improved for that person.”

– Dr. Saladin Davis

His other advice is sound as well. “Give yourself some grace,” he said. Adult learners are always juggling priorities whether it’s children, parents, spouses, or employers, or all of these. “You are your most important asset. Be kind to yourself. There are going to be times when something comes up in your life that you must take care of, and your homework is going to be late. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Increasing Intellectual Curiosity

When asked how he changed over the course of this graduate program, Davis replied, “I’ve become more curious and empathetic. I really want to know why people are doing what they’re doing. I look at people in a way I never did before, with more compassion and curiosity. I wonder where things began that brought them to where they are today. I don’t let people get away with generic answers anymore when I ask how they are because I really want to know.”

He’s excited about his work, and especially his focus on Black couples as a way to support his community. And he’s looking forward to advocating on college campuses for more Black male students to consider therapist and counseling pathways. He’s looking forward to building his practice. “One of my mentors told me there’s a reason we call these practices. We’re always learning,” he said.

Seeking Service and Structure

Dr. Teresa Duncan Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Concentration in Leadership in Higher Education

When she graduated high school Dr. Teresa Duncan knew she wanted two things. First, she wanted more discipline and structure in her life. And second, she wanted to help people. At the time, she thought working with the State Police in her hometown in Indiana might bridge the intersection of those two goals. At just 19 years old, she was turned away because of a 21-year-old minimum age requirement but was advised by a member of the police to consider the military.

Today, Dr. Teresa Duncan has retired from 30 years of active duty in the U.S. Army culminating with her role as the Command Sergeant Major of the Army University. In addition to the discipline and structure she was seeking, and the obvious service to others inherent in military service, Duncan learned a lot and was transformed in the process. “It’s complex and dynamic the way the military taught me to see things from more than my own viewpoint. At first, you have to take another

person’s perspective without choice, but as you learn and grow your voice is heard louder and louder, and with that comes responsibility to understand the power of your words. You also realize the right and responsibility to listen to others. It’s brought me to a place where I no longer view things as ‘it’s this way or that way’ but more of an ‘and’ than an ‘or’ mentality,” she said.

Career Achievements

The accomplishments from her military career are too many to list in entirety but include working with the 8th Military Police Brigade in Hawaii as a Command Sergeant Major, where she ensured more than 1,200 Soldiers maintained their expertise in the areas of hazmat control, military policing, and explosive ordinance disposal. Additionally, she worked to build and unite the team from Soldier to General building an environment of trust.

It was here that she began her career-long advocacy to ensure activeduty enlisted service men and women had access to education. “Experience is very important, but it can lead to bias whereas education can remove biases but needs the experience to make it valuable,” she said. “In the Army, the focus of education has been on the officers –it’s mandated by Congress that certain elements be in place to help them progress in their degrees. But enlisted members can often get overlooked when it comes to higher education,” said Duncan.

Duncan speaks from experience on the challenges of education for enlisted service members. “I decided to pursue higher education while enlisted,” said Duncan. “Back when I was working on my associate degree, I think I ended up with credits from seven or eight colleges while moving with the military. That was in the days before online education, and a lot of active-duty military like me lost a lot of credits with each move and deployment.”

From the Military Police Brigade, she moved to Missouri to lead the largest Non-commissioned Officers Academy in the U.S. Army. As Commandant she oversaw 23-military professional development programs and certifications focused on specific skill sets and leadership, as well as faculty professional development.

Army University Credentialing

She then joined the team at Army University as Senior Advisor to the Provost. In addition to serving as senior advisor and supporting six directorates serving more than 50,000 students a year, she also embarked on public speaking and had daily interactions with more than 1,100 mid-level U.S. Army officers, whom she mentored. “During my tenure at Army University, I played a pivotal role in the implementation of credentialing assistance within the U.S. Army,” explains Duncan. “This initiative involved establishing a funding pathway to support service members in obtaining industry-recognized professional certifications and licenses. Additionally, I was actively engaged in the initial Higher Learning Commission (HLC) regional accreditation process for a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership and Workforce Development with the Sergeant Major Academy. These experiences gave me a profound appreciation for the intersections of theory and practice, and civilian and military education and development.”

Committing to Lifelong Learning

The epitome of a lifelong learner, Duncan was never willing to stop her own educational pursuits. “One of many things I appreciate about the Army is you know you will always be working on your weaknesses while sharing your strengths,” said Duncan. “For me, that translates to a commitment to lifelong learning. I really believe we all need to continue learning regardless of our gifts and abilities.” After earning her

One of many things I appreciate about the Army is you know you will always be working on your weaknesses while sharing your strengths.

For me, that translates to a commitment to lifelong learning. I really believe we all need to continue learning regardless of our gifts and abilities.”

– Dr. Teresa Duncan

associate degree, she continued on to earn her bachelor’s with Excelsior College which was a leader in remote access for military members at the time.

As she continued her work with the military, she continued pursuing education. She earned her master’s degree with a 4.0 GPA in Criminal Justice/Political Science from Saint Leo University where she focused on forensic psychology science.

After a stellar 30 years with the military, she then moved into a civilian role serving the military while staying in the education sector by joining the team full-time at Cornell University. Her role is Director of Military Programs for the Office of External Education. She simultaneously held a second parttime job as an exam administrator with the Resilience-Building Leader Program (RBLP).

While in these roles she realized to be able to affect the kind of strategic decision-making and change management she wanted to see, she would need additional credentials. She took a year off between her master’s degree and enrolling in her PhD program to find the right university and program. Then, while working full-time she embarked on her PhD in Leadership in Higher Education program at Northcentral University, now merged with National University.

Understanding Perceptions of Followership

Her dissertation focused on an important body of research, “The Perception of Followership: A Qualitative Grounded Theory Study.” One need not scroll long on LinkedIn or professional publications to see many programs, trainings, and writings around leadership, but not as many folks are talking about followership, and fewer still are researching perceptions of followership in Millennials and Generation Z. As stated in a recommendation for Duncan to be named to this year’s inaugural President’s Circle at National University, “Her qualitative data such as interviews,

reflections, and review of higher education syllabi seeks to understand followership through the lens of these two generations who are typically not included in current research. Her research proposes unique theories that build upon the components of organizational structure and culture and recommends critical elements that should be included in the syllabi of higher education courses on followership. The development of followers is just as important as developing leaders. Every person in an organization is not just a worker. This increases the value of every person and relevance of every organization as they evolve in the complex world we live in today.”

Leadership and Followership

Duncan expresses the deepest gratitude to her dissertation chair Dr. Nelson who was an excellent leader for her and was always available to help guide her research and inquiry. “Every time I got stuck, I could just reach out for a video call with Dr. Nelson, and she’d help me think things through. Her leadership was remarkable.”

Regarding leadership, Duncan shines a light on the importance of followers. “We all, even the highest leaders, have to follow something or someone to be successful,” said Duncan. “You can use the example of my PhD It wasn’t done in isolation solely by me. It was possible because a group of people supported me. These were people that I chose as a follower to have help lead me through this learning journey.”

The need for strong followers in the Army is apparent – followers are

what make any team or unit successful. Duncan’s research also made clear the need for leaders of any kind to stay relevant to attract and keep followers.

Today her role at Cornell was triggered in part from a lens of followership. “In my previous work with Army University, I met many presidents, provosts, and deans. I recall speaking with a provost from Cornell University who said he wanted more military people and veterans in his classroom because we bring different views, perspectives, and experiences. I loved that he went beyond the obligatory and well-intentioned ‘thank you for your service’ to a statement of the real value he saw us bringing to the classroom.” Though it was a couple years until Duncan retired from the Army and joined Cornell, the seed was planted.

Skills-Focused Education

Today Duncan appreciates that the programs she is involved in at Cornell are application-based with a skills focus. “We know when someone completes the program not only will they have learned and developed some important workforce skills, but they will also be able to talk with employers about what those are and why they have value in the workforce,” she said. “Too often in the past, military members have had a hard time translating what their experiences can bring to the workforce when they transition back to civilian life.” She also believes thinking from a skills lens helps transitioning military think about not only what they

are good at, but also what they like and don’t like to do so they will be better able to move into roles that have meaning for them.

As a systems thinker and strategic planner, Duncan is connecting a lot of dots at Cornell to help integrate analytics, workforce insights, coursework, and curriculum mapping, to create programs that will bring active-duty Soldiers and Veterans valuable knowledge to build upon their valuable experience as they continue in their careers.

She is currently working on a chapter of a book about transitioning the military into higher education and continues to influence higher education curricula on leadership and followership.

Jeffrey R. Gorman Master of Science in Cybersecurity

Successful Business Owner Seeks Graduate Degree

Jeffrey Gorman recently earned his Master of Science in Cybersecurity from Northcentral University, now National University post-merger. Gorman is beyond tech-savvy having owned his own computing business since earning a bachelor’s degree. He has been the owner and CEO of Creative Computing for decades and pivoted and morphed the company over the years as Internet and Web technologies emerged. He has been very successful working with K12 school districts building administrative software and database systems and later as an official Apple distributor – a small and select group. He programs, codes, and optimizes.

Systems Thinking and Optimization

In fact, he optimizes everything from how he writes programs with the least amount of code necessary which builds in an easier elegance to maintain and enhances security, to the way he scheduled his time while

working on his master’s while also having a family (with a wife and four sons), running his business, working for part of the degree at another external company as well, and learning and instructing martial arts. Even his chosen form of martial arts is optimized – Krav Maga – which is known for its extreme efficiency focusing on making the fewest strikes for the biggest impact.

He sees the big picture in everything he does as a flawless example of a systems thinker. This is in part due to him switching his undergraduate degree from a computer science track to philosophy because he found he liked the logic courses better than what he calls ‘the esoteric’ math courses the computer science program required.

His innate skills at systems thinking and logic are what really helped him excel in his master’s degree, not the tech savvy side of his expertise as many might presume. “Cybersecurity is not a technical degree, and a lot of people think it is,” says Gorman. “It’s about seeing

all the parts and processes of something and assessing and mitigating risk. Cybersecurity is about risk assessment over and over, in a neverending loop, and then prioritizing which risks and gaps to prioritize first. It’s a complex and ongoing process and involves more than the programs that are running,” he said. Risk assessments also focus on physical and policy/procedural risks. It truly does require a holistic view and understanding of the organization, constantly examining the three domains of people, processes, and technology.

In-Demand Field with Less Personal Demands

He was drawn to the cybersecurity degree because he wanted a challenging, in-demand field where he could pivot from running his own company 24/7/365 to bring down the workload there and take a fulltime job with more standard hours elsewhere.

Assessing and Mitigating Risk

A month prior to graduating he was hired by an organization that places cybersecurity and IT professionals into college campuses in an on-ground but outsourced model. “I really like the pace of higher education and I like that it’s all focused on getting students in and through, and out the door into careers successfully,” said Gorman.

“I came in, looked around, and said ‘We are going to get breached… we are going to get clobbered,’” he recalls. There had been a private company providing the security and it was exiting at the end of its contract, and Gorman saw many gaps in what they were leaving

behind. Higher education, like healthcare, is a prime target for ransomware thieves looking for clients capable of paying $100,000 ransoms to restore their mission-critical data infrastructures once compromised.

He joined the college and immediately suggested a massive migration to Office 365 away from the MS Exchange 2016 running on Windows Servers from 2012 leaving too much open exposure to the Internet. Other systems and applications were hosted by third-party vendors, also creating risk. His boss thought it was too aggressive a project for someone who joined only weeks prior and suggested he think about that during the future winter term break.

Defending Against Ransomware Attack

Unable to ignore the risk he saw in his first two weeks; he pivoted and quickly implemented an immutable backup remote management system in his first month there. He updated all the machines on campus in one shot whereas before backup was done by another private company on their private cloud. When the previous security company concluded their contract a few weeks into Gorman’s tenure, they took their backups with them.

As Gorman had predicted, two months later the community college system was breached, and all machines were encrypted with data completely locked down. The ransomware note was asking for more

Cybersecurity is not a technical degree, and a lot of people think it is,” says Gorman. “It’s about seeing all of the parts and processes of something and assessing and mitigating risk.

Cybersecurity is about risk assessment over and over, in a never-ending loop, and then prioritizing which risks and gaps to prioritize first. It’s a complex and ongoing process and involves more than the programs that are running.”

–

Jeffrey R. Gorman

than $100,000 with threats that it would increase the amount in three days if not paid. The operations of the college were at a standstill.

Because of the backups and protocols Gorman had put in place in his first month on the job, the entire system was quickly restored in less than 24 hours and the school never had to pay the ransom. “My boss told me that every other school in the area had been hit and had to pay the ransom,” said Gorman.

System-wide Migration in a Small Window of Opportunity

Going back to his optimization mindset, Gorman also saw the short-lived outage as a chance to do the system-wide upgrades he wanted. “I figured while we were down for a short while anyway, there was a small window of opportunity to do the full migration to Office 365,” he said. “We did and we also upgraded everything to Windows Server 2022, and with my team rebuilt the network. I told my team we had to move fast. People would be inclined to get anxious and want to grasp at just restoring what we had to get back up and operating, so we hit it hard. Before we had 30 ports open, now we have zero… we had 6 IP addresses exposed to the Internet, now we have one.” The move hardened the system, increasing efficiencies, and greatly reducing the college’s risk profile, and was nearly seamless to the end users who were back up and running with business as usual on their side of the monitor, but with great improvements on the infrastructure. “To be sure it was working as planned, we did penetration testing,” said Gorman. Pen testing is a critical part of assessing risk. “We had zero flaws or gaps in that migration,” he said.

Coursework Helped him See the Big Picture

Gorman believes his degree work helped him tremendously in learning to see the big picture necessary for risk assessment and remediation. His projects and work inside the program were relevant and applicable to actual marketplace technology and scenarios. For a while during his master’s program, he worked for another company and used it as the basis for his 45-page disaster recovery plan project. He left the place because he calculated the hours, he was spending commuting and it was more than 20 a week, which isn’t going to work for someone who optimizes their time.

Balancing Life and School

Speaking of time, how did he balance life, work, and studies? “It was hard. If you are considering this field and graduate study, prepare yourself for some hard work,” he cautioned. He earned his degree in two years but in addition to some study during the day and evenings during the week, he dedicated most of every Sunday to writing papers and researching. “Sundays were all schoolwork,” he said. “Luckily a friend of mine was working on a doctoral degree, and we would have a virtual chess game running in the background while we both read and wrote papers and projects independently all day and night Sundays to help keep us focused and at our computers.” Balancing family life came easier. “My wife and I have four sons between us, and they are all grown now and out of the house. She’s a working artist, and she paints a lot on weekends, so she was fine with me not being underfoot on Sundays,” he said.

He took his 8-week courses one at a time with generally a two-week break in between each course. One course had a month break while the family moved. He recommends the model as it gives the student a chance to pivot and focus on other priorities and keep everything balanced without too long of a gap where there is a risk of losing momentum on studies and degree pathway progress. He advises prospective students to get ready for the commitment. “I was working a pretty break-neck pace for two years managing my company, my personal life, and working to excel in my degree program,” he said. “It can be done, but students need to be ready for the commitment and they need to be organized.”

New Adventures and Opportunities

Despite having completed his studies he still feels a jolt from time to time on Sunday afternoons when he was used to being heads down on deadlines for papers and projects. So, in his characteristic optimization mode, he is using that time to write a program for a friend’s franchised business that identifies what processes and services gain the highest net income in the least amount of time or resources from the business. Once they perfect the code and iron out any wrinkles in the process evaluation they can market to other franchisees and monetize the software.

And back at the community college he’s working on his next big lift. “I will be refreshing at least 70 machines this fall and I want to make sure they are configured exactly how I need them to be, without it being

evident or burdensome on the end user. You don’t want security to get in the way of work operations,” he said. “If you are doing improvements that the user sees, you have to tell them why, and how, and have your team trained to answer any questions in a friendly manner,” he said. He’s building a system to basically auto-pilot the configuration to his specs where all the team needs to do is open the box, plug it in and name the machine. “I’m doing a lot of under the hood improvements that are invisible to the end user, so people can continue to do their jobs, but more securely,” he said.

Recently, his son, who grew up working for years with his dad at Creative Computing has decided to become a computer scientist. “He recently told me that he learned a lot from those years hanging out with me at work, but the big learning and take away was ‘Optimize Everything’ – at every turn,” Gorman smiles. Like father like son.

Lei Huang Associate of Science in

Human Biology

In January of 2023, Lei Huang walked the stage at the National University annual commencement ceremony earning an associate degree in Human Biology. Like many students enrolled and studying at Northcentral University (now National University post-merger) Huang came to the university as a successful working adult.

Life and Career-Changing Experience

Huang moved to the United States in his late 20’s with an MBA degree. As part of that move, Huang has become a service member with the intention of building a career in the US military. “Then my wife and I had a baby girl,” he explains. “She was born prematurely and had many concerning conditions and complications. She was in the intensive care unit for 12 consecutive days. It felt like 1000 years,” he recalls. He and his wife were fortunate to receive stellar medical care from doctors and nurses, and today their healthy daughter is one of three children in the growing family. But that experience changed the couple’s professional plans. “

After that experience, I realized I wanted to go into medicine,” said Huang. “I wanted to help people the way we were helped.” While his wife also changed her career trajectory to medicine, she chose Chinese medicine and pursued a path to become an acupuncturist. He started his pre-nursing classes with National University with the goal of commissioning as a Nurse Officer. “Our two different paths in medicine and healthcare cause some interesting debate and conversations in our house,” he said.

Earning Pre-requisites and Accelerating Knowledge

Despite having and MBA degree, the nursing degree program had many prerequisites he needed to take so he was advised to enroll in the associate degree in Human Biology to get the necessary anatomy, biology, and other health science prerequisites. National University’s hybrid program allowed him to have some study online but also inperson lab and classroom time. “I worked 8 hours a day at my job, then did my schooling at night,” he said. “But because I wanted to accelerate

It’s an interesting change in my life.

When I was in my 20s everything was about advancing my career. Now, after the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) experience, it’s about being of service to others and finding ways to help people.”

– Lei Huang

my knowledge and skill and show my commitment to this profession, I also volunteered more than 500 hours at the hospital here.” He would go to the hospital each week after work and before study and class time, volunteering for several hours. “It is helping me to learn skills that will help me be a better nurse and student,” he said. Since graduating with an associate degree, he has been accepted into National University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. “It’s an interesting change in my life,” he says reflecting on the career switch. “When I was in my 20s everything was about advancing my career. Now, after the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) experience, it’s about being of service to others and finding ways to help people.”

Finding Work/Life Balance

“It’s very hard to have a full-time demanding job, and then study, volunteer, and raise a family of three children,” he said. He credits his self-determination. “I am not different or better than anyone else, but I am very determined,” he said. “I will make time to be sure the things that need to happen get done. If you are an adult and returning to school you need to look at your life and plan where you will fit in your priorities and think about how you will balance it all.” He gets up very early for his workouts and then starts the long days. An A student, Huang is grateful that his service as an active-duty service member affords him a tuition discount.

The Journey is Not a Race to the Finish

Recently named to National University’s inaugural President’s Circle, Huang is humbled and grateful to be among the exemplary students that comprise the group. “At commencement, I had a chance to hear from the other President’s Circle members during a brunch,” he said. “They were very impressive. Many had advanced degrees and were smart and successful. Here I was with just an associate degree, but as I said then, I don’t see my education as a race. It’s a journey, and I’m just taking the next step on my journey.”

Modest and humble, he admires many leadership styles that will help him as naval officer, but mostly he just tries to live by example. He says his continuing education is teaching him more empathy for others and to see things from many viewpoints. He is committed to bringing everything he has to his role as a nurse and future officer and his advice to other students is the same – bring everything you have. “This is a big commitment, earning a degree. It’s not a one to three-month investment. Get ready. This is a life-changing experience, and you need to think about how you’re going to make it work and be ready to take it on.

Marc Lessard Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Born to Innovate

Marc Lessard is one of those multi-faceted gentlemen whose story unfolds with interesting twists and turns. Marc Lessard is an engineer, an exceptional student and STEM scholar, a spouse, a father, a former Marine, a former business owner, a maker, a missionary, and now an inventor. He recently fulfilled a lifelong dream and graduated at 32 years old with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering during which he invented and produced a product he is going to patent and market. He knew as a young boy that he was a maker – he liked to innovate, create, and build things. His dream for much of his younger life was to graduate high school and go to the New York Institute of Technology and study to be an architect. For two years in high school, he was able to take classes toward that goal, but reality came knocking. Growing up in a very low-income household, Marc was mowing lawns at 14 to buy shirts that fit, and soon realized a $ 50,000-a-year college for

five years wasn’t going to be within reach. His mother was the only of her siblings to graduate high school, and his father had left the family when Lessard was very young so there was more emphasis on getting food to the table and keeping the lights on than dreaming of becoming an architect.

Military Service and New Beginnings

Extremely resilient, he’s always been an advocate for growing and learning, so he shifted his sights, decided on a military career, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. “My grandfather and my grandmother’s brother were Marines, so it kept a family tradition going,” he said. “I wanted to do 20 years but after being deployed to Afghanistan I was 80 percent disabled in combat, so I couldn’t re-enlist.” Faced with the trauma of exploding IEDs piled on top of his childhood trauma from an abusive household, Lessard decided to use his G.I. Bill and go to college and make a fresh start. He took a communications degree pathway at a local community college and started an insurance

The sacrifice the instructors at NU make to their students is amazing. To be that responsive, and that involved takes huge commitment. I am so grateful for their work and their sacrifice to make sure all of us students get whatever we need when we need it.”

– Marc Lessard

company, leaning on his innate charisma and salesmanship skills. But despite his success, he wasn’t building or creating anything, and one of his friends noticed and called him out for it. “My friend knew my capabilities and asked me why I was pursuing a career that would never make me happy, so I switched my major to engineering,” he said. He spent four years at Palomar College earning three associate degrees – one in engineering, a second in mathematics, and a third in university studies.

An Exceptional Scholar

An exceptional student, he was a STEM scholar at his school and active in the STEM club. As he was finishing his coursework in 2016, Northrop Grumman began conducting interviews with the school’s STEM students nearing graduation. “I went into this interview and the man was describing a system he was building – a radio frequency jammer. I told him I knew exactly what it was because we had something like that from a different company in Afghanistan, but I still had IEDs explode right next to me in combat. I let him know because of my personal experience he would not find anybody more passionate about working on that project. They hired me,” Lessard said.

He wanted to continue his education and also wanted to start a family. He had applied to San Diego State but says he was not one of the applicants who made the cut. He and his wife had their first child in 2019. “At that point going to school on campus was not an option anymore,” he said. “Our schedules were all over the place. A friend of mine who was in the same degree program as me at Palomar College and had worked with me at Northrop Grumman said he had started a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at National University and loved it. So as soon as my son was sleeping through the night and we could have any kind of schedule, I enrolled. The degree pathway included a lot of work related to my job with microelectronics, and software,” said Lessard.

Self Discipline and Self Advocacy with Help from Faculty

He describes himself as a self-starter who problem-solves most of his own questions and doesn’t ask for help, but when he did need help, he was impressed with the NU faculty response time. “The sacrifice the instructors at National University make to their students is amazing,” he said. “To be that responsive, and that involved takes huge commitment. I am so grateful for their work and their sacrifice to make sure all of us students got whatever we needed, when we needed it.”

Like most working adults, time management was critical to his success. “I was extremely disciplined with my time. My days were planned in 15-minute intervals,” he says. It paid off as he blazed a trail of A’s through this baccalaureate work earning one of the highest GPAs in the college at 3.967, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Lessard also had a chance to use his innovative creator side in a capstone project where he invented a timely device.

An Inventive Capstone Project

“For the capstone, I wanted a challenge, and I also wanted to work on something I was really interested in. I like sports, especially rugby. There is a growing focus on player safety these days, and there’s a lot of impact in sports, and probably more so in rugby than others. So, I invented and built a device that could be described as smart apparel for sports. I built the hardware, and I wrote the code for the software,” he said. He can’t speak in detail about the device publicly just yet, but

its market potential is evident. He is going to take a derivative of the project with some other non-disclosed changes to investors in the coming year and work toward a patent.

Curriculum with Workforce Relevance

“Having a degree in engineering really helps me,” said Lessard. “What we studied is relevant to the workplace. Here at my company, we work with software-defined microelectronics and embedded programming like C++ networks and embedded systems, and that’s exactly what we were studying. But it’s also important to me to have the degree because when I seek out investors it gives me so much more credibility as an inventor,” he said. It also gave him a $20,000-a-year raise shortly after crossing the commencement stage, which he’s also excited about.

Worldwide Ministry and Missions

He plans to use most of the funds from the invention to help fund his ministry, one of his other big life interests and commitments. “I want to use most of the funds from my invention to enable me to speak at university and college campuses and help young guys like I was to find a better way,” he said. He is referring to his rocky years at the end of his USMC service and during his first college years. “I didn’t realize how bad my behavior was at the time because of what I saw growing up,” he said. “But I know now, and I’m hoping to save other young men from some of the struggles, addictions, and heartaches I had.” His work with his church and shared pastoral work counseling couples with his

wife, whom he met in 9th grade, has brought special meaning to his life and also helped him heal relationships from his past for what is now a healthy happy extended family. And that family is growing. Lessard did a missionary trip to Africa in September of 2023, and at the time of this writing is beginning paternity leave as he and his wife just welcomed their second child, a healthy and beautiful baby girl.

Degrees Open Doors

His advice to other prospective students considering an engineering career? “It’s not for everybody. But if it is for you, and your objective is to learn and grow, I highly recommend earning a degree because it will open doors for you.”

Frank Roh Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Career Identity Loss

Frank Roh came to America as an 11-month-old infant when his father and mother, Steve and Young Roh, emigrated from Korea to the United States in the mid-1980s. Like many immigrants, the primary concern of Frank’s father was to provide shelter and put food on the table. “When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade my father came home from work one day and put a piece of paper on the table and asked me to list what I wanted to be when I grew up,” said Roh. “I hadn’t thought a lot about it at that point in life, but I always felt inclined to be a teacher, so I wrote that. My father grabbed a pencil, crossed it out, and said that was not open to me as that did not provide a good enough source of income. He told me to keep listing other options. I started to list every job I could think of, starting from the president of the United States to sanitation worker.”

Over the next hour or more, his dad crossed out most occupations that he felt did not pay well enough, probably thinking he was helping his son set realistic expectations so that he would not experience the hardship he had. What it did was create a quiet occupational identity crisis in Roh.

First Job Earnings

“After high school, I went right to work at my dad’s trucking business where he was the CEO and trucker,” said Roh. “I was a dispatcher, so I was earning commissions on every load that left the dock.” It was a lot more money than he had ever seen before, so he thought at the time he had found his career pathway and didn’t think much about furthering his education. “I looked at my friends from high school investing time and money in college and I looked at my earnings, and my income value was far above theirs. So, I thought I was good. Fast forward four or five years and they all started graduating and going into jobs with better career tracks and a lot more money. I had to reassess my viewpoint because their educational value was exceeding what I could do in terms of monetary value for my life without more education.”

Moving into Healthcare Tech

But Roh wasn’t ready yet to try college. He went to work for an MRI facility where he thought he would have more upward mobility. And for a while, he did. “I started working my way up the chain of command. I started working as a receptionist and soon was the manager of the site making in the $70,000 range, which seemed great, so I thought I was set,” he said.

“Fast forward another 10 years, and now I’m married, and the owners of the MRI facility are starting to talk about selling the facility. I started thinking, what if the new management didn’t want to keep me? I didn’t want to restart my career elsewhere in my 40’s. It really bothered me a lot, and I started losing sleep thinking about my future and my career. I knew how to manage an MRI facility and could apply for manager spots at other facilities, but those roles are limited and how many supervisors would be interested in me with just a high school diploma?”

Roh decided his best path was to become a radiology technician and started taking classes for that while still working at the MRI facility. “The owners didn’t take kindly to me forwarding my education. Sometimes I had to leave early. I was working full-time and then going to school full-time, it was tough,” he said.

“I talked with my wife, and we decided the best thing for our future was for me to leave and work someplace else. This led to my job as an

Emergency Room registration clerk,” he said. “I was working 12-hour night shifts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., heading off to school at 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.” After completing all his prerequisites, he applied for the radiology program but didn’t get accepted. While at work in the ER, he was interacting with some of the team at the hospital. A nurse he had befriended asked him why he was working to become a radiology technician and suggested he look at nursing. “I’ve had numerous people throughout my life tell me that I should be a nurse, that I’ll make a good nurse, and that I should really consider nursing, etc. Every time I would brush it off by saying that nursing isn’t for me. Plus, there was too much studying involved,” he said. But people kept nudging him, including his wife, who is a practicing nurse. “She is very kind and supportive about it,” said Roh. “One day we were watching a TV show and a commercial came on about a pediatric hospital. She said I would be a great pediatric nurse.

I went to my computer and looked up exactly what additional classes I needed to take in order to apply for a nursing program, and upon seeing the results, I thought I could do it. I also looked at how many radiology technicians there are versus how few machines there were available for a technician to work, and realized the better option was nursing as you didn’t need to worry about a machine because you had a building full of patients that required care.” He remembers telling his wife that night when she came from work that he was ready to commit to a nursing program. “She supported me 100%, but she would have supported me no matter what career path I decided,” he said. “But there’s no denying she was glad I chose nursing.”

I love my work. I feel needed. I come home from a 12-hour shift and tell my wife how great my day was. I wake up in the morning and as I’m heading into work, I tell her how excited and happy I am to be qualified to do this work. I love being a nurse.”

– Frank Roh

Finding Untapped Potential

He was reluctant to start university-level work after being out of school for many years. “I was nervous at first, but quickly realized I had a lot of untapped potential and this career pathway had so many options.” His advice to others feeling like he did is just start the first class and be willing to give something up to gain something greater. “I think some people struggle because they want the home run, they want to gain everything at the same time. But what I want to say is, just get that hit, the single, and get on base. Take the first class and realize you can do more than you think you can. You may have to make some sacrifices – personal time, vacations, etc., but just look at your long-term gain potential,” he said.

What he discovered was a hidden talent. “I found out I’m really good at this,” he said. “When the MRI facility wasn’t willing to promote me or move to another place, and was ready to just let me go upon the sale of the facility, I was really hurt. I felt like I wasn’t wanted and didn’t have value. Now, as a licensed nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a great job at Kaiser Permanente, I feel wanted and valued and I’m not losing sleep about my future at all anymore.”

Understanding Caregiving from all Sides

He also feels great compassion for his patients, having been on both sides of the giving and receiving care spectrum. “Sometimes as nurses, we can be very task-oriented, but we have to remember that behind every patient ID number is somebody’s somebody. It may be their father, mother, brother, or sister, or spouse. We have to care for the person and not just the problem that brought them to the hospital,” he said. Having lost his mother 12 years ago to ovarian cancer and his father to gastric cancer two years ago while studying in his nursing program, Roh knows what he’s talking about, and it makes him a better caregiver.

Building Community

“My classmates at NU in my nursing cohort were so supportive during my dad’s final stretch,” he said. “We became a tight-knit group of friends and would do online study sessions together. We leaned on each other, and we kept each other going. We stay in touch to this day,” he said.

His connection to faculty was also personal, and good. “I found the instructors very approachable. I could reach out with a text anytime I had questions because they gave me their contact information. They also helped me with reference letters and my resume, and so many other things along the way that helped me get this great job at Kaiser Permanente.”

Grateful for his Parents’ Sacrifices

“I was at the commencement with my cohort, fellow students, my wife, brother, and my sister-in-law, and it was a fun experience,” he said nostalgically. “But I just wish my mom and dad could have been there. I wish I had done this years earlier so they could see that the sacrifices they made to bring me here to raise me with more opportunity was something I really took advantage of.”

They would no doubt be proud, and happy for their son’s joy because this is about more than career mobility for Roh. “I love my work. I feel needed. I come home from a 12-hour shift and tell my wife how great my day was. I wake up in the morning and as I’m heading into work, I

tell her how excited and happy I am to be qualified to do this work. I love being a nurse,” he said.

And what about that third-grade boy who wanted to be a teacher?

“I have discovered that one of many nursing pathways available is becoming a nurse educator,” he said. “How amazing would it be to be able to teach people, which I love doing, and help people as a nurse, which I love doing?” He’s starting to consider that for his next academic journey. But for now, Frank found his dream of a solid career helping people which brings him happiness and respect, as well as a great income. He and his wife are very happy.

Dr. Alexander Stevens Doctor of Philosophy in Technology and Innovation Management, Concentration in Data Science

Passionate Curiosity

Dr. Alexander Stevens embodies the passionate curiosity as described in author and New York Times columnist Adam Bryant’s book “Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed.” Bryant found that CEOs agreed that passionate curiosity was the top trait underlying successful leaders and described it as alert, awake, a willingness to engage with the world, and a desire to always know and learn more.

Dr. Stevens recently earned his PhD in Technology and Innovation Management with a Specialization in Artificial Intelligence from Northcentral University, now National University post-merger. His work earned him both dissertation and poster of the year awards. Faculty were proud that this was the first time one of their students in the School of Technology earned both awards.

He is publishing a paper on his work called TrAAIT – A Theory of Trust and Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence – a model to assess clinician trust in AI technology. Dr. Stevens is a senior technologist at the prestigious Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he co-creates digital solutions to help improve cancer research and care. From his PhD work, MSKCC plans to implement his TrAAIT model to evaluate AI solutions. Also, AMIA – the American Medical Informatics Association – accepted his podium abstract on the topic, so he’ll be speaking at their November symposium.

Have a conversation with Stevens on this, or quantum computing, population health, genomics, or a long list of other topics, and the electrical charge of his enthusiasm, intellect, and compelling desire to have a positive impact on his fellow humans will fill the room. Surprisingly, so will his humility and humor. His friendly, easy manner puts people at ease.

I wanted to be able to use my knowledge and my profession to bring others up – to impact their lives and help get their professional careers started.”

– Dr. Alexander Stevens

The Problem with Traditional Pathways

Thankfully, another attribute of his is persistence, or the world may not be benefitting from what he has to share intellectually, because the traditional pathways to education didn’t fit his lifestyle as a working adult with a young family. Early in his undergraduate career at Jacksonville University, he was studying physics and math, with both departments trying to fast-track him into their PhD programs before he had finished earning his bachelor’s degree. “The combination of physics and calculus just merged into this whole new way of seeing the world,” he said. “I looked at the universe in a different way when I was done with my classes there. I even looked at trees differently!”

Despite thriving in knowledge acquisition, he found balancing school within the traditional brickand-mortar facilities difficult with raising and supporting a family. “At the time, online education just didn’t exist. There were no night or weekend classes at that university. It was tough. I needed to take care of my family.” His educational pursuits were further complicated as he served in the Air Force for six years, accumulating many non-transferable college credits as he and his family moved countless times.

The Introduction of Online Learning

“In 2006, a recruiter from the University of Phoenix reached out to me,” he said. “At first, I thought it was going to be a correspondence study model but after researching what online education had developed into, I got excited. I remember telling the recruiter, ‘I am going to eat this thing alive. I am going to blow this away,’” as he leaped at the chance to make his dream of earning a degree come true. He recalls the rigor as ‘intense’ and studying online something that required deep commitment and time management. “I decided to pursue the Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering because when I had been studying physics at Jacksonville University, I

was writing my programs using visual basic and Q-basic type coding languages.” Except for a few A- or B+ grades, he made straight A’s.

Social Impact and Service

“After graduation, I wanted to be able to use this technology in service to mankind, so my first career track position was in healthcare,” he said. The company was deeply involved in the migration of paperbased healthcare records to the new, vastly more efficient, and protected electronic health record (EHR) model. Steven’s career took off. “I was moved up the organization very quickly,” he recalls. “The Chief Operating Officer and the CEO liked that I had the technical abilities on the engineering side but could also communicate effectively with executives and customers. It became a global position for me with work in the U.S., and the United Kingdom. I was responsible for the professional services and engineering team,” he said.

Stevens felt a desire to share knowledge with a greater number of people and decided to pursue a Master of Education in Adult Education and Training. “I wanted to be able to use my knowledge and my profession to bring others up – to impact their lives and help get their professional careers started.” Baker College reached out to see if he’d like an adjunct teaching position in Computer Science. “I accepted and it was fantastic. I loved teaching, and my students loved me. My students were great.” Stevens recalls the Dean coming to him about two students who wanted into the courses but whom the Dean

thought may not be ready. “One was a young man from India who had not mastered speaking English very well yet,” explains Stevens. “But we talked, and I discovered that his comprehension as well as his intelligence and curiosity were incredibly high. He did great and went on to start a very successful company automating testing for software. I’m so proud of him.” The other student also came in and succeeded under Stevens. “He had a speech impediment that made it seem he was struggling to speak, but again, his ability to think and act was extraordinary, and today that student is leading the information technology systems and management for a local mental health firm. “They stay in touch as do many others,” he said. “I love teaching because my ‘product’ has an impact that extends beyond space and time.” He says many former students see him as a mentor, and they learn together long after the class has concluded.

While still teaching at Baker College, a company reached out that he had previously applied to but at the time lacked a specific area of expertise. “They kept an eye on me and came back with a technologist role in healthcare location services working with clients including Stanford South Bay Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, among others. The solution he helped build and deploy was able to track a patient throughout their progression of care within the building complex. This precision ensures timely service and care while informing the right care team to be at each place at the right moment, improving both the patient and the provider experience. He made many friends and colleagues at the facilities he traveled to

including Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). Shortly after he finished the project at Memorial Sloan Kettering and began work in another state, he was emailed by the vice president of hospital administration inviting him to apply for a full-time position. “I didn’t pay it much attention at the time,” he said. “Nobel laureates are walking the hallways of MSK, I thought they were just being polite.” Two weeks later the VP contacted him again and this time Stevens applied, sailed through interviews, and began work at MSK. In addition to the impressive prestige and pay, MSKCC offered a strong tuition reimbursement program and Stevens had his mind set on earning a PhD The Chief Health Informatics Officer (CHIO) at MSK, Pete Stetson, helped mentor Stevens throughout the PhD journey, starting with thinking through what direction he wanted to take in his research.

Immersive Learning and Research

“I started my PhD program at Northcentral/National University at one of the busiest points in my life because, while implementing a huge location services technology, we also began our digital transformation journey. We hired a new Chief Digital Officer, but just before that, our CHIO charged us with bringing innovative ideas to the table. Every single class had direct applicability to my work life, benefitting me and helping the organization.”

“For example, I presented a machine-learning solution to improve exam room utilization. Another was a paper on an innovation

strategy that preceded yet mirrored our ultimate framework for digital transformation in health informatics, he said.”

“Imagine two vectors,” he begins. “One is my academic passions and one professional. For a lot of my life, they were in contrast and not aligned. During this PhD program, they completely aligned. I loved it and was so engaged!”

“My NU PhD experience at MSK was utterly immersive because of Pete’s (CHIO) mentorship. His guidance helped me choose my NU program, think about the topic from a clinician’s viewpoint, fund the research at MSK (an NCI grant), and connect with the right people. And he guided me through the distillation of my dissertation into a publishable work aimed at the medical community. That is a hearty investment in another’s life’s work,” said Stevens.

“Both my CHIO and the NU faculty were amazing,” he said. “I truly felt like I was the only student the faculty had. Everyone was so involved and helpful, my emails were answered quickly and thoughtfully.” He rates the whole experience as ‘the best.’

When he thinks about how it changed him as a human there was a significant life lesson. “It was such a humbling experience. You come to realize the full constellation of people that are contributing to enable

you to be a success. From my wife, daughter, and sons to my incredible professors including Dr. Hildebrand, Dr. Tribby, and Dr. Kavya, to my remarkable leaders at MSK, so many people made sacrifices. So many people willingly made investments with their time, their talents, and their love to help me succeed. When I think about my 30+ years of professional experience, 18 in healthcare and eight at MSK, the most transformative period was the last few years because of my NU program, committee, professors, administration, and immersive MSK research experience,“ he said.

Sharing Knowledge

He also gained some deep learnings about AI. “I came to understand the essence of all AI, especially in healthcare, is the human. This has to be about human-centered, technology-supported processes,” he said. This led to Stevens inventing the TRAAIT Model. “It places clinicians right at the center and works to understand their interaction with the intelligent agent, and the aspects of the traits of AI trustworthiness as they make judgment calls on that. I’m able to determine their level of acceptance of that particular AI tool.” His work can profoundly impact AI acceptance and efficacy in healthcare. “I want to make sure that as we deploy my model at MSK, we learn from it. Outside of MSK, I want to write about this and speak at conferences and symposiums to inspire further studies by other researchers at other institutions to test the model and take it to task,” he said.

And despite this dizzying array of activity and success, another goal is blipping on Steven’s radar. “I had such an amazing experience with my PhD program. I would like to find myself teaching at National University to have a positive impact on the future,” he said. Thinking of ways to have a positive impact is just how he engages with the world. He cites a quote he keeps handy at his desk by Albert Einstein, “Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value. When you aim to provide value for others, success is inevitable.”

Michael Severi Master of Arts in Human Behavioral Psychology

Early Career Start

While other 19-year-old college peers were spending evenings at pubs in the Sacramento area, Mike Severi was spending time at homicide scenes. Starting a career track early, Severi, now in his mid-30s, has been with the Sacramento Police for 18 years and currently serves as a Sergeant of the Violent Crime Reduction Team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 2008. He knew as soon as he graduated that he wanted to go back to graduate school, but 14 years passed before he acted on that goal, recently earning a Master of Arts in Human Behavioral Psychology from National University.

“I wasn’t a great student in high school and college,” he said. “I had my job which had a career track, so to me, school was just something I had to do. But after graduating with my bachelor’s degree and gaining life experience, I began to think about a graduate degree. I didn’t know if I could do it academically, and that caused me to hold myself back from it for years,” he said. He shopped multiple degree programs, from the

public policy degree some peers in the Police Department had to many other programs, and none piqued his interest until he discovered the course descriptions for an MA in Human Behavioral Psychology.

From Doubt to Determination

Deciding to enroll and take the initial step wasn’t easy for Severi, who was concerned about having so many years out of school. “I finally decided to commit to taking just the first class, and decided, well if I fail, at least I’ll know I tried, and it won’t be something I think about all the time anymore.” To his happy surprise, quite the opposite occurred. Severi quickly found himself shining as an exemplary student in the program, getting A’s on every assignment and paper, and winning the admiration of his professors who have called him ‘insightful’, an ‘enlightening writer’, and a ‘favorite student’.

“Just reading the course descriptions was exciting to me and looked immediately applicable to my life and my career,” said Severi. “Take

Organizational Behavior… no matter where you are in your career you likely have a supervisor, and you may also have subordinates you supervise. Every course looked like it had something I could learn from and take into my life, as well as opportunities to share my life experiences in course discussions and papers.” And that’s exactly how it turned out.

Bringing Life Experience to the Learnings

He attributes part of his success to being in the right program at the right time in his life. “I think it’s different once you go out and experience some of life,” he said. “I was so interested and engaged. I could relate to what I was learning.”

Building Tolerance and Empathy

And learn he did. One of the high points in that journey was getting the full 360º view of human behavior which brought him to new depths in empathy and tolerance. “It was all a great learning experience, but between the research, the readings, and the discussions with the other students, this program opened my eyes to how much we all don’t think the same. I knew that before, but I see that now with the understanding of viewing things from another person’s perspective. Just because someone doesn’t feel the same as you do doesn’t mean they are wrong. It also doesn’t mean you’re necessarily wrong,” he said. “These days, it sometimes seems like everyone is at war and if we could all just look at both sides of everything and respect each

other, things would be much better. That’s part of being in a free country – respecting all of these different individual viewpoints and backgrounds.” He thinks the ability to look at life and people through many, often differing lenses, can be a tremendous boost to his role as supervisor in the Police Department, and in his deeply committed service to his community.

Seeing the Value of Education

He has since gone on to recommend the master’s degree program to many colleagues in the Police Department. “We have a pay incentive for getting a bachelor’s degree, but there’s no pay incentive for the master’s,” he explains. “I see the reasoning behind the bachelor’s – learning critical thinking and communication, but the work in this master’s program makes us better leaders. Anytime you further your education you’re going to better yourself first and foremost, but by doing so, you’re really bettering humanity. The more that we’re educated, the more we have the understanding and tools to make our world a lot better.”

“In our job, we work in a big city, and we deal with crime. There’s often an ‘us vs them’ mentality where we can feel like we are in the minority, by far,” he said. “There can be polarization and tension. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s just understanding that the people we encounter don’t feel the same way we do, and that doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. We have to understand that, and we have to be able to still do our job while also understanding that not everyone comes from the

same place.” Severi attributes his increased empathy to what he learned in the master’s program. “We need to work to see things from an even bigger picture than what can be learned in an undergraduate program.”

“Every single person on this team is striving every day to be a leader, no matter their role or title. I think it would help immensely if everyone had a master’s degree. I certainly recommend it a lot to my co-workers. It’s easy to think you’ve been out too long since your undergraduate work, which may not have been stellar given your life experiences at that time. I remind them of how intimidated I was and tell them to just ‘rip the Band-Aid’ and enroll.”

Support Systems at Home

In addition to him finding the curriculum highly relevant, he also attributes a significant part of his success to his wife. “My wife, and even my little kids, have been incredibly supportive. She took the kids when I had papers due. She protected my study time. My schedule was all over the place and sometimes papers were due on Wednesdays, other times on Sundays.

She was there taking care of everything that needed to happen so when I got home from work, I could keep my workspace door shut and think in a quiet space, which isn’t easy with a 4-year-old and a 6-yearold. I could not have succeeded without her,” he said.

Anytime you further your education you’re going to better yourself first and foremost, but by doing so, you’re really bettering humanity. The more that we’re educated, the more we have the understanding and tools to make our world a lot better.”

– Michael Severi

He also appreciates her willingness to accept the financial commitment he made when that money might have been used for other purposes. “We’re married and share a bank account, and she completely 100% supported my writing a check each month for this graduate program, so I’m graduating with no debt. She sees the value and understands why I wanted this. She’s very educated and has a Juris Doctor. It’s exciting to think that while prior generations like my parents did not complete college, my kids will be able to say both parents have graduate educations,” he said. “My wife, however, is very quick to point out that I only have a master’s degree and she has a law degree,” he laughed.

Balancing Life’s Priorities

He thinks his children gained a work ethic for their schoolwork by watching him do the work in his program. “At first, they were baffled why I was doing homework when I was a grown-up. They thought it was funny. They’re young, but I think it had a positive impact.” I could not have done this without all of them and the constant emotional support my wife gave me.” That help with work-life balance allowed Severi to continue to coach Little League, work full-time in a highimpact, high-stress job, and make straight A’s through his master’s degree program.

He enjoyed his instructors and had his favorite professor for three courses. “She was tough but great. I learned so much from her courses.” He acknowledges it was hard work, with lots of reading, writing, and research, but it helped that he found relevance in almost every course. “There was one outlier I couldn’t get into, but I loved all the rest! I can’t tell you how many classes I talked or wrote about my experiences as a parent, or coach, or my work as a supervisor on the police force. It’s

all

human behavior.”

Today, speaking with a clear, calm, and confident voice he expresses how glad he is that he faced his fear of failure and decided to just try and see what would happen. What happened was a remarkable student finding his place in the right program and achieving tremendous success for himself, his family, and his community.

A Voice for Hope

Samantha Valenzuela Bachelor of Arts in Management, Concentration in Human Resources Management

“I want to be a voice of hope. I want to be part of helping people change their lives for the better.” This is how recent National University graduate Samantha Valenzuela expresses her career ambitions. Recently earning a Bachelor of Arts in Management with a concentration in Human Resource Management, Valenzuela originally thought she was going into human resources. “I always wanted to help people, so I thought going into human resources and helping people with their career and bettering the work environment was a great pathway,” she said. “But once I finished my degree, I realized I want to help people on a more individual level and am now working on a master’s degree in counseling,” she said.

Part of her calling to help others comes from being raised by her police officer father, but also from her own experiences. “I was a teen mom, and I want to help other teen moms reach for their education and chase their dreams. There’s a misconception, I think, that you must

choose between either being a mom or choosing a career, and I want to be part of changing that mindset,” she said.

Changing Life Plans

She admits she felt her world cave in when, as an honor student in high school working hard to be scholarship material so she could afford to go to college, she instead found herself graduating high school with a six-month-old baby girl. “I thought I would be a statistic. I thought my dreams were shattered. I thought a degree was something I wasn’t going to get to achieve.”

She found a night job so her mom could watch her infant while it slept, and for a while, she tried community college, but it wasn’t working. “It’s really hard raising a kid when you are not quite finished being one,” she said. But then two events occurred that changed her life. First, she married her now husband when her daughter was two and he encouraged Valenzuela to reach for her dreams, including college.

Second, a friend told her about National University and how the format of 4-week online courses might be just what she needed.

Facing the Fear

“I was so scared. I did very well in high school, but I knew college was going to be another ball game. But my advice to anyone like me is to take that first baby step and pick up the phone and call. Just call and ask about a program that’s of interest to you. Then try one class, you do not have to give up on your dreams. This is possible.” she said. She liked that she could tailor her university work to her life. “My advice to anyone is to go at your own pace. I was judging my life based on all my friends who had finished college before me, and it’s easy to get in your head and put yourself down,” she said. “But at the end of the day, this is your journey and your dream, and you have to do it your way. It’s not a race. Figure out what works for you. I think with social media it’s easy to over compare ourselves to others. Just focus on yourself and the work you need to get done so you can feel good about where you are in your program and your own unique life.”

For Valenzuela that meant taking NU options for the one-month courses, one at a time, back-to-back every four weeks until she got some good momentum and confidence, and then she took the month break off between classes every so often that National University allows students. “That short break gave me some grace to take care of myself, my life, and my kids for a month, and then I’d just jump right

back in,” she said. Her husband works full time and Samantha homeschools their two children. Her daughter is now seven, and she and her husband have a son who is two, so it’s a busy household. “After each course, my confidence grew and grew, and I came to realize that my past didn’t have to define my future, you know my past is not my identity,” she said.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

Another valuable lesson Valenzuela learned is to ask for help. “I encourage other students to ask for help. There’s so much available. I was applying for the FAFSA federal financial aid, and I had a notebook full of questions. I got an appointment with the NU Financial Aid Office, and they were amazing. They just walked me through each step and didn’t think any of my questions were stupid.” That financial aid along with an impressive scholarship helped make Valenzuela’s college affordable. “I thought at first it would be too expensive, but when you get in and you look at it, it wasn’t bad. There are a lot of options to help with the finances.”

She thanks Patricia Cardozo in the Student Engagement Office who helped in many ways, but most importantly told her about a new scholarship among the many that National University offers. It was the Horatio Alger-Denny Sandford Scholarship Program and Valenzuela ended up among the ten students selected for the first cohort. The students in the cohort were selected because of their drive to

After each course, my confidence grew and grew, and I came to realize that my past didn’t have to define my future.”

– Samantha Valenzuela

pursue education to help their communities despite having faced adversities themselves. The scholarship provided her $25,000 over three years.

Building Belonging

She also asked for help with her studies. “Oh absolutely, yes use the services. I used the writing center just to get feedback on my direction while I was starting papers.” Samantha’s work was stellar with her graduating with a 3.9 GPA. “Anytime I was struggling with an assignment, or I just needed clarity, I just emailed my professor with questions, and they would get right back to me. They were all super approachable and helpful,” she said. “I loved that I could do some studying in the morning, then again in the afternoon and night. I loved that the lectures were available online whenever I needed them.”

She found support and a sense of belonging in seeing other students online in her courses who were working and raising families. In the courses in her major students were often working in small virtual teams with on-camera meetings. “I loved the face-to-face (camera on) aspects and getting to know the other students. I would see them and think, if they can do this, then so can I. It helped to keep me focused and motivated.” She also continually credits her incredible support from her number one cheerleader, her husband. “He is my rock. I could not have done this without him supporting this dream,” she said. She reminds others that support systems might exist in family, friends, and work colleagues, and urges them to look around and find someone or some people to be there for support.

Attending Commencement

Three generations joined to watch Valenzuela as she crossed the stage at commencement. Her daughter was there cheering for her and telling her she was so proud of her. Her husband, her son, her mother, and her father were all there, and according to Valenzuela, there was not a dry eye in the bunch. How did it feel for her? “I just felt this huge… sorry, I’m trying not to get emotional… I just want to tell so many other young people who find themselves in a situation where they think they can’t do it, that they can,” she said, biting back tears. “I want to look them in the eyes and tell them, ‘If I can do this so can you’. I want them to know their dream is achievable no matter what the circumstances. Don’t give up. Take the first step.”

What’s Next

“I want to bring hope and light to people’s lives. My sister struggled with mental illness and two members of my larger family were lost to suicide, so I understand how important this work is. I want to show people there’s hope and a way to a better future that they might not see at that moment. I think if we really put our minds to it and we work together as a community we can help each other all reach our dreams,” she said.

She’s specifically interested in helping other teen moms keep their dreams alive and hopes to be volunteering at a pregnancy center near her home where she can help other soon-to-be young mothers with goal setting, parenting skills, and life coaching. “Once I am eventually licensed, I would like to work there full-time,” she said.

Thinking about those girls and where she was at that age, what advice might she offer? “I’d say, ‘This is going to be hard. Really hard. But you can do it, and it’s going to be worth the work so don’t give up on yourself, don’t give up on your dreams. It’s possible to live your dreams.’”

She’s certainly living proof of that.

Jessica Ward

Juris Doctor

Finding her Calling

Sometimes in life, a person finds their calling through a happy, serendipitous moment. Other times, it is a light that comes peeping through cracks in the darkness when, as the saying goes, necessity becomes the mother of invention.

For Jessica Ward, who recently earned her Juris Doctorate from National University, her first encounter with the law and legal jargon was fighting for custody of her son as a young single mother 20 years ago. Back then, she needed a lawyer, and could not afford one. The right to an attorney in the U.S. only extends to criminal law. Although she was the primary caregiver for the child, the baby’s father had secured a lawyer and Ward was seriously at risk of losing custody of her child.

Helping Others

Today, she has her law degree, and recently sat for the bar exam. While she waits on the results to be licensed as an attorney, she is clarifying her goals which include opening a practice focused on estate planning and probate law. She also plans to dedicate a significant portion of her time to pro bono work helping economically challenged mothers and fathers with their custody cases. She may also create a non-profit to support that work.

The stakes were high, as were Ward’s resilience and determination. After months of back and forth, there was a court hearing, and the judge awarded her custody. Later, the opposing attorney conceded that she had defended well in her writing and in presenting her case. Ward kept custody of her son. “It’s crazy to think about now,” she said. “At the time there was so much emotional stress I didn’t think about all the research, writing, and paperwork I was doing; I just knew I had to keep fighting.” That spark lit a fire in Ward that slowly kindled over the next two decades to what is now a raging flame of career purpose.

I feel like I’m more confident. I feel like I’m where I should be, and I’m finally living up to my full potential. I think that’s what’s coming through when I’m around people now. I’m finally exactly where I’ve always really wanted to be.”

– Jessica Ward

Ward’s career path has been a trajectory of discovery where new skills and abilities come to the surface with each job role change.

Finding Her Talents

Out of high school, she started working for a land surveying company and discovered she had business acumen within signature skills managing books, running day-to-day operations, and much more.

She met and married her husband while working there. She began to think about college and started taking general education classes toward a long-term goal of a bachelor’s degree while working and raising her son. “My husband has been incredibly supportive from the beginning,” said Ward. “I just kept taking one class at a time and once I had several, I transferred into a paralegal program at Cal State and got that credential,” she said.

Prowess at Law

“Then a real turning point in my career occurred in 2008,” she said. “I was working typing from transcription in a law firm, and I started to question what I was reading. The arguments didn’t make sense.” But Ward’s then supervisor, the law firm’s office manager, made clear she didn’t want Ward thinking, she wanted her typing. So, Ward chose to leave, but before she did, she let the managing attorney know about the problems she was seeing. In a surprisingly bold move, she let that attorney know she would be open to a conversation if he ever opened up the office manager position to someone new and wanted to take a chance on her. He called her back two months later and offered her the job as the firm’s manager. “I really cleaned house, fixed all the broken processes, and worked very closely with the firm’s lawyers. I put a lot of systems in place and found out that in addition to being good at business operations, I had a knack for law,” she

said. At this time she earned her bachelor’s degree, completing the undergraduate program in 2010. She stayed with the firm for several years, leaving in 2016 which led to her opening her own business as a registered legal document assistant in 2018. In that capacity, she had to use extreme caution to not offer legal advice to her clients but strictly assist with document preparation. She found herself frustrated when she couldn’t help her clients in a more meaningful way when they needed an attorney because she was not licensed to practice law. The dream of law school was now front and center in her mind.

Pursuing the Big Dream

“And then along came COVID,” said Ward. “It seemed a good time to pursue a degree, so I looked at National University and compared it to a traditional brick-and-mortar law school. The traditional school was literally double the cost. I went and talked to JFK School of Law Dean Lisa Hutton and asked about entering law school.” Hutton provided great mentorship and advice and soon Ward was applying and being accepted to law school.

Critical Time Management and Support

A self-described “Type A” personality, Ward initially set her goal as ‘survive law school.’ Instead, she not only survived, but thanks to her tenacity and intellect, she thrived. She credits her support team of husband, son, and mother for constantly helping her stay focused on the goal. “My husband and son are both very calm and logical,” she

explained. “I am emotional and worry about everything. So, they talked me into a better place when I worried over tests and paper grades.” Her mother is a huge inspiration for her. Growing up, her mom was a single mom who had left an abusive relationship with Ward’s father. This caused her to drop out of high school but once Ward and her brother were in high school, her mother began work on her GED. Today her mom has earned a Master of Science in Social Work degree and has dedicated her work to helping women who are in destructive and dangerous relationships find a way to better lives. “She’s been incredibly supportive of my law school dream and was always there to listen and provide emotional support,” said Ward.

“Law school is really hard,” explained Ward. “Every week each class is going to assign you anywhere from 30-100 pages of reading, and in addition to reading, you must recall all of that, so I became an excellent note-taker. I used the available NU resources from the writing coaches to professors and teaching assistants. You must ask for help,” said Ward. By her second year she not only became more comfortable with the process, but she also excelled in her studies. She progressed so well that she became a teaching assistant. She found she loved helping other students grasp the subjects and reason through the readings and continued to be a TA throughout her law school program. She is thinking of teaching part-time in addition to her law practice once licensed.

Prepare and Reality Check

Her advice to anyone wanting to become an attorney? “I think they have to do a soul check, a life check, and a support check,” she said. “Is this the right time? You want to be sure you have the timing right and a support system in place before you start so you don’t lose momentum once you get going. You don’t want to have to stop out. Who will help care for the family? Can you get some help with the house or grocery shopping? Meal preparation takes time, can you save time there with delivery?” She advises finding pockets of time to cobble together to make the time studies are going to need. You might have the dream, but you must get yourself ready. I had the best support system possible with my logical and calm husband and son, and my empathetic mom who was always ready to listen and support. They kept me balanced and focused on that next goal or assignment.”

Living up to Her Full Potential

Ward feels changed by the experience. In addition to seeing both sides of things now more clearly, she is experiencing a deep change that folks are noticing. “My best friend who has known me since I was 14 saw me recently and said something was different about me. I asked her what it was, and she said I seemed more confident. She’s right. I feel like I’m more confident. I feel like I’m where I should be, and I’m finally living up to my full potential. I think that’s what’s coming through when I’m around people now. I’m finally exactly where I’ve always really wanted to be.”