Jeffery W. McElroy, Ed.D.

As the Associate Director of the Sandage Center for the Study of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship from 2008 to 2015, I had the opportunity to attend annual national conferences and exchange ideas with colleagues from all across the nation. This position also enabled me to work with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development department to develop a new loan brochure, fact sheet, and borrower’s application along with an updated grant approval.

 

Scholars’ Showcase is an event that I am especially proud of as I have been involved with the event since its inception in the spring of 2009 and was the committee chair from 2010 to 2017. Under my leadership, this event has grown from a handful of presenters the first year to well over 100 presenters and in 2016, Scholars’ Showcase grew to an all-day event and with no classes to compete with; the event had record attendance estimated to be over 500 students and faculty making it one of the largest one-day events on campus. Although I am no longer leading this great event, I continue to be engaged by ensuring that my students participate via attendance and presenting final projects.

 

Service is my thing. Over the years at Graceland I’ve had the opportunity to serve on many committees ranging from faculty compensation, executive hiring, quality, and Scholar’s Showcase. My professional service has run the gamut from leading and expanding the internship program for the Sandage School of Business to assisting with our award winning Enactus team. I assist the admissions department by meeting with prospective students and parents both on and off campus. In the spring of 2015, I developed a student assessment and program review survey and a follow up summary overview for the Dean of the C.H. Sandage School of Business to help us continue to improve. This is now done on an annual basis and was commended by the Vice President for Institution Effectiveness as a great example for HLC. 

 

I wish I had more time for community service. I did find time to lead the “Save the Caboose” project that kept the local caboose from being sold for scrap and instead it now has a nice new exterior and a sign describing the history of the railroad in Lamoni. We continue to perform annual maintenance and weeding. My wife and I were also responsible for all the events for the 4th of July which included a dog show, parade, car & tractor show, community cookout, and a band.

 

Helping students is key to the university’s success and something I really enjoy. Because I have the training and experience, I help students with their car repairs when they need it. With my background in business, it just came naturally for me to use my connections there to help students gain valuable internships and jobs. Probably like many professors, I give students advice about life in general which can range from how a 401k works to where do I get my haircut. I even fixed one student’s motorized wheel chair charger when she came to class and the battery died. Professors advise students on classes to take but I take that one step farther by making up a graduation plan for each student with all the classes laid out in a spreadsheet by semester so the student knows what they need to take and when they will actually graduate. Finally, one of my favorite service activities is my wife and I being house parents for Stewart Manor. We hold several activities at our house including a fall bonfire and a super bowl party. We even take them snacks for finals week.  

 

Personal attributes like being a doer and an achiever help me keep up with all that is going on in my life. Students mention in reviews and in person that I am caring, compassionate, helpful and fun. I am also a process person. Since I was little I have been able to look at a process and quickly understand it and how to make it better. This helps me improve key processes in my classes and at Graceland overall. I am willing to take chances, be courageous and do what is ethically and morally right. I am organized in the classroom and in my office which helps me keep up with all the scheduling challenges involved with experiential learning. Of course my years of experience in management in corporate America enable me to relate real-world examples about the topics being studied. While not a personal attribute, I will say that I love my job and at this point in my life, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

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Based on my 20+ years of corporate leadership experience, my teaching experience, and my EdD in Educational Leadership; in the spring of 2018, President Draves asked me to be the Dean for the C.H. Sandage School of Business. I immediately set out to develop a strong working relationship between the C.H. Sandage School of Business and the administration.

 

In my role as Dean, I set three primary goals for the School of Business: To increase growth, efficiency, and student satisfaction. These are the same initiatives that were incorporated in NVO. Today, the C.H. Sandage School of Business is the largest school on the Lamoni campus and has the number 1 and number 3 majors. One growth initiative was to develop partnerships with area community colleges and make it easier for them to transfer to Graceland. To do this, I developed new Transfer Guide brochures (see below for examples) for each major that were unique to that specific community college. To help with recruiting, I also developed a full color 32-page prospective student brochure (see below for examples) that included faculty pictures/bios, statements from recent graduates, 4 year plans for majors and double majors, experiential learning, etc. and I implemented a process where all students that are accepted to Graceland with a major in the School of Business are sent handwritten cards from the business faculty. I am also working with Advancement to identify growth areas for funding. 

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Spring 2020, I formed the SkillPath Graceland Synergies team that included leadership from both organizations. Our goal was to produce increased revenue & efficiencies (additional focus on short term) by sharing project information, expanding our partnerships, and focusing on synergies. Examples of partnerships that have come out of this team are:

1. Increased sales of SkillPath leadership programs because of review and approval by Graceland. Companies are more impressed because the programs are backed by a university.

2. Implementation of Leadership Academy at Graceland (both campuses) for students and staff.

This team continues to meet regularly to drive increased revenue and efficiencies.

 

For the 20-21 and 21-22 school years, I took on the additional responsibility of leading Career Services for the Lamoni campus which included a total rework of the Career Services website and career/internship fairs.

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In the fall of 2021, I led the School of Business to immediately implement the NVO priorities of streamlining all majors to 36 hours while ensuring that they were exactly what our students needed, and identifying scaffolded learning outcomes. In spring 2022, I developed new 4-year plans for all majors and completed the growth plan for the School of Business that included: Holistic Growth, Recruit Incoming Students overall & by major, Retention overall & by major, Net Revenue, Student Satisfaction, Additional Metrics Needed, Faculty Holistic Growth Needs 2021-24, Summary, and Detailed Appendix.

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As Dean, I also oversee the online business program. This includes updating majors to meet NVO, assisting with promotion of the program, promotional materials, evaluation of instructors, state approvals, developing a 1 year completion option, rotation schedules for majors, hiring instructors, and more.

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For summer 2022, I took on hiring four new faculty for the School of Business. This was the largest number of new hires in many years. I am excited to report that we hired outstanding faculty, increased our diversity dramatically, and for the first time in many years, all of our full-time faculty have doctorates. I also took on the new-student academic advising for the entire School of Business which included advising over 100 students, scheduling their classes, and attending early orientation sessions to meet with students and their families.