Management Team


Richard W. Oliver - CEO
Mary Adams - President
Jeff Caplan - Dean, Strategic Enrollment Management
Paul J. Capicik - VP, Military Programs
Mary Howard - CFO
Natalie Nixon - VP, Admissions
Catherine Garner - Dean, Health Professions, Acting Provost
Jeremy A. Leonard - Chief Economist

Richard W. Oliver - CEO

/Dr. Oliver is CEO of American Sentinel University and serves on the faculty. Previously, he was a professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University where he taught strategy and global management. While at Vanderbilt, he received the Outstanding Professor Award and a Dean's Teaching Award. For several years, he served as a Visiting Professor of Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. The author of numerous books, book chapters and journal articles about management, technology and education, Dr. Oliver has lectured around the world on these topics and served as an editorial reviewer for two academic journals. Prior to his academic career, he worked at Nortel Networks for 16 years where he was Vice President of Marketing. He currently serves on several corporate Boards, and for several years served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Symmetricom, Inc., a high tech telecom company. He holds a BS from Cornell University, a MA from the University of Delaware and a PhD from the State University of New York.

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Mary Adams - President

/Mary Adams has over 20 years of executive and operations experience in distance and online learning. Prior to joining American Sentinel University she served as president of Aspen University. She is a Commissioner of the Accrediting Commission of the Chair of the Distance Education and Training Council (a Washington, D.C.-based global leader in distance learning accreditation) former chair of the Research and Education Standards Committee and has chaired more than 30 accreditation visits. Ms. Adams is a recipient of both a 1999 Distinguished Service award and a 2003 Distinguished Recognition award and co-authored the 2005 occasional paper: Part-Time Faculty: Building a Quality Team. Ms. Adams also serves on the board of Provost Academy Colorado, approved to begin enrolling students in 2010. She received her BA from California State University Fullerton and MBA from ISIM University.

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Jeff Caplan - Dean, Strategic Enrollment Management

/Jeff Caplan recently joined our team as Dean, Strategic Enrollment Management, and is responsible for attracting and recruiting students to American Sentinel University. Jeff is a strategic business leader with a background in healthcare and a variety of other markets. He brings with him senior level strategic business development as well as sales leadership experience with fast-growing entrepreneurial companies, primarily focused on healthcare information and healthcare services. Previously he led product development and marketing as Executive Vice President for a specialty healthcare media company. Prior to that he was part of a start-up team for a healthcare electronic exchange between hospitals and suppliers as Vice President Marketing and Product Management. Earlier, he spent 15 years with DuPont leading a variety of businesses and functions. Jeff earned an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BS from Rutgers University.

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Paul J. Capicik - VP, Military Programs

/Paul Capicik is a 26 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, was a command pilot qualified in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and held several strategic and operational plans and program positions. Following AF retirement in 1993, he spent over 12 years with Civil Air Patrol serving as director of several departments, as well as was the chief information officer for that nationwide 60,000 member organization. He has joined the American Sentinel University staff to foster growth and enhancement in the military segment of our programs. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado with a Bachelors in Mathematics, and from Webster University, St Louis MO with a Masters in Information Technology Resource Management.

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Mary Howard - CFO

/Mary Howard is an innovative leader with experience in education and healthcare. During her career she has helped a number of rapidly growing organizations, assisting them in operations and financing, from start-up to public stock offerings. Previously, she was CFO with several healthcare organizations and earlier was CFO, and then CEO for Frontline Group, Inc. Prior to that she was CEO of Explore, Inc. a provider of after-school academic enrichment programs for children; and EVP of Finance for Corporate Child Care (now Bright Horizons Family Solutions) that managed employer sponsored childcare centers. She received her BS from Indiana University.

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Natalie Nixon - VP, Admissions

/Natalie Nixon has worked in distance education since 1990. She currently serves as Vice President of Admissions. Her first role as International Program Director was opening recruiting centers around the world. She has held positions as admissions advisor and Director of Admissions. Natalie earned her BBA from Roanoke College in Virginia.

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Catherine Garner - Dean, Health Professions, Acting Provost

/Catherine Garner, Dean of Health Professions at American Sentinel, is one of nursing's greatest innovators. She helped to found the specialty of Infertility Nursing, becoming the first international in vitro fertilization nurse coordinator. She created the United State's first not-for-profit Women's Research Center for one of the nation's largest heath care systems, Hospital Corporation of America. She wrote the first textbook on menopause and founded the nation's first Menopause/ Women's Health Center at Northwestern Medical Center. She established the first OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner Education Program and the first private hospital in Honduras. Her program has since been replicated throughout Central America. Dean Garner comes to American Sentinel University from the International University of Nursing on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts/ Nevis, where she was Provost / Dean of an international nursing program. She is a graduate of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship Program and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She has been a consultant in Central America, the People's Republic of China, Germany and Canada.

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Jeremy A. Leonard - Chief Economist

/Jeremy Leonard is the Chief Economist at American Sentinel University with responsibility for research that impacts students and their careers. He is founder and president of Andromeda Consulting Economics, based in Montreal, Quebec. Andromeda offers a wide variety of economic consulting services focused on market analyses of high-tech industries such as computers and software, telecommunications and biotechnology, as well as analyses of the sources of innovation and productivity growth. Mr. Leonard has extensive previous experience in these areas of research. From 1997 to 1999, he was an economist with the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, where he directed a major survey of the impact of Internet technologies on large U.S. manufacturing corporations, prepared market analyses of the information technology and pharmaceutical industries, and wrote reports on telecommunications deregulation and related policy issues. He periodically speaks before the Alliance's Council groups on the economics of electronic commerce and investment in information technology equipment. Prior to his full-time affiliation with MAPI, Mr. Leonard held research posts at the Institute for Research on Public Policy (Montreal) and the Committee for Economic Development (Washington, DC). Fluent in English and French, Mr. Leonard earned a BA in Philosophy magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and an MA summa cum laude in Economics from McGill University in 1996.

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