Richard W. Oliver - CEO, Interim Provost
Mary Adams - President
Phillip R. Ash - Dean, Technology and Business Programs
Jeff Caplan - Dean, Strategic Enrollment Management
Paul J. Capicik - VP, Military Programs
Mary Howard - CFO
Natalie Nixon - VP, Admissions
Catherine Garner - Dean, Health and Human Services
Jeremy A. Leonard - Chief Economist
Richard W. Oliver - CEO, Interim Provost
Dr. Oliver is CEO of American Sentinel University and serves on the faculty. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, and was for several years a Visiting Professor of Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
Previously, as a full time professor he taught strategic and global management courses at Vanderbilt OGSM and received the 1997 Outstanding Professor Award and the Teaching Award of the Dean.
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 serves as an editorial reviewer for two academic journals. Earlier, he worked at Nortel Networks for 16 years where he was Vice President of Marketing. He currently serves on several corporate Boards. He has 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 16 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 the Chair of the Distance Education and Training Council (a Washington, D.C.-based global leader in distance learning accreditation) 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. She received her BA from California State University Fullerton and MBA from ISIM University.
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Phillip R. Ash - Dean, Technology and Business Programs
Dr. Ash is a Dean of Business Programs at American Sentinel University. He is the founder of eLearning and Development. He has developed more than fifty online courses for distance learning universities, provided consulting services on curriculum development, taught several online MBA courses, as well as undergraduate business courses, and written five digital books.
Previously he was the Managing Director of Change Management, Greater China, for Andersen Consulting (now called Accenture Consulting). For nearly twenty years he provided strategy and change management consulting services to companies like Coca-Cola, Burger King, Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, Tenneco, LG Electronics, HP, Telex Computer Products, and China American Petroleum Company. He has a BS from William Jewell College, MBA from Drake University and Ph.D. from University of Missouri.
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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 and Human Services
Dr. Garner has over 20 years Senior Executive experience in academia and healthcare organizations. She has authored over 20 publications, delivered numerous professional presentations, and has received numerous awards for contributions to innovative educational approaches. She has held executive positions in three publicly traded companies with skills in strategic negotiations, operations, cash flow management, and reorganization.
Dr. Garner has an extensive knowledge of internet technology application to education and career development. She has a wide-ranging national and international consulting experience on nursing education, including the People's Republic of China in 2004 and Honduras, Central America in 2002.
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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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