Tom Sechrest:  

I was one of the few from the 1967 class who went to FSU for my undergraduate work. While in Tallahassee, I was one of the founders of the FSU Chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. I was very active in the fraternity, eventually becoming President in my senior year. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Psychology, and minors in Chemistry and Art History. I continued at FSU for my Master's degree, studying instructional design for educational television. After graduation, I started my own business in educational and industrial television. In 1976, I moved to Atlanta, where I had a couple of major contracts and was closer to my work. I was privileged to do contract work with both PBS and with Don Kirshner's Rock Concerts, filming concerts with some of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. One of my contracts was with the U.S. Department of Labor, which hired me full-time in the 80s as a television producer/director to develop training films, public service messages and to do training. This spun into responsibilities for management and leadership assessment and development nationwide. In mid-career, I left USDOL and moved to Austin Texas to work on my Ph.D. in Human Resource Development Leadership at The University of Texas at Austin. While at UT I was a teaching assistant, and coordinated international conferences across the world, including Germany, Russia, Egypt, Israel, England and Denmark. While at UT, I was inducted into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. When I had completed my coursework, I joined Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) where I worked for seven years in Corporate Leadership & Succession Planning as well as organization development. My doctoral dissertation was about how leaders learn to become leaders in the semiconductor industry. I began teaching at St. Edward's University as a contingent faculty member in 2001. When I left AMD in 2003, I became the Faculty Chair for Leadership Austin, the premiere community leadership development program in Central Texas. I joined the tenure-track faculty of the Business School at St. Edward's in 2005. A couple of years later I was appointed Associate Dean with responsibility for School operations and academic programs. I served a year as Interim Dean in 2013-2014 and was granted tenure at the end of that year. I was inducted into Delta Mu Delta, the Business Honor Society, in recognition of my work in support of the business school and its students. I was a visiting professor at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, in 2004 and again in 2010. I also was a visiting professor at Universidad DaVinci in Monterrey, Mexico in 2008. Currently, I am Professor of Human Development & Leadership, and serve as Director of the Master of Science in Organiza...Expand for more