PRO TIP
CSU Global faculty enrich courses with their professional experience
By Anthony Lane | Photography by Vance Jacobs | Sept. 23, 2024
Eric Williams knows the business of health care. He has a doctorate in public health. And beyond his academic credentials, Williams has real-world experience: During two decades serving in the U.S. Army, he coordinated medical care for soldiers at a military hospital in Germany; he tracked customer problems for insurance provider Blue Cross Blue Shield; and he spent eight years as an analyst and business manager at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
That bio would strike just about anyone as solid.
For many CSU Global students, Williams’ industry experience also provides a wellspring of knowledge drawn from the working world. For seven years, he has been a faculty member teaching health care administration and management – and his professional experience enriches his course instruction.
“I think of my role as an educator and mentor as being a conduit between the textbook and real-world experiences,” Williams said. “I tell students all the time that textbook scenarios are always solvable. But in real life, you’re going to have staffing shortages, financial shortages, and supply shortages. How do you deal with that?”
Williams is not alone at CSU Global, the nation’s first fully online public university with fully accredited degree programs. Professional expertise and industry work experience are the standards among CSU Global faculty. They number more than 500 and teach undergraduate and graduate courses in high-demand fields, such as accounting, project management, criminal justice, and cybersecurity. Not only that, virtually all the university’s faculty members hold doctorates or equivalent advanced degrees in their fields – ensuring CSU Global programs are both academically rigorous and informed by industry experience.
That combination is significant for CSU Global students. Most are working adults seeking degrees for career advancement, even as they juggle family, community, and job responsibilities. The university’s industry alignment is enhanced by the professional experiences of faculty members, allowing students to better understand how coursework connects to workplace demands, said Audra Spicer, CSU Global provost and acting chief academic officer.
Spicer said the depth of CSU Global instruction has contributed to a student retention rate of nearly 90 percent from first to third terms.
“Students need champions, and our faculty serve that role because they know what it’s like to be in the workplace and in industry, beyond having the academic credentials,” Spicer said.
“Teaching is something that is in your heart. I think the transfer of knowledge is the greatest gift we can give one another as a people.”
The concept played out during a recent capstone course on strategic management in health care. Williams teaches the class for students completing master’s degrees in health care administration.
Students in this class included a lab technician, an emergency medical technician, and an assortment of other health care professionals. They lived in Colorado, across the country, and as far away as Ghana. And they shared interests in career advancement and leadership in health care.
Williams, who lives in Metro Denver, jumped right in during a weekly class discussion. He asked students to describe factors that would lead to the success of a strategic plan. He further asked them to propose steps a health care organization could take to comply with the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2022, which is proposed legislation that would require federal agencies to reduce health disparities.
“Can you tell us what your organization is doing to address marginalized populations?” Williams asked one student. “If the company has a plan, would it fall under a strategic initiative?”
He poked and applauded, switching between faculty roles including coach, mentor, role model, and adviser. He suggested extra readings and shared videos. He asked for reactions, pushing for depth, reflection, and understanding.
“I’m going to play devil’s advocate,” he told one student before raising a counterargument.
He asked another: “Do you know if your organization uses predictive analytics to help determine staffing needs?”
“You are spot on,” he assured yet another.
He went on to describe operational changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, ending his response with a simple observation: “This is health care.”
CSU Global courses might be online, but many instructors have a knack for functioning as champions for their students.
Tina Roth thanked Williams for that ability as she spoke during the university’s Spring 2023 commencement. Roth earned a master’s degree in health care administration, working her way through the program after she was hospitalized with ovarian cancer.
“There is one person who moved me to tears, and that is our very own Dr. Eric Williams,” Roth said during her commencement remarks. “It was that human connection that made all the difference and helped me make it to the finish line.”
Such interactions make teaching rewarding, Williams said.
“Teaching is something that is in your heart,” he said. “I think the transfer of knowledge is the greatest gift we can give one another as a people.”
“WHAT IS THE legal basis for that decision?” Tricia Zunker recently asked a CSU Global student during a criminal justice course called the Laws of Evidence.
How often do students pursuing legal careers have the chance to learn directly from a Tribal Supreme Court justice?
At CSU Global, students in the criminal justice program may enroll in courses with Zunker, a Native American who serves as an associate justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court, the highest court for the Tribe whose government is based in western Wisconsin.
Zunker, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who lives in Wisconsin, earned her law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been with CSU Global for 13 years. She is a faculty member in criminal justice and business law, develops curriculum, and works with students as a writing consultant.
Zunker’s teaching is steeped in her experience with law, politics, higher education, and community service. In addition to her Supreme Court role, she is chief justice of the Court of Appeals for the Meskwaki Tribal Court, was a candidate to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, is dean of faculty for the California School of Law, and is founding director of the Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee.
“The thing is, you see something needs to be done, and, well, I guess I’m going to do it,” Zunker said.
Teaching is one of those things, said Zunker, who was a first-generation college graduate. Working at CSU Global allows her to connect with students who need flexible course options and might benefit from an extra level of support, she said.
“I do believe people deserve opportunities, and education opens doors,” she said. “I know that because of my own lived experience.”
“WHAT ARE SOME ways to get on the fast track to trust?” Arnetra Arrington queried students in a CSU Global project management course.
Arrington has a Master of Business Administration, a doctorate in project management, and certifications as a trainer and practitioner in project management systems. Beyond that, the Houston resident manages creative projects around the world.
Since 2015, she has applied her professional experience to instruction of CSU Global courses in business and project management.
She even shares with students the philosophy behind the project management system she developed, called the Arrington Method. Arrington devised the method after learning about a Chinese construction project in which a 57-story building was completed in 19 days, and she’s now developing software to support her model.
“A spark went off inside me, and I said, ‘What kind of model lives behind that type of execution?’” she recalled.
Arrington often talks about her love for project management and her love for “dreamers,” the people who have ideas for businesses and projects and want to make them happen. Teaching is part of that.
“I love equipping people to be successful,” she said.
“COLLEAGUES, WHEN WE work in health care management, we are always faced with factors that can keep an organization from moving ahead. Factors such as funding allocations or leadership challenges can keep an organization from moving forward,” Phillip Finley told students in a course on health care analysis and policy development.
Finley, who lives in Atlanta, has taught health care administration and management for six years at CSU Global. He has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in health sciences. He also worked for 35 years for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and traveled throughout the United States, Nigeria, Botswana, and elsewhere to help track and fight the spread of disease.
During his career – a time marked by new technologies, diseases, and societal threats – Finley has learned a lot about promoting health in the real world.
“I use these experiences every time there’s a class discussion,” he said.
Apart from his work in public health, Finley is a Baptist minister and a runner who has completed hundreds of road races, including 14 marathons. He encourages students to see each class the way he sees a race.
“The biggest stumbling block is just beginning,” he said. “If you get the start down pat, you are going to finish strong.”
“ONE OF THE things we do as criminologists is look for consistencies across crimes,” Dustin Heuerman explained to students in an introduction to criminal justice class.”
Heuerman has a master’s degree in criminal justice and a doctorate in education. He has worked as a small-town police chief and a sheriff’s deputy. Now, he is sheriff of Champaign County, Illinois.
In his second term as sheriff, Heuerman, who lives in the Urbana-Champaign area, is head of a department with 150 employees. He oversees a jail and provides law enforcement, court security, and emergency management for a county with about 210,000 residents.
Serving as a top law enforcement official in his region is a demanding job. Yet, Heuerman remains committed to teaching criminal justice courses at CSU Global, which he has done for about a decade.
Heuerman said he enjoys drawing on his experience to help students consider career possibilities and approaches to leadership and problem-solving.
“I just give them that foundation of how this really works in real life,” he said. “I think what students get with me and my career as an academic adviser, a faculty member, and a law enforcement professional is a culmination of things that can help them brainstorm about how their future will look and how we can help them get there.”
Photo at top: Eric Williams teaches health care administration and management for CSU Global. He is among more than 500 faculty members for the fully online university, and, like most others, he brings impressive industry experience into the virtual classroom.
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