Lisa Toms, Dean of SAU's College of Business visited both Honors Seminar Classes Today
Dr. Toms began her talk by saying her route to the deanship was anything but traditional. She was the co-valedictorian at Bodcaw High School but married right after graduation and soon had two young boys.
She said that one day while holding her youngest at her hip while cleaning the toilet she had a life changing thought. She did not need to clean toilets. She needed to go to school and get a job so she could hire someone else to clean the toilets.
She enrolled at SAU earning her undergraduate degree in three years and took a series of jobs including that of internal auditor at SAU. Later, she worked at the college's Institutional Research Office.
She decided to go back to school and earn her MBA at Lousiana Tech at night in the era preceding distance education. It took her three years because she could only take one course at a time while working and raising a family. Toms said that after she graduated she did not ever want to go to school again. But fate intervened in the form of a marketing fellowship for the DBA degree, also at Tech.
After she earned the DBA she again returned to SAU, this time as a fulltime faculty member. She was named chair and later Dean of the College of Education. Gradually, she said, she grew into that last job. She added that being dean was anything but boring and that no day was the same.
After describing her career path, she shared some information on the hottest jobs now open for college graduates. At the top of the list were computer specialists and marketing managers. Interestingly, her two oldest boys just happened to hold jobs in those fields. Growth areas included biomedical engineering and network systems. Long range projections (ca. 2020) saw the medical field in general and the tech sector as the areas most likely to contain jobs at that time.
Toms emphasized several things. All of us should be encouragers and listen to those who would encourage us. Students should avoid "doing too many stupid things," she said and avoid those who urge such stupidity upon them. She also warned students that they needed to be flexible and cited her own life story. She would never had imagined being a dean when she was a 20 year old housewife and mother. Although she emphasized that those were not roles to avoid. She has balanced a multiplicity of roles during her life.
Toms finished by handing out bookmarks that summarized the College of Business' recent initiative to promote ethical academic behavior. As dean, she has had to deal with several recent cases of cheating, a phenomenon not confined to the College of Business.
The students, especially those enrolled in the College of Business, thoroughly enjoyed her visit.
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