Meet the Provost: Dr. Bill Allen
The Newest Senior Executive on Education, Advice for Students, and Why He Loves Grantham
Dr. Bill Allen understands the value of military service and the impact an education can have on your success.
He began his career in the military in 1984 serving in air traffic control, logistics, and even finance. There, he became a senior naval science instructor and then the director of alternate and online learning. Later, in 2009, he moved into the Job Corps, working as the campus president of two Job Corps Centers, one in Missouri and the other in North Dakota. In 2020, he joined Grantham University in a dual leadership capacity as the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the dean of the College of Business, Management, and Economics.
“Grantham University people are amazing!” he says of coming to Grantham. “In my heart, I just knew I wanted to be a part of the Grantham family. I’m glad they adopted me and now I feel right at home.”
With the increase in program offerings and academic growth, the university selected Dr. Allen to fill the role of Provost in September 2020. As provost, Dr. Allen (and his supporting office) provides academic, strategic, and administrative leadership in teaching, curriculum, faculty, and student success initiatives. That includes supporting all academic programs of study, faculty and student services, the registrar, and curriculum.
We’re glad to welcome Dr. Allen to his new role—and to learn a little more about his own educational journey, what he thinks about online learning, his advice for students, and why he loves Grantham.
Question: Thank you for your 25 years of service. Thinking back on your active time in the U.S. Military, what is your advice for military students?
Dr. Bill Allen: The same factors for success in the military carry over to civilian life. Hard work, dedication, the ability to work with challenging people, emotional intelligence, reading the landscape, really good followership, and truly exceptional leadership: It’s all the same stuff.
So, dream big and work hard! The secret is to engage with work every day. It doesn’t have to be during official hours, but be sure to work hard—study, read, prepare—to make yourself better tomorrow than you were today. String together a bunch of days like that into weeks, months, and years—and success will come. The only thing stopping you is you!
If you don’t yet have the right degree, hurry up and enroll at Grantham! Do it four to five years before retirement and start networking as soon as you can. Networking is far more important in the civilian world than it is in the military, and it’s essential if you’re going to transition effectively. Did I already mention the need to enroll with GU?
Q: You have obtained three degrees yourself. What led you to pursue each one, and how did each degree impact your career?
BA: Bachelor of Science, Professional Aeronautics (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
I was an air traffic controller in the military and, at the time, education was critically important for promotion. The choice to pursue my initial degree was the single most important decision in my life and the main reason I chose to be a part of the Grantham team: to provide every student with the opportunity to earn an affordable education that results in what all humans desire—opportunity and advancement.
Even the most demanding, technical, and complicated subjects (and believe me, controlling aircraft in a fast-paced environment is all of those things!) can be mastered by anyone if they have enough grit and determination and if they’re willing to make the necessary sacrifices. I believe that career success requires the same components as academic success. I firmly believe that once a person learns to become academically successful, there is a much greater chance at long-term career success.
Master of Business Administration (Troy University)
Like many of our Grantham students, my interests shifted as I got older. After earning a commission as an officer in the military, I began to see increasing opportunity in the business community. An MBA program was the perfect pathway to learn business, management, and economics through an academic lens. Being academically prepared to unleash the power of experience is one of the springboards for becoming an executive in any setting.
Business may not be quite as intense as an approach control or the control tower during a thunderstorm, but business decisions have an impact on our lives on levels we seldom realize. The open hours of your favorite restaurant are a business decision. Whether a local hospital opens or closes is a business decision. My favorite NFL team (Go Chiefs!) is a business. It’s humbling to think that almost everything we see and touch in our lives began as a business plan!
Doctor of Philosophy in Organization and Management (Capella University)
I discovered how much I love teaching and training in the military, a discovery that formed my fascination with the educational world. After I retired from the military, it made sense to continue my education and prepare myself for the next phase of life.
Earning a PhD was the challenge of a lifetime, and the years while I was in my program were unquestionably the hardest years of my life. The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill made it financially possible, my employer made it feasible with loads of support, and my family understood my dream and sacrificed so many nights, weekends, and holidays to help me earn my degree. A doctorate can be a key that opens doors you don’t even know are there, and my program ultimately created the opportunity for me to be a part of Grantham University.
Q: What is the coolest thing you’ve seen at Grantham?
BA: In one word, STUDENTS! I love seeing students succeed, and one of my favorite aspects of Grantham is how willing everyone is to support them. We all understand how challenging it can be for adult learners to balance the demands of life.
This probably sounds a little corny, but every day before I log in, I close my eyes and imagine individual students who depend on our team to make the right policies, set the right priorities, and create the right environment to maximize their success. I imagine the student who is tired after a long day of work but still reads their assignment and completes a post. I imagine the single mother who is exhausted but manages to pull a laptop into bed to write a report. And I imagine the military servicemember on deployment, who feels lonely and scared but still makes their education a priority.
It’s our students who matter most, so creating a level playing field on which they can succeed is the most important thing we do.
Q: How do you approach goal setting and how does that translate into your daily life?
BA: I’ve never set realistic goals for myself and I hope I never will. I like my goals to be almost unreachable, nearly impossible. And they are especially effective when my friends and family perceive my goals as unrealistic. It’s those goals that drive me to take risks and to reach higher, further, and faster than ever before. It doesn’t matter if it’s a professional goal or if it’s setting a new personal record for hours on a motorcycle seat or learning a song for my guitar that initially seems impossible. If I can see it in my mind and believe it in my heart, I will do it!
Q: What is your perspective on online learning?
BA: Learning is an activity for our brains, and that’s true whether we do it in a recliner, in a library, or sitting by a pool with an umbrella in our drink. Online learning is just another educational delivery method and, as an added bonus, it also happens to be the safest and most efficient.
The hard work is to ensure that we understand the theoretical framework that applies to a particular field so that we can apply knowledge as an active solution. Learning is just like working out: It should be tough and full of rigor, and it should push us outside our comfort zone, week after week, to help us learn even more.
Q: What advice can you give to a student who is interested in pursuing a degree at Grantham?
BA: Communicate! Let us know what you need and talk to us openly. Talk to your advisor (they are the best and a huge part of what makes Grantham so special!). Talk to your instructor—often. Call them, text them, get to know them because they are eager to help you! Talk to the students in your class. Use technology to meet and get to know other Grantham students.
And learn resilience. Everyone—and I mean every single person—will get knocked down and fail. It won’t always be fair, and it won’t always go your way. Develop the attitude that nothing, not even the present challenge, will get in your way.
Q: What final thoughts would you like to share?
BA: I’d like to leave you with one last thought from a military perspective. For most of my adult life, the military was the only way of life I knew. We were often uncomfortable in our living environment, we sacrificed months at a time away from family, and we were uniquely proud to overcome almost anything because we thought we were keeping the world a little bit safer. In a word, we were warriors—as are all of those still serving today.
Warriors have a different mindset. They rise to the challenge, they sacrifice, and they overcome—no matter what happens. In the civilian world, I’ve seen too many people stop looking for a challenge and embrace comfort. We need to change our perspective from “it’s too hard” to “nothing is too hard for me!” What does a warrior say to hard work? Bring it! To obstacles? Bring it! To challenges? Bring it!
Be a warrior student, a warrior teacher, a warrior parent, a warrior employee, a warrior boss. Whatever the challenge is, there is nothing you can’t accomplish.
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