WGU Creates Distinguished Alumni Council in Utah

If you had a question and needed an accurate answer, where would you go? Straight to the source. 

Western Governors University’s alumni are the expert source. They’ve mastered the school’s competency-based curriculum. They’ve juggled school, work, family and life. They offer a unique, boots-on-the-ground perspective about what it takes to earn a college degree as a busy adult learner. 

We are excited to announce the creation of WGU’s Distinguished Alumni Council in Utah to create additional opportunity for adult learners in this state. These alumni council members are eager to share personal stories about how their educational pathway has impacted their family and career journeys. They also will help weave together WGU alumni to provide a network of workforce and philanthropic partnerships for the benefit of current and future students. We hope through each of these alumni, students will be able to see a piece of themselves and feel even more connected to the WGU community.

WGU is excited about the contribution these nine alumni will continue to make to the WGU Night Owls Nest: 

Her experience also includes consulting senior executives in major enterprise initiatives, crisis management, nursing, compensation and benefits, recruitment, compliance, organizational transformation, and clinical and business operations. She led creative marketing campaigns for pediatric and adult diabetes, recruitment, compliance, and total compensation. Many of her campaigns have earned national recognition. 

Andrea earned an MBA, Healthcare Management from Western Governor’s University, and a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communications from the University of Utah. She completed a semester abroad at Cambridge University, England, and is a certified Human Resources professional. She serves on the Board of the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum and is active in her community. She loves spending time with family, traveling, enjoying the outdoors, and playing pickleball.

Following emergency open-heart surgery, and with four children under his roof, Chris came back to WGU and earned his master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance in 2020. While the master’s degree took a full two years to complete; it allowed Chris the freedom and flexibility to focus on family and work, yet still pursue an advanced degree which complimented his professional experience.

In addition to spending time with his wife and four kids, Chris also enjoys volunteering as an AWANA (Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed) leader in his local church, bicycling, gaming (board, console and computer) and visiting with family and friends.

Cole earned a Bachelor of Science, Information Technology in 2020 and continued to achieve a Master of Science degree in Information Technology Management from WGU in 2021. Cole is active in the community, loves spending time with his family, spending time in the outdoors, traveling, and boating.

He has over 20 years of experience in the training and development industry. In his time at FranklinCovey he has led teams in operations, customer care, and sales. In his current role he coaches international offices to develop and execute on sales and marketing strategies. 

Jordan earned his MBA from WGU in 2016 and a BS in Mass Communication from the University of Utah in 2000.

In his time with 1-800 Contacts, he has worked as a developer on the website, with the mobile app teams and several other internal software development teams. In his current role he has driven a data driven software development approach that has led to a 153% increase in deployment and 80% decrease in development time while also increasing employee engagement. 

Kevin earned his MBA IT Management from WGU in 2014 and has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brigham Young University. 

While not working Kevin loves spending time with his family. They love to travel and spend time outdoors. He loves exploring the canyons in Utah, running, and mountain biking.

Manu is actively engaged with Utah’s Women Tech Council and in 2016, co-founded a non-profit organization called Virasat Utah, an organization that focuses on planting the seed of volunteerism — along with a love of STEM — among the youth of Utah. Prior to joining Avid, Manu served as Head of Engineering at Varo Bank overseeing the build-out of the nation’s first national chartered digital bank and was recognized by Innovate Finance as a member of the “Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020”. 

Manu earned her MBA, IT Management from WGU in 2021 and has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Punjab Technical University. 

When Manu gets time away from work, she enjoys time spent with family, traveling, “The Great Outdoors,” and exploring different foods. 

Tara has led multiple IT development efforts to support health data integration and new product development. Partnering with GE Healthcare, she established agile best practices and led worldwide teams to build a next generation electronic medical record (EMR) system. Later, Tara originated Intermountain’s telehealth program and directed the foundational strategy, business operations, and platform design. Making high quality healthcare accessible to underserved patients and providers in rural communities in Utah and Idaho was some of her most satisfying work. 

In her current role, Tara partners with executives and cross-functional teams to develop strategic initiatives focused on affordability, improving health outcomes, and growth in new markets. Her passion is delivering innovative solutions to shape the future of healthcare. Tara received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Utah and later an MBA in Healthcare Management from Western Governors University.

Tyler is a graduate of Northwest College located in Powell, WY where he now serves on the board of directors for the NWC Foundation that provides scholarships and fundraising. Tyler is also a graduate of WGU having attended the College of Business and majored in IT Management - B.S. Business Administration. 

Passionate about technology, politics, education, and diversity and inclusion, he values fostering spaces where people can learn from each other. As someone who is a lifelong learner, Tyler also continues to learn through reading, certifications, and asking lots of questions. When not working, Tyler is an amateur photographer who enjoys shooting landscapes with both film and digital mediums. While generally enjoying the outdoors he likes hiking, camping, and skiing.