By Donna Keeya & Monica Resh Nguyen

Even amid industry disruptions, new technology and the changing nature of work, one thing about Bauer College remains the same — a group of staff members passionate about helping students, dedicating their careers to investing in student success.   

Over the last several decades, these staff members have not only witnessed the college’s transformation, but helped shape it.  In this story, we highlight six of our longest serving staff members by pairing them with other members of the college community for interviews that share stories of relationships and resilience and how they contributed to the Bauer legacy. 

KELLY COLLINS: “What was your first day at Bauer like?” 

MICHELLE POULLARD:  I was nervous because it was my first real office job.  I remember that I wore a dress, and I do not like wearing dresses. I have a picture from that first day and I still look back and say, ‘Why did I wear a dress?’ 

KC: Who or what has helped keep you grounded over the years? 

MP:  My Family is first.  My parents, then my husband and daughter.  Then of course, my coworkers, especially those of us who have been in it for a while like Sara Brown and Lenay Johnson.  Even though Lenay claims I didn’t like her when we started! I still deny it to this day, but it’s hilarious to me because she’s one of my closest people here.   

KC: I can see how Lenay thought that though, you have THE best poker face when we’re in meetings, but you’re fun and trustworthy. 

MP: Kelly, you haven’t been here as long, but we’ve grown so close. I can call and confide in you for everything and anything.  You play such a key role in everything that I do that I know that if there's anything going on, I can call you and if you can help me, you'll help me. And if you can't help me, you'll find somebody that can.  I have an amazing network with my family and my work family here at Bauer. 

KC:  I agree, and it’s great to work with you.  Speaking of work, what personal accomplishment are you most proud of? 

MP: I would say going back to school.  I didn’t want to because I was never that person who enjoyed school, but I knew it was important to help move my career forward.  Dan Currie was my boss at the time, and he encouraged me to go back to school. That helped me get to where I am today.  Being in this atmosphere, it is one of the most important things that I could have done.   

It also helps my daughter see what's possible.  She's at the point now where she keeps telling me: ‘You can't retire. I have to go to UH and I want to be able to come to your office!’ We'll see if she says that when she's 18! 

KC: Do you have a favorite memory that still makes you smile? 

MP: Here at Bauer, one of our previous deans, Arthur Warga, started calling me Doctor Poullard. He was working on the website one day and in the process of updating everything, he put on there, ‘Doctor Michelle Poullard,’ and as I'm reviewing the website, I said: ‘Dean Warga! I'm not a Doctor.’ He said, ‘Well, you should be, and I think I'm going to leave it! 

KC: I’m definitely going to start calling you Doctor P! 

MP: Whenever people call me Doctor P, and it always make me laugh! 

KC: What’s kept you committed to Bauer for so long? 

MP: Well for one, it’s my work family.  It's the people that I get up and talk to everyday, the people who are working hard day in and day out no matter who’s in charge or what’s happening with policies and procedures.     

Then it’s my daughter. I want her to be able to know that whatever she wants or needs she has to work for and go after.  If she wants to go to school, great, if she wants to do something else that’s fine too, but I want her to be able to see that Mommy and Daddy worked hard for everything they wanted. 

BRIAN MORENO: What do you remember most about your very first day here at Bauer? 

CHRIS TURNER: It was registration day which, when I started, meant a lot of manual tasks.  I collected yellow and pink copy forms from students with all the classes they wanted.  They had them all signed by professors and everything was being entered in manually for things like prerequisite checks.  The line was so long at times that we had an old-fashioned TV to play movies while the students were waiting.  I had graduated recently so I knew what registration from a student’s perspective of standing in line but seeing the students waiting and knowing I’m going to be responsible for them kind of took my breath away. 

BM: What relationships here at Bauer – students, faculty or staff – have helped keep you grounded over the years? 

CT: I'd say the students themselves because working as an adviser, it's more than just ‘take these classes, you need to do this to file your degree plan.’ There will always be students with issues or hurdles that we need to overcome.  When Enron happened, we had to add in an accounting ethics course. When Hurricane Katrina happened, we opened our doors to students from New Orleans and had to get them all transferred.  Many of our students are working two jobs, some are caring for families, there’s even those who don’t have a home.  Just because they're at school doesn't mean that they're exempt from real life. 

BM: Hearing you talking about the students shows how student-centered you are. You’re someone who’s helping them navigate obstacles and advocate for them.  Besides helping students in your day-to-day, what are you most proud of during your time at Bauer? 

CT: I would say helping the transition from paper to digital.  We used to have a ratio of 1,000 to 1 for undergrads.  Everything took forever and had to be done in triplicate.  I had gone to a conference in Atlanta and learned about software that could help automate things.  Frank Kelley was the boss at the time, and he was able to work with me and contact them and the University started using the software.  It was like someone being used to riding a bike and getting on a motorcycle.  We still had a high ratio, but we can just help more students. 

BM: What's been the ‘why?’ for you specifically. What's been the driving force that keeps you showing up and staying committed for so long? 

CT: The value of education. The more educated a populace is the better it is for everyone.  I also know that if one person graduates they can affect other people around them.  When someone has a degree they’re going to improve their economic future.  That might mean their siblings are now looking into education, or they’re an entrepreneur opening a new restaurant. They’re going to put themselves in a better tax bracket which means more money for better community parks and services.  It’s all about making our community better.  

KELLI MCBEE: Talk about your early days when you started here at Bauer. 

MARIAN NEWMAN: At the time it was the College of Business Administration (CBA). Mary Gould hired me as an academic advisor for undergrads and graduate students. It was a swing position, and I was the only one who was cross trained to that extent. The very first day, as in almost any new job, was a bit overwhelming.  You feel like you don't know anything, and people are saying "here's the course catalog; become familiar with it!"  But I remember how grateful I was to have my own office with a door. My previous job been in a fishbowl, so it was nice knowing I could finally have confidential conversations with students. 

KM: What has your journey as an academic adviser looked like at almost four decades in? 

MN: Our staff was so much smaller back then that the role of the academic advisers was different.  There was a point in time where advisers did recruitment, admissions, graduation, pretty much everything from soup to nuts. And now, it's become much more specialized. I enjoyed being exposed to those other aspects as well, but most of all I really like having that relationship with the students. I love being part of the journey and I see academic advising in the context of student development. It's not just about what courses do you want to take next semester, it's about your goals, this degree that you're pursuing.  It's not a cookie-cutter type approach, but using the information that hopefully students feel comfortable sharing with me to make suggestions that are actually going to make sense for them.   

KM: I think that's something I've appreciated about you so much. You look at the whole person. You see the part of their life that's academic, the part of their life that’s them, and then who they can be! 

MN: I just really enjoy having the kind of relationship with my students where they feel like they can share anything they want, or feel is relevant to their story. 

KM: You’ve made an impact on so many students but who are some of the people who've made an impact on you? 

MN: When you're someplace for 37 years you obviously meet a lot of people. Frank Kelley was my boss at one point and one of the most influential people during my time here. Lenay Johnson is someone who really helps keep me grounded.  One time, things were going in a bad direction, but she looked at me and said, ‘It’s not OK, but I’m OK’ and I thought that was a great point of view. There are so many great people in this college, in every department, who have influenced me, made things fun and kept things moving in the right direction. 

KM: What are some accomplishments that you're most proud of? 

MN: Well, number one obviously is on the student side. 

KM: Getting us through and saving us from ourselves! 

MN: You know, it’s helping people get through the program, overcome the obstacles, you know, see them graduate, see how proud their families, friends and significant others are.  Helping them navigate the bureaucracy, if they don't know the right person to talk to, which office they’re supposed to contact, what form you're supposed to use. That's one of the things about staying put somewhere. You can solve a problem, perhaps a little faster, because you know who to pick up the phone and call or who to e-mail.  The Bauer MBA Society is another thing I’m proud of. 

KM: Did you put that into motion? I didn't know that. 

MN: I'm not going to take credit for that because it was two of our international students who at the time were looking for some guidance and companionship and I really enjoyed international education, so when they came to me, I was able to help them make it happen.  When Ted Bauer gave his endowment to the College, the Dean’s Office wanted to make it an organization to support all our graduate students.  It’s been going since 1994 and it’s still going now.   

JOYCE WILLIAMS: So, Frank, tell us about your very first day here at Bauer. 

FRANK KELLEY: My first day at Bauer was the first day of registration. The line was all the way around the building, students had to bubble in their courses and we had mounted video players on moving carts to play movies while you waited in line. Students got to watch at least one full movie while they waited for us to process about 3,600 students.   

I had worked in a lot of other offices on campus, and I remembered my own orientation, so I was frustrated with how student services were just so challenging. That day I thought, ‘what can we do to make this a little more efficient?’ It was still a lot of fun, kids were chatting and stuff, but still I wanted to automate and really move toward what we do today with leveraging technology to make sure academic advisers have the time and connection to help prepare students. 

JW: Over the years who or what has helped keep you grounded? 

FK: When it comes to work, I'm kind of up in the clouds and I was complemented by a team that had a real strong sense of everyday, practical reality.  They really kept me grounded and took strategic ideas and implemented them.   

In addition to my colleagues and our faculty, I think the students help.  When you're one-on-one with the student and they are really confused or frustrated, or in a situation where they would benefit from some guidance, you can't just live in the clouds. You really have to take it down to their level and explain it in a very simplified way and help them to do it in a step-by-step process. 

JW: What are you most proud of? 

FK: What got me out of bed in the morning was a sense of making a difference in the lives of others and helping my colleagues do the same.  

I would go into Dave Cook’s office in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, and he had his vision boards and talked about what they tried to accomplish: a nationally ranked program. So, we ask: ‘What if we could scale that out?’ 

Eli Jones started the professional selling program.  How do we scale that out?  

Keith Cox was interested in expanding our international footprint. So, we began to reach out beyond our region, recruiting and partnering with international universities.   

When we got the donation from the C. T. Bauer Foundation, the focus was on leadership, so we started the Ted Bauer Leadership Certificate Program.  We're one of the most diverse programs in the country and one of the largest business programs in the U.S. and we've really scaled out this model to impact well over 7,200 diverse and unique undergraduate business majors. 

JW: How do you hope your time at Bauer will be remembered? 

FK: Well, it's kind of funny because I got a photo the other day that my team had put my picture on the microwave in our office area. It made me feel good because I think there’s another dimension to everything we've been talking about, and that is we had fun!  I would like to be remembered not just for some of the more serious things, but we had a good time.  I mean, think how many hours you spend at work and if you're not having fun, what's the point? 

I hope I'm remembered as somebody that enjoyed life and enjoyed being with my colleagues and just having a good time. 

MONICA RESH NGUYEN: What initially brought you to Bauer? 

MARY GOULD: I was looking at the newspapers and they had wanted ads and I found one from the University of Houston. I started in the admissions office and we worked with all the different colleges. We had three lines in our office and we always knew if the third line was ringing it was the business college. I was always the one to get the calls so when the business college had a job open, I transferred over and eventually got to the point where I was promoted though the ranks and it’s all just sort of grown from there. 

MRN: How would you describe your role here at the college? 

MG: I have three parts to my job. It’s the graduate course catalog, the class schedule and the Jesse H. Jones Business Leadership Development Program. Those are all my formal responsibilities. The fourth part is if people don't know how to do something or how to get to a place or they're trying to make something work or put a program together. If they ask me, I can say, ‘you want to talk to this person or that person, you're going to have to fill this out, or you're going to have to have put a lot of lead time.’ I don’t do it all, but I can at least give a starting point and I enjoy doing that part. 

MRN: What do you enjoy the most about your job? Is there a particular set of people who make it all worth it? 

MG: I'm always in awe of our international students. They have to make a huge adjustment because there's no going back. To get an apartment, to figure out roommates, what about a car?  I’m so in awe of them because if you look at their grades, very often they're very successful.  They made the transition to this foreign place, and they did well.  So I'm always really in awe of them. 

MRN: What has kept you at Bauer for so long? 

MG: In general, we want to be helpful. It seems to me that all the staff members that work here are driving forward, always asking ‘how can I help this student’ or ‘how can I make it easier or more understandable?’ That’s just the way we all are here. It’s our ethos, and I think that's wonderful. 

MRN: What advice would you give to students, staff or faculty who are coming to join the community here at Bauer? 

MG: What they'll find is everyone here wants you to be successful not only in this job or degree, but again and again. It’s a good place to gain experience and knowledge so you'll be very well set up for whatever your future holds.  Bauer College is a good launching pad to a very positive place. 

MRN: What do you hope your legacy looks like here at Bauer?   

MG:  I hope I left a really good foundation for stuff that the college wants to build on, that it's orderly and that I left it so that the next person can take it up easily.  The college is a good place, it has a good mission and as long as they're open to ideas that will help the students do better, feel better, it'll continue to be great. I just want to leave a good foundation for that. 

MONICA RESH NGUYEN: How did you first get involved with Bauer? 

SARA BROWN: Completely by luck! I was a senior psychology undergrad and took an intro to literature course to fulfill an elective. The adjunct professor also worked full-time at UH’s business college in the role I now hold. She had a vacancy on her financial team and invited me to apply. I started as a financial assistant in 1999, found I loved the work and took baby steps from there to eventually become chief business officer at Bauer College. 

MRN: How has college and business education changed over the years? What’s stayed the same? 

SB: Bauer continues to defy gravity. Over 26 years, I’ve seen obstacles grow, but the College keeps adjusting and thriving. We blend research and practical application well. Our department chairs bring in industry professionals to teach, keeping us ahead of trends and giving students real-world experience. We constantly refine our curriculum to benefit students. The secret is the passionate work of the people who make up this College. 

MRN: Do you have any stories to highlight the passionate people of Bauer? 

SB: Absolutely. Ramona Taylor retired after 28 years but returned as a working retiree to support our Executive MBA students. Cecilia Pittman mentors business operations staff across departments while managing her own complex unit and pursuing a graduate degree. Brisa Gossett at the Rockwell Career Center lives for student events and is a meticulous planner and policy guru. Honestly, I could fill an entire issue of Inside Bauer with examples. Many have dedicated the bulk of their careers to this College and its students. 

MRN: Out of all the people at Bauer, who has been most influential on your journey? 

SB: Hands down, Dr. Tom George. Many have helped me, but he’s contributed the most to my professional development. Ever the professor, he’s unlocked abilities I didn’t know I had. He deeply values ethics, respect and fairness, and always does the hard thing when it’s the right thing. That kind of leadership, especially when decisions aren’t popular, has made me braver and clearer-minded. 

MRN: What has been your favorite memory of your time here at Bauer? 

SB: The early Ted Bauer era. I earned my MBA in December 2002, around the time Mr. Bauer gave his transformative $40 million gift. I remember him walking through Melcher Hall, attending meetings and being present with us. His generosity and belief in us were inspiring. That personal history keeps me anchored to his intent for Bauer to be a top-quality educational catalyst in Houston. I’m privileged to be a steward of his legacy.