UALR finalist Lovell perseveres

Child of single mom struggled in school but never gave up

Editor's note: Third of three profiles on the finalists for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's chancellor's position.

It was Wednesday. Just a week before Cheryl Lovell was to visit Little Rock.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Cheryl D. Lovell, Ph.D., special advisor to the chancellor and to the chief academic officer of the Colorado State University System


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Her phone had been off while she was away dealing with a death in her family. Barely time to grieve. Barely back home in Colorado. But she turned the phone back on and started chipping away at all of the missed calls and emails.

First, though, a work meeting. Short and sweet.

The next two days wouldn't be.

She was in Fort Collins for a Colorado State University System trustees meeting. And the days after that would be just as hectic. But that wasn't weighing on her mind at that moment. First things first.

That Wednesday night, she settled into the hotel room away from her home in the Denver suburbs and answered a slew of questions, a preview of what was to come during her Arkansas visit.

Today is Lovell's first day of marathon interviews in Little Rock -- with the dean's council, University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt, trustees, faculty and staff members, students, community members, business owners -- all with one goal: For her to become the next chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

She's a finalist for the position, along with Mark Rudin, vice president for research and economic development at Boise State University in Idaho; and Andrew Rogerson, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University in California.

Her knowledge about higher education today is part of what struck a chord with UALR's chancellor search committee. Her energy and enthusiasm -- which shone through during previous interviews in Dallas-Fort Worth -- helped get her into the finalist pool, committee chairman Bob Denman said.

If there's anyone up to the back-to-back, endurance-testing interviews in Little Rock, it's the 56-year-old.

Get her talking about education, and she has the youthful exuberance of a recent college graduate, ready to get to work.

Her background

Lovell was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of four children. Her dad served in the Army and took the family overseas to Germany for a few years after Lovell's birth. Her mom, Carrie Lovell, grew up with eight other sisters on a Georgia farm.

Lovell's parents divorced in Germany, and Carrie Lovell and her four children returned to the United States. The newly single mother settled in Atlanta, where she could find work with her limited education.

She landed a job in a cotton mill factory, working six days a week in shifts of 10-12 hours each day.

The mother, who did not finish high school, preached education to her kids. And they took note: all graduated from college.

"If there ever was a steel magnolia, it was my mom," Cheryl Lovell said. "She was a strong Southern mother. She realized how limited she was. She saw education as a way out, as a way to make a difference."

Lovell worked full tilt through the Atlanta Public School System, just after the district was desegregated. She immersed herself in all sorts of high school activities -- tennis, softball, band, orchestra, student government.

She was on track for college.

In some respects, her experience was what is often expected of first-generation college students: more likely to struggle academically.

Lovell had always struggled with writing. At the University of West Georgia -- a regional, public, comprehensive university like UALR -- she took the equivalent of Composition I twice, maybe even three times.

She worked on campus throughout her undergraduate years. On weekends and holidays, she drove back to Atlanta, where she worked as a cashier at a Winn-Dixie grocery store.

Necessity forced her to learn the ins and outs of the federal financial aid system.

She juggled political science and pre-law courses against her campus extracurricular activities. She dreamed of being the first female F. Lee Bailey or Perry Mason, tough criminal-defense attorneys.

When her mother died during her freshman year at West Georgia, Lovell was determined to honor her mother by sticking to her college studies.

At times that meant being singled out by professors who noticed that she was struggling academically. It meant her working up the courage to ask for help when she needed it and working hard to be sure she didn't fall through the cracks.

It was hard. But it was also empowering.

And seeing the faculty and staff members put in extra work to make sure she succeeded was uplifting.

It's part of what compelled her to change course in her last year of college and pursue a master's degree in guidance counseling for higher education. She's been a self-proclaimed "higher-ed geek" ever since.

"If it weren't for the great advisers, the great faculty, I wouldn't be where I am today," she said. "I know access to good, quality education transformed my life. My passion in higher education has been about creating environments that allow students to thrive. I'm the kind of person [that] if there's something that needs to be done that helps others, I'm going to try to make sure that me and others do that."

Her work begins

After earning her doctoral degree in higher education from Florida State University, Lovell went to work as a staff associate for research at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a private nonprofit in Boulder, Colo., that seeks to help colleges and universities nationwide with strategic decision-making.

That role introduced her to working with state and federal higher-education policies.

From there, she directed the Colorado Higher Education Executive Officers' State Postsecondary Review Entity program, which was established federally through the Higher Education Act to rein in student financial aid abuses in the 1990s and place more accountability on colleges and universities.

That part of the law was later rescinded, and her position was eliminated.

Lovell held seven other positions -- including chief academic officer for the Colorado Department of Higher Education -- before she headed a university -- a brand-new, private osteopathic medical school in Parker, Colo., south of Denver.

Rocky Vista University trustees scooped up Lovell and they had an exact end date for her employment in mind -- three years.

"As a higher-ed geek and a person who has spent my whole life in higher ed ... it was a great opportunity to take an unknown and turn it into a known," she said. "Trustees were pretty clear about wanting a really solid academic leader and someone who understands higher-ed policy and accreditation. They needed someone who had that kind of background and the intent to get it [the school] on a firmer foundation."

The challenge was exhilarating. The learning curve was steep.

"My job was to lead the institution and help achieve goals it wanted to achieve," she said.

Her accomplishments there are listed in bullet points on the school's website, and range from starting partnerships for residency positions to increasing diversity in the student body.

While there, she challenged the students to reach beyond being physicians, to leave bigger footprints in the community, Parker Mayor Mike Waid said. Rocky Vista University students were involved in an annual service project, he said, and Lovell modeled that behavior, participating in charity events and other community activities.

Waid, a small-business owner, said if he had an appropriate position and the financial means, he'd hire Lovell in a heartbeat.

"She's worth so much more than I can pay her," he said. "I've always been impressed by her ability to use her immense knowledge ... in real world situations. She's approachable, intelligent, calm. And I've dealt with a lot of head honchos at lots of institutions. It's kind of a rare scenario. She's been a great collaborator. She's exceedingly intelligent, very personable, very even-keeled."

Rocky Vista University did not make available its board chairman or vice chairman for interviews for this article, saying that Lovell would "determine whether she wants to provide the contact information for any of the Board members." Lovell did not.

New opportunities

When Lovell's three-year stint at the school ended and the board selected an osteopathic physician, she spent the next three months helping the new leader settle in. It put her in an awkward position professionally because the medical school used a traditional calendar year instead of an academic year. That meant that in December -- midyear for most other schools -- Lovell was looking for a job.

Even after she vacated the school's presidency, Waid said, he saw Lovell at community events.

"I think she's going to adapt to whatever role," he said. "I think she does embrace her obligation to leave her community better than when she found it. Wherever she lands, she's going to make that place a better place."

In the fall of 2015, she threw her name into the pot for the presidency at Dickinson State University in North Dakota. She was named a finalist for the job but didn't get it.

Then came the opportunity in the Colorado State University System.

Lovell and the system reached an agreement in which she would advise Chancellor Tony Frank and Chief Academic Officer Rick Miranda on policies as a way to run a more efficient ship, Miranda said. The administrators asked Lovell to help with cross-institutional collaborations.

The Colorado State University System consists of three schools -- a research land-grant university in Fort Collins; a regional comprehensive university that has been federally designated as a Hispanic-serving institution in Pueblo; and an online-only university.

Lovell has made her mark, facilitating projects between universities and discussions about cooperative degree plans, Miranda said.

"She's very well-organized and has an agenda to accomplish," he said. "I've been impressed with how she's managing these. She approaches things sensibly and seems to be effective moving forward."

She is attuned to the administrative complexities in the state, Miranda said, adding that Lovell was "very committed" to moving forward projects that would help students succeed.

Lengthy resume

The job, a six-month position, also has allowed Lovell to look for other opportunities. She applied for and is a finalist -- along with Rogerson, another UALR finalist -- for the chancellor's position at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. That university has already interviewed all of its candidates, but the system board has yet to chose the new leader.

Lovell's accomplishments in her many roles take up more than 22 pages.

For example, in her 1½-year stint at the Colorado Higher Education Department, she worked to get a grant that put $7 million available in scholarship funds for low-income students. She calculated scores for colleges and universities on performance-based measures to see who was or wasn't up to par. She also crafted agreements between Colorado's community colleges to ease students who were transferring to bachelor degree-awarding institutions.

Lovell said her schedule would not allow for an in-person interview for this article before her Arkansas visit. But her cover letters, in big blocks of text, offer insight into her academic qualifications. And in a telephone conversation, she mentioned that she likes being outdoors and participates in sprint triathlons, which are much easier on her knees than other types.

In a recording made of her visit to Southern Illinois University, Lovell gave a PowerPoint presentation. During it, she paused for moments to moisten her finger and turn the pages of her paper copy of the slides.

She was ill, well-supplied with cough drops and tissues, but it didn't stop her from doing her homework or cracking the occasional joke. She knew exactly what position Southern Illinois University was in and what higher education was going through in that state.

In Little Rock, the next two days will not be her first rodeo in Arkansas. Early in her career she worked at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in the Student Affairs Division.

From her 1980s work at UA, she became familiar with UALR. "I knew the institution, I knew its mission, its focus," she said of UALR. Now, "I know the important role it has as an economic driver in the region, connection with business and industry. I know it's also changed since I was there."

As for her recent job applications, all are at regional, public comprehensive universities that all have high numbers of first-generation college students at varying academic levels.

"Each of the institutions want to elevate their reputation and expand their reach, footprint in the community," she said. "That's where you can change the cycle of poverty, where you can change people's lives."

Metro on 05/12/2016

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