Dean Elbert: Leadership at New Heights

Dr. Dennis J. Elbert has been an exceptional leader at the College of Business & Public Administration serving as the Dean of the College since 1997. His leadership skills have stretched beyond the university as he impacts numerous regional and national organizations through his dedication to the variety of board of directors and advisory councils on which he serves. In January 2012, Dr. Elbert took his leadership to new heights when he attended the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. The U.S. All-American Bowl is a high school football all-star game held each January. The game brings 90 of the nation's top high school football players in an East versus West match-up. A large attraction in addition to the game is the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band, which is made up of 125 of the nation's top high school marching band musicians who provide an entertaining half-time performance.

The U.S. Army invited 80 thought leaders that were key community influencers to attend this highly recognized event. Dean Elbert was identified to be part of this group through a nomination by Lt. Colonel Sauls, of the UND Army ROTC program. The CoBPA is a unique business school in that the ROTC program reports to the College of Business and Public Administration helping unite the concept of leadership. While attending the events, Dean Elbert had the opportunity to choose to shoot with the Army Olympic Team or Jump with the Golden Knights. Dean Elbert chose to jump with the golden knights. "This is something that I always wanted to do since I was a UND 2nd Lieutenant," said Dean Elbert, "I had a lot of tums that day."

Dean Elbert also had the opportunity to attend a Leadership Training Course, LTC at Fort Knox. This program is designed for students involved in the two year ROTC program. If you hadn't started the program as freshman or sophomore this course was designed to catch them up. For this particular event, Deans and Vice Presidents were invited to visit the program and were treated like cadets, even to the extent of wearing military uniforms. Throughout the week they had to repel, cross rope bridges, participate in obstacle courses, as well as climb a 100 foot high tower. In one of the activities they were required to make a human bridge of which Dean Elbert was the lucky leader that ended up on the bottom of that platform. The focus during the training was on teambuilding. The group worked on small unit tactics, squad tactics, and weapons training geared towards commission.

For Dean Elbert, he said that he got wrapped up in the teambuilding and was caught up in the experience to help his team. "We all use leadership skills every day in the corporate world, academic world, and the non-profit world," says Dean Elbert. Dean Elbert also indicted the trend of many companies that are recruiting heavily from the military as the five to ten years of leadership skills utilized in the military are easily translated in the corporate world. There are also a number of students that come back to the MBA program after having military experience and transition more effectively into a career.

"Managers do things right, leaders do the right thing," says Dean Elbert.

In addition to the physical activities, a major tradeshow took place. This tradeshow features the latest technology, equipment, and communication tools that are being used by the U.S. Army.

CoBPA Associate Dean, Steve Moser attended an advanced leadership camp in Fort Lewis. During this experience the visiting guests were treated like VIP's and had the opportunity to view more of the training than participate in all of the physical challenges. This program was also a training that was attended by President Kelley.

For the CoBPA leadership continues to soar to new heights through the exceptional commitment our leaders have to college, the campus, and the community.