AHMAD ZARGARI, PH.D., Certified Senior Technology Manager (CSTM)
Professor Emeritus and Retired Dean, Greene College of Science and Engineering, Morehead State University (MSU)

During his tenure as Professor, Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Dean of Greene College of Science and Engineering, Zargari led the development of several graduate and undergraduate programs including Doctor of Engineering; published and presented more than 100 papers; employed, trained and retained faculty and staff; aided faculty in obtaining several millions Research and Development Grant Funds; established a dedicated Industrial Advisory Board representing companies in the region, led the establishment of an Advisory Board Scholarship Endowment of approximately $150,000 which has recently been named Ahmad Zarghari Scholarship.   He has taught, advised, and served more than 3000 students who currently work in private and public sectors of our economic enterprise system; established strong partnership with industries in the region to support students' need for internship and employment, and industries demand for skilled employees; he also recruited and advised hundreds of international students.  As Dean, AZ supervised six diverse academic units with more than 100 faculty/staff and 2000 Science and Engineering students in a variety of disciplines from Space Systems Engineering to Veterinary Technology. Dr. Zargari has been directly involved with program review, accreditation, budget allocation, university reorganization, college five-year strategic planning, conflict resolution, enhancing productivity through focusing on student success plus faculty hiring, development, tenure, and promotion.     

Dr. Jen O’Keefe has 25 years’ experience in higher education.  Included in her portfolio are strong grant-writing and curricular design & evaluation skills, as well as engineering and geoscience academic leadership. She received her B.A. from Cornell College in Iowa, M.S. from Texas A&M, and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. The current chair of the Department of Engineering Sciences, she also leads the OPaL Lab at Morehead State University, which leverages tiered-mentoring and problem-based learning to enhance overall student performance. Dr. O’Keefe is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Castaño Honorary Life Member of the Society for Organic Petrology and served simultaneously as chairman of the Energy Geology Division of the Geological Society of America and as President of AASP-The Palynological Society in 2015. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the AASP Foundation. In recent years, she has turned her talents toward supporting accreditation and academic-stakeholder relations.