Can you tell me about your time at ACU?
I was a student there from fall of 99 through December of 2003. I was a Communication major with a minor in Political Science and a minor in Business. And, as all good ACU students, close to a minor in Bible but can’t quite count that. I was not a member of a social club, but I was a member of the Aggie club for a while, and I was also a member of Lambda Pi Eta- the Communication honor society. I was a student government association representative- I actually represented the Communications building a couple of different times. I was the President of the College of Republicans as well when I was on campus.
Did you receive any education after ACU?
I actually just in 2018 completed my Masters of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at the LBJ school.
What led you to want to get your Masters?
Well, ACU, to be honest. I applied to the Masters of Corporate Communications program that ACU was trying to get off of the ground, but it never quite came to fruition. I always appreciated the fact that the professors that I had, especially in the Communication department, weren’t just professors. They were people who had actually done the work that they were talking about in the real world. It was the same with the business school and in political science department- we seemed to have a lot of professors who weren’t just professors, but also practitioners of what they were teaching. My ultimate goals when I get done with my private sector degree is to go back and teach, and what led me to wanting to do that was ACU and the experience that I had. So, I had always been kind of thinking about getting a Master’s to help with my goals of someday teaching, so that’s what led me there. The immediate circumstances were that my company offered to pay for it, and I got accepted to the LBJ school. I think they are now ranked number 9 in the country for public policy schools- it’s hard to say no when the starts align, right?
Can you talk to me a little bit about the jobs you did after ACU?
Sure! My first job, when I was in college, I went to work for Dr. Bob Hunter who was the state representative from Abilene. I became his legislative aid in the district office which was located on campus, while he was serving as state representative. When I graduated, I went to be his chief of staff in Austin until he retired, so that was the first part of my career. After that I went to a small startup company called ORYXE energy. I went to work for them for a couple of years where I did regulatory and government affairs work for them. Then, in ’08 I went to work for Exelon which is actually where I currently am, but it’s kind of a bumpy path to how I got here. I got hired for them to work on a special project, and I worked for them just from ‘08-’09. I left them in ’09 to go back and run political campaigns. I ran a race for Rob Orr out of Burleson, TX- I did his House race. And then I did a special election for State Senate District 22. I helped Brian Birdwell as his campaign manager who got elected in the special election. From there, he offered me his Chief of Staff job so I went back to working in the capital to be Chief of Staff for Senator Birdwell for a couple of year. I worked for him for one session, and about the end of that session, Exelon had merged with another company and had a job opening. My boss called and asked me if I wanted to come back, and I came back. That would have been in 2012- I went back to Exelon and I have been there ever since.
What all does your current job entail?
My title is Director of State Government Affairs- west and south. I work in a group that cover 30 states and Alberta, Canada. My primary responsibility right now is Texas, but my secondary states are New Mexico, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Utah and I cover Alberta, Canada. What I do is government and regulatory affairs work. Basically everything from the county level of government to the state level of government. Whether it be commissioner courts, or state legislators, or regulatory bodies, public utilities commission- I do work in all of those different areas. From time to time, I get involved at the city level depending on what the issue is, and if they need someone with our group’s expertise. Recently I have worked on some tax negotiations with the legislature in session, I read through bills, I track legislation, I engage on those bills- good, bad, or indifferent. I’m the advocate on behalf of our business unit before all of these different bodies.
I was really excited to write the newsletter this semester, because I wanted to be able to show students all of the unique things someone with a Communication degree can do, and how beneficial having a Communication degree is.
Yeah, I think that’s what a lot of people forget about it. When people think of a communication degree, the first thing people think of is media which is wrong. What I always like to tell folks is “Hey, if you want a degree that teaches you a wide variety of skill sets from business to communicating to political, across the spectrum, then you should get a communication degree because you can legitimately do anything with it. It doesn’t have to be politics and it doesn’t have to be working as a news anchor and communicating. It can be anything. Ong guy I know went to work for Enterprise, Rental Car, and just worked his way up into management there. Others have gone on to work in consulting firms- I think it is just the gateway degree into anything that you want to do. I work on business deals every day, and I don’t have a business degree. The degree is a degree that can be utilized across any field. I hope more people realize that if more people understood others and how to communicate with people more effectively, than organization’s from top to bottom would be more successful.
