Dr. Lisa Toms understands there are multiple paths to student success.
A first-generation college student, Toms did not begin college until she was already married with two children.
Buoyed by support from her older sister Kelly, the same person who taught her how to read before she started elementary school, Toms persevered and completed her undergraduate degree in three years.
Now Toms’ grit and determination have garnered her an opportunity to serve as dean of the Arkansas Tech University College of Business. She is beginning her first academic year in that role this month.
Toms’ path to the dean’s chair in Russellville began at her alma mater, Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, when she taught a summer course as an adjunct instructor.
“The first semester I did that, I knew that was what I wanted to do,” said Toms. “So as I began that journey, I realized that others had been affected by higher education in the same way as me. I often remind my faculty colleagues that not everybody gets to go to work every day and change lives. That’s it. That’s my motivation.”
Toms holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from SAU and Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Business Administration degrees from Louisiana Tech University.
She worked at SAU from 1991-2017, serving in the roles of internal auditor, director of institutional research, faculty member and dean of the Rankin College of Business. While at SAU, she received faculty awards for teaching and research.
“I’ve admired Arkansas Tech from afar,” said Toms, who holds the faculty rank professor of marketing at ATU. “It was still in the state, and it was appealing to me that I already knew the higher education environment in Arkansas. It just seemed like a good fit.”
In addition to her experience in higher education, Toms has also sold insurance and mutual funds, and she has worked in bank marketing.
The sum of her professional experiences has yielded a firm belief in the power of distributive leadership.
“I very seldom tell anyone to do anything,” said Toms. “I’ve learned that by asking questions, someone might come back with a better idea than mine. You go into being a dean for the first time…you don’t know what you don’t know. Not very long into my time as dean at SAU, within the first year, we formed committees that I truly intended for the members to carry out the role of that committee. I believe if you ask someone to do something, you let them do their job. Invariably, if I had an idea I would mention it to them, and they would either take that idea, run with it and make it better, or they’d say what if we tried this. It very soon dawned on me that there were other ideas better than mine. It is a benefit to everyone, particularly the students, if you work together on something instead of against each other.”
