Rex Force

Idaho State University

Rex W. Force is vice president for health science and senior vice provost at Idaho State University. In this role he oversees the health sciences academic enterprise on the Pocatello and Meridian campuses which include 15 clinics, 400 faculty and staff, and nearly 3000 students. Previously he served as associate dean for clinical research in the Division of Health Sciences at Idaho State and holds a tenured full professorship in the department of family medicine. He is also a professor of pharmacy practice. Force earned his B.S. in pharmacy from Oregon State University and his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Texas and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, after which he completed a two-year clinical research fellowship at Ohio State University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and has an additional certification in health care quality improvement.

André Le Duc

University of Oregon

André Le Duc is the University of Oregon’s first chief resilience officer and associate vice president for safety and risk services. Le Duc is a member of the President’s Senior Leadership Team and serves on the University’s Strategic Enterprise Risk Management Committee. He established the first All-Hazard Higher Education Incident Management Team for the university. Prior to working as a senior administrator, Le Duc served as the founding and executive director of the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience, an applied research center and a coalition of public, private, and professional organizations working toward the mission of creating a disaster resilient state. Le Duc holds an M.S. in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon and B.S. in both geography and environmental policy and planning from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. He is also a graduate of the Department of Homeland Security FEMA National Emergency Management Executive Academy Cohort-1.

Liza Tupa

Director of Education and Research, Behavioral Health Program

303.541.0224 ltupa@wiche.edu

Liza Tupa is the director of education and research for WICHE’s Behavioral Health Program. A licensed clinical psychologist, her career has focused on public behavioral health service delivery. She has expertise in behavioral health service delivery systems in Colorado and other western states, program evaluation, behavioral health policy, management and leadership, and a variety of clinical issues. She has worked in public behavioral health systems, including a community mental health center, Department of Corrections, and a state psychiatric institute. Previously, Tupa served as deputy director of Colorado’s Office of Behavioral Health, providing leadership in community behavioral health programming and public services planning, procurement, and regulation. Her graduate training had a dual focus on clinical work and research, with research specialization in program and assessment tool evaluation. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in public psychology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, studying public mental health service delivery and mental health case law. Her experience includes numerous clinical trainings, teaching college-level psychology, and presentations in the areas of behavioral health systems, communication skills training and assessment, critical incident stress debriefings, and recovery-focused mental health service delivery.

Doug Jensen

Bismarck State College

Doug Jensen became president of Bismarck State College on July 1, 2020. Previously, he served as president at Rock Valley Community College in Illinois and before that as the president of the Alabama Technology Network in the Alabama Community College System.

He has more than 25 years of experience in higher education and is a proud community college graduate, earning an A.S. degree from Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, PA, his M.S. and B.S. from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA, and his Ed.D. from Edgewood College in Madison, WI.

Marc Johnson

University of Nevada, Reno

Marc Johnson’s tenure as president of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) was marked by record student enrollment and academic achievement, advancement of the University’s research and innovation agenda and a deep commitment to partnering with the state of Nevada to drive business, industry and economic diversification. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Emporia State University in Kansas, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1994. His advanced degrees include a master of technology in international development from North Carolina State University, a master of economics from Michigan State University and a doctorate of agricultural economics from Michigan State. Johnson joined the UNR in June 2008 as executive vice president and provost. Johnson just recently stepped down as University of Nevada, Reno president in October 2020 and will join the faculty in the College of Business in Fall 2020.

Michelle Rizk

University of Alaska

Michelle Rizk has served as the vice president of university relations at the University of Alaska (UA) since 2015. Rizk’s strategic approach to decision-making has led to significant progress in UA’s efforts to rectify its federal land grant deficit. Additionally, working in partnership with the UA Foundation, she has successfully enhanced the university’s philanthropic giving; and, she has worked to establish the university’s proactive advocacy efforts across all three universities and community campuses. During her 22-year career at UA, Rizk has gained a deep knowledge of every key university area including finance, information technology, and human resources. She earned her undergraduate degree in international business and Spanish and master’s degree in business administration, both from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Mark Mitsui

Portland Community College

Mark Mitsui became president of Portland Community College in September 2016. Prior, he served as deputy assistant secretary for community colleges at the U.S. Department of Education. He currently leads Oregon’s largest higher education institution and is focused on equitable student success. He also serves on the We Are Still In Leaders Circle; as a commissioner on the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities and the board of the American Council on Education. Before DC, he served as president of North Seattle College where he was the founding chair for Asian Pacific Islander Association of Colleges and Universities.  Before this, he served as vice president of student services at South Seattle College.  Mitsui holds a B.S. in physical education from Western Washington University, and an M.A. in education from the University of Washington.

Rudyane Rivera-Lindstrom

Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission

Rudyane Rivera-Lindstrom is the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s first permanent director for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In this new role, Rivera-Lindstrom leads equity and diversity efforts both internally and externally for the agency, supporting the HECC’s  goals for equitable outcomes in postsecondary education, helping staff uphold the equity lens in policymaking, budgeting, and supporting the HECC agency to become more inclusive, diverse, and equitable for all employees.  Rivera-Lindstrom brings 26 years of service in education and extensive expertise in equity change and leadership, most recently serving as education equity and high school success coordinator for the Clackamas Education Service District since 2017. She completed a bachelor’s in social and behavioral studies, a master of education from Portland State University, and an education administrative credential and doctoral coursework at George Fox University.

Larry Roper

Oregon State University

Larry Roper is professor emeritus of language, culture, and society at Oregon State University. He served as coordinator of the social justice minor and has centered his leadership on equity, inclusion, and intercultural relationship development.  He previously served as vice provost for student affairs and interim dean of liberal arts. He is currently a commissioner with the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission and on the Governor’s Education Recovery Committee.  He is co-editor of the recently published monograph, Centering Dialogue in Leadership Development (2019). Larry has degrees from Heidelberg University, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Maryland.

Cynthia Lindquist

Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College

Cynthia Lindquist has been president of Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College (CCCC) since 2003 and is currently chair, for the North Dakota Association of Tribal Colleges (NDATC).  Lindquist also serves on the executive committee for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC).  CCCC provides higher education opportunities to the Spirit Lake Dakota reservation in North Dakota.  Lindquist received her B.A. in Indian studies from the University of North Dakota, a Master’s in public administration with an emphasis on tribal health systems from University of South Dakota, and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from University of North Dakota.

Donald Warne

University of North Dakota

Donald Warne is the associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as the director of the Indians Into Medicine (INMED) and master of public health programs, and professor of family and community medicine at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. He also serves as the senior policy advisor to the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board in Rapid City, SD. Warne is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, SD and comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men. He received his M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health. His work experience includes: several years as a primary care physician with the Gila River Health Care Corporation in Arizona; staff clinician with the National Institutes of Health; Indian legal program faculty with the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University; health policy research director for Inter Tribal Council of Arizona; executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board; and chair of the department of public health at North Dakota State University.

Sweeney Windchief

Montana State University

Sweeney Windchief (Nakoda) is a member of the Fort Peck Tribes in northeastern Montana and serves an associate professor, joining Montana State University in 2013. His research interests fall under the umbrella of indigenous intellectualism to include indigenous methodologies in research and indigenous student persistence in higher education. His teaching privileges include critical race theory, indigenous methodologies in research, and law and policy in higher education. He earned his Doctor of Education in educational leadership and policy at the University of Utah in 2011.  He and his wife Sara have two sons who help keep things in perspective.

Hilary Godwin

University of Washington

Hilary Godwin joined the University of Washington in 2018 as dean of the School of Public Health and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences. Prior to that, Godwin spent twelve years on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health and ten years in the department of chemistry at Northwestern University and held a number of different leadership positions at both institutions. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and a B.S. in chemistry with honors from the University of Chicago. She is deeply committed to promoting the health of all people, locally and globally.

Kathryn Hanley

New Mexico State University

Kathryn A. Hanley is a Regents’ professor of biology at New Mexico State University (NMSU), where she investigates the evolution, ecology and control of emerging viruses in the laboratory and the field. Her studies have shed light on the risk of emergence of mosquito-borne viruses around the world. Before joining NMSU, Hanley was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health as part of the team that developed the NIH dengue virus vaccine, currently in Phase III clinical trials. Hanley received her B.A. in biology at Amherst College and her Ph.D. in biology at University of California, San Diego.

Joshua Wynne

University of North Dakota

Joshua Wynne received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, completing residencies in internal medicine and cardiology at Harvard Medical School’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In 2004, he was recruited to the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS). He has been UND’s vice president for health affairs and dean of its SMHS since 2010. He served as UND interim president from 2019 -2020 and was appointed as North Dakota’s chief health strategist in June, 2020. He heads the state university system’s Smart Restart Task Force on campus reentry during COVID-19.