Dr. James Hauschildt is the Founder and Board Chairman of the Global Education Ministries Foundation. The foundation was established as a non-profit organization to help support global education services.

Dr. Hauschildt was born in a small Iowa town. He was a first-generation college student in his family and recognized the opportunities that his education provided in his life. It created a desire to help other people obtain their opportunities in life through obtaining a college degree.

He believed that the healthcare industry offered the broadest means of serving others and expanding his career goals. After completing his Nursing degree, Dr. James Hauschildt joined the Air Force and entered the military as a commissioned officer, working as a nurse as well as a safety and training officer for the next four years. He developed training programs and applied technology toward healthcare solutions. He also obtained his Master’s degree in Business while he was in the Air Force.

Following his time of service in the Air Force, he continued his education over the next four years where he earned his Doctorate degree while teaching nursing. The next seven years he served as a part of the faculty while working for a technology company in a consulting role in, most notably in London.

Dr. James Hauschildt gained International experience when he began to travel all over the world. His organization had locations in South America, the Middle East, and Europe. He transitioned to a position in higher education administration as a dean and then as president for a college.

James is now following his passion as founder of a nonprofit foundation to help support global education services. He is doing what he has wanted to do all his life, which is serving people through education. He resides in Mason, Ohio.

How did you get started In this industry?

The inspiration came from a desire to be a servant to others to make their lives better through educational opportunity and to improve health through education. There are so many people who have the capability but not the means to improve the conditions to which they were born. At a very young age, I remember discussing how much I wanted to help people. That has evolved over the past 30 plus years. It has manifested through health promotion, through advancing education, through personal and professional self-development, and through the use of technology to make work more efficient for others.

How does your firm make money?

We make money in mainly two ways. I am a loyal dedicated employee for the organizations I work for. As a president of a college, it is my responsibility to take the mission and a vision and make it happen. I do this through the support of the people that work there. My job is to resource the organization and on a personal level, it is through being a good leader. I am personally and professionally rewarded by helping the organization become successful and more efficient and grow. I also make money for the organization by working with donors and building endowments through developing relationships. I speak with key donors to develop scholarships and endowments for students and faculty.

How long did it take for you to become profitable?

It did not take very long to become profitable. I have been in the industry for so long. The first thing that I do when I come into a new organization is to first and foremost get to know the people in the first few months and really spending time on relationship building. Then I look for efficiencies by aligning our policies and procedures to national and industry standards. Whether that be accreditation standards, standards within the various consortiums that we belong to, adherence to our policies, or compliance and regulatory policy and procedures. All of this is a basis for establishing an infrastructure through relationship building. By the first year, we had already reduced expenses by 20% without any loss of positions or people and reduced our expenses by half a million dollars. At the same time, we were adding new programs and developing new majors. That added to new revenue development of over $1M. Through greater efficiencies and program growth, we were able to turn around about a million and a half in the first year.

When you first started out did you ever doubt that this would work for you? If so, how did you handle it?

I would say yes because everything comes at a risk. Each organization struggles financially in some way. Team member engagement was in the bottom quartile. Efficiencies of operations and the alignment to accreditation standards were lacking. I had my work cut out for me. My nature is to accept a good challenge, but I think it always comes with doubts. We are working with people which means that it is not always one formula that works. It is all about making people’s lives better, and until I got to know the people that I work with and for, there will always be a certain level of uncertainty. I handled it just by developing deep relationships, then work to establish a solid governance structure to help people become engaged in the organization and align their roles to support student learning and ultimately, the strategic plan. Everyone could have a clear understanding of their job function as it relates to helping students and promoting the organization to be more successful.

How did you help your first student?

The demographic of students in today’s higher education environment is rapidly changing and has become increasingly more non-traditional, more female, and increasingly more diverse. I use the term “diversity” very expansively, in thought, in gender, in ethnicity, ideas, and in beliefs. In the last two organizations I’ve served as president, I’ve needed to rethink our approach to educating students who were not like students that we’ve had in the past. New students were increasingly adult-oriented, with jobs and families, going to school full time, and they were juggling a lot. We had to redesign our curriculum and college academic structure to accommodate these students while trying to increase our growth. We did that by blending face-to-face instruction and put more of the curriculum online. It is something that these last two colleges had not embraced yet. They taught very traditionally and we had to strategically market and advertise after our redesign. We implemented new technology, updated the curriculum, and blended face-to-face instruction with online instruction. We had to adapt to the changing demographics of the students and came with a lot of good recognition from the community as well.

What is one marketing strategy other than referrals that you use to generate new business?

We took a strategy that is typically used when recruiting college athletes. We used technology to source where each student may be applying from, get to know them, and to know why they are applying. After students were identified, we built relationships and took a proactive approach to reach out to them. We took current students on recruitment visits. I went to speak at many high school auditoriums. I would thank admissions councilors for referring our school. We took our message right to the students.

What is one of the toughest decisions that you have had to make?

The toughest decision I had to make one time was when I was unwilling to sacrifice my integrity to satisfy an unethical request from my boss. I ended up resigning my position and walking away.

What do you think makes you successful?

I am extremely motivated and driven. I am a faithful, spiritual servant leader. I am committed to making other people successful. I have been blessed with opportunity to improve the lives of others through healthcare and education and I don’t measure success financially. It is measured through being able to provide others with opportunity and I want to give that back to others.

What has been your most satisfying moment?

The most satisfying moments of my life come through the love and support of my family. When I focus on my faith, my family, and my health, everything falls into place.

What does the future hold for you and your firm? What are you most excited about?

I am excited about this foundation providing opportunities to people to serve others in education that they wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. I am excited to work for an organization that espouses the values and beliefs that it holds. I look for organizations that have a high degree of integrity and who espouse the values and beliefs, serving through healthcare, education, and technology.

What books have inspired would you recommend.

“What Color Is Your Parachute” by Richard Knowles. It helped me find the areas that I love.

What is a recent purchase that you have made for your career?

We purchased a Data Warehouse Centralized System to integrate various critical platforms we use to recruit students, communications, to teach, to manage meetings, and for internal documentation. We were able to create dashboards to track progress and goal attainment on strategic initiatives.

What is your most important value?

My most important value is love. Love one another. Professionally speaking, it means to support the people you work for and work with. It is creating a work environment of trust, mutual respect, acceptance, and collaboration. It should be with family, in the workplace, where you worship, or where you learn. Honesty and integrity. In families is where these values are most dear.

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