The Briefcase Basics

Beginning Jan. 26, Troy University Continuing Education and Outreach will launch Briefcase Basics, a speaker series in which professionals will share the important role leadership has played in their success.

The Briefcase Basics series will allow attendees to connect and grow their networks with like-minded professionals who actively engage in ways to better themselves and their workplaces. Participants will not only have the opportunity to hear the value of various styles of leadership in forming successful personal and professional lives.

The sessions will be held Jan. 26, March 30 and May 17 in the Whitley Hall Gold Room on the University’s Montgomery Campus. Sessions will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Registration, which is available online at https://www.troy.edu/academics/continuing-education/professional-development-offerings/business-management/briefcase-basics.html, is $25 per a person. Sponsorships opportunities starting at $300 are also available to organizations looking to invest in their employee’s professional development.  

Troy University Chancellor, Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., will kick off the series on Jan.  26. Dr. Hawkins has served as Chancellor since 1989, making him the longest-serving, active chancellor or president of a public, four-year university in the country. During his tenure as Chancellor, Dr. Hawkins has overseen an era of change and growth at TROY, as he led the merger of the worldwide Troy State University System into the unified Troy University, an initiative called “One Great University.” More than $375 million has been invested in capital improvements by the Hawkins Administration, including academic buildings on all four of TROY’s Alabama campuses.

Eric Sloan will be the keynote speaker for the second session of the series on March 30. Sloan, who earned his bachelor’s in computer science in 2000 and his MBA in 2005 from TROY, is Founder/CEO of 1 Sync Tech, a multimillion-dollar IT government contractor offering software development, cyber security, professional services and medical information technology.

Dr. Dee Bennett and Monica Young, both TROY graduates, will close out the series on May 17. Bennett and Young are co-founders of SHORT the Squirrel, Alabama’s literacy mascot. Bennett and Young were college sorority sisters and reunited through a shared passion to develop a literacy program for Alabama’s youngest citizens. Bennett is a Troy University professor and has served as a school administrator for the past 17 years. Young is owner and principal of Assisted Communications, which creates and delivers impactful programs encouraging people to find their most productive results through communication and creativity.

“The TROY motto since 1887 has been to ‘Educate the mind to think, the heart to feel and the body to act’. We are excited about our speaker line-up for the Briefcase Basics Series because each of the speakers will do just that, by sharing their personal leadership stories,” said Laura Chambliss, Director Continuing Education and Outreach. “We look forward to welcoming professionals in the River Region to campus to connect with others and grow their network, while discovering how leadership, in its many forms, played a role in our speakers lives as they share their experiences and success stories.”