Leading off the series will be an event with Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., BSL ’94, on January 30 in San Diego, California.


Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Tampa event has been cancelled. Elizabeth Bewley’s presentation will, however, be recorded and available at a future date. 


“This speaker series is designed to showcase the rich and varied accomplishments of Excelsior graduates,” explains Vice President for Institutional Advancement Cathy Kushner, “and Bruce Bechtol and Elizabeth Bewley provide excellent examples of alumni achievement.”


Dr. Bechtol’s topic is also the subject of his latest book, Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security. In his research, Bechtol asserts that North Korea appears economically weak and politically unstable and often is categorized as a state on the brink of col- lapse — a failed state. He examines whether the American government has under-prioritized the North Korean threat to global security.


A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and retired Marine, Bechtol com- pleted his Bachelor of Science degree in liberal studies with Excelsior (then Regents) College and went on to earn a PhD from the Union Institute. Currently an associate professor of political science at Angelo State University, Bechtol previously worked and lived in South Korea, where he served as a visiting adjunct professor at the Korea University Graduate School of International Studies. Bechtol has also been on the faculty of both the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Air Command and Staff College.


In addition to the recently published Defiant Failed State, he is the author of Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea, is a contributor to several other books on North Korea, and has written nearly two dozen journal articles on that country’s security issues. Former editor of the Defense Intelligence Journal, Bechtol has served on the editorial board of the East Asian Review, sits on the board of directors of the International Council on Korean Studies, the board of direc- tors of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies, and he is a Fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies.


Elizabeth Bewley’s topic will be “Take Charge of Your Health.” Founder of the Pario Health Institute, her work focuses on catalyzing change so that health care in the U.S. may become more individual-centric and result in a health care system whose purpose is to enable people to lead the lives they want. A twenty-year veteran of health care icon Johnson & Johnson, Bewley won the Chairman’s Award for her unique and actionable strategic insights into the rapidly changing, volatile health care environment. In 2010, she wrote Killer Cure: Why Health Care is the Second Leading Cause of Death in America and How to Ensure that It’s Not Yours. In her first health care work, Solving America’s Health Care Problems (1996), she predicted many current trends in health care nearly a decade before they started to make headlines.


Now CEO of her own health care-related company, Bewley completed a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Excelsior (then Regents) and went on to earn her MBA at Columbia University. She has served on industry task forces of the National Quality Forum, which published three CEO Survival Guides for hospital CEOs on the topics of Personal Health Records (PHR), performance measurement, and Pay for Performance (P4P). Bewley believes her unwavering consumer/patient/individual advocacy has been informed by her own near-death experience and recov- ery from a bicycle crash at 44 mph.


More information regarding the Alumni Speaker Series is available on the College’s Web site at www.excelsior.edu/alumnievents.


Alumni Across the Country


Hello graduates! You may have noticed an increase in the number of regional activities for Excelsior alumni in the past year. Using social media and local events, the Office of Alumni Affairs is able to place a greater emphasis on getting to know you!


In fact, we’ve just launched two regional chapters — one in Washington, DC, headed by Excelsior alumnus Joe Campa, and a second chapter in North Carolina, led by Alumni Advisory Board member Dr. Wayne Oppel. Both chapters can be found on Facebook (just link to them from the main Excelsior College Facebook page).


We hope you’ll join us for our upcoming events in San Diego, California; Tampa, Florida; and Albany, New York (in conjunction with Commencement 2011). For more information go to excelsior. edu/alumnievents or contact us at alumni@excelsior.edu to find out what’s coming your way!


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