Eudora Welty Prize · University Press of Mississippi, 2020
View at University Press of Mississippi →"Expanding capacity is necessary. Making it function is essential."
Meridian Letters, 2025
I've seen what happens when systems don't align. I've also seen what's possible when they do.
After years serving as a Chief Academic Officer, Academic Vice President, and Dean of Faculty, I kept seeing the same pattern: Education expands capacity based on projected need; health systems respond to immediate operational pressure; and policy operates on yet another timeline entirely.
Each decision makes sense on its own, but, taken together, the systems don't align. Students move through programs without adequate clinical exposure. Health systems struggle to integrate new graduates. Hospitals report staffing shortages while nursing schools turn away qualified applicants — not for lack of interest but for lack of coordination.
The challenge isn't a lack of effort. It's the absence of shared timelines, aligned incentives, and coordinated decision-making structures. I founded Wales Strategy Group to address these coordination failures, because the problem is institutional not individual.
I've always believed that good writing and good strategy require the same thing: the discipline to say exactly what you mean and the courage to mean it. I read widely, write often, and spend the rest of my time with the people I love and a dog who unfortunately has no interest in systems alignment.
