Steven BallardSteven Ballard is a proud graduate of Galesburg High School (Illinois), the University of Arizona (BA, 1970), and the Ohio State University (MA, PhD, 1976). He benefitted greatly and learned much about the importance of higher education and about makng a positive difference for others from his mother (Lorraine, a nurse) and father (Rene, a teacher). Throughout his forty-five-year career in public universities (University of Oklahoma, University of Maine, Bowling Green State University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and East Carolina University) as well as service on the City Council of Norman, Oklahoma, he grew to appreciate the importance of public service to our country.He was a three-year letter winner in baseball at the University of Arizona. He was first team all-conference in 1968 and was the captain of his 1970 team, which participated in the College World Series in Omaha. He played professional baseball in the minor leagues for the St. Louis Cardinal organization (1970, 1971).Following a thirteen-year tenure on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma, where he served as Chair of the University Athletics Council, he then spent nine years at the University of Maine, where he was a faculty member in political science and the founding director of the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. His primary administrative positions were at Bowling Green (chief research officer), UMKC (chief academic officer), and East Carolina University (chancellor). Currently, he is chancellor emeritus at ECU and director of the BB&T Center for Leadership Development. He lives with his wife, Nancy, and dog, Shea, in Washington, North Carolina. He enjoys communication about leadership and can be reached at scb@ecu.edu. Read More Read Less