AM25: How to Navigate Around the Demographic Cliff

J. Michael Gower is the Executive Vice President – Chief Financial Officer & University Treasurer at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  Gower is responsible for financial management, planning, procurement, strategic administrative systems initiatives, enterprise risk management, university enrollment operations, ethics and compliance, and enrollment operations and student finance. He oversees Human Resources and Information Technology through the respective Senior Vice Presidents. 

Before Rutgers, Mr. Gower was Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer at Yeshiva University, Vice President for Finance and Administration and University Treasurer at the University of Vermont, and a higher education management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He held earlier accounting and financial management roles at Cornell University and Duke University.  

Gower is a past Chair of the EACUBO Board of Directors and has served in numerous other roles over the past 25 years. He was also a member of NACUBO’s Board of Directors and chaired its Committee on the Effective Use of Analytics. He received NACUBO’s Professional Development Award in 2008, EACUBO’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019 and NACUBO’s Distinguished Business Officer Award in 2024.

Harrison Keller became the 17th president of the University of North Texas in August 2024, bringing with him a deep commitment to advancing student success and elevating UNT’s rich tradition of academic and research excellence at the national level.

Dr. Keller is known as an innovator and leader in state educational budget and policy, university administration, fundraising, and building coalitions among higher education institutions, school districts, and policymakers to expand opportunity through education. Most recently, Dr. Keller served as Commissioner of Higher Education and chief executive officer for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, providing statewide leadership and coordination of higher education budget and policy for the world’s eighth largest economy. Under his visionary leadership, the Coordinating Board advanced policy and programs to improve college readiness and student success — especially for low-income and first-generation college students.

Prior to serving as Commissioner, Dr. Keller held numerous leadership roles at the University of Texas at Austin, serving as Deputy to the President for Strategy and Policy, Vice Provost for Higher Education Policy and Research, and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Earlier in his career, Dr. Keller was a legislative aide in the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives, Director of Research for the Texas House, and Senior Education Advisor for the Speaker of the Texas House. He has taught at UT Austin, Georgetown University, and St. Edward’s University.

A sixth-generation Texan, Dr. Keller earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s and Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. From 2005 to 2015, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He and his wife, Gena Nivens Keller, have three children.

William Jarvis is managing director and philanthropic executive at Bank of America Private Bank, where he heads strategic-thought leadership for institutional and private nonprofit organizations. An authority on investment policy and governance for endowed nonprofit organizations, Jarvis brings 41 years of experience to this role. Jarvis is the managing editor of the Bank of America Study of Philanthropy and the author of numerous white papers on investment policy and endowment governance.

Prior to joining Bank of America in 2017, Jarvis served as the executive director of the Commonfund Institute. In 2021, Jarvis was honored with NACUBO’s Rodney H. Adams Endowment Management Award for outstanding individual contributions to professional development activities in the area of college and university endowment and investment management.

Jarvis holds a B.A. in English literature from Yale University, a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Jarvis does not provide legal advice in his role at Bank of America.

Mary Stokes, a 25-year financial services industry veteran, is a managing director and market investment executive of institutional investments at Bank of America Private Bank in Atlanta.

Mary is responsible for the delivery of investment management services to clients of Bank of America Private Bank and Bank of America Retirement Solutions. Other duties include coaching and developing portfolio managers within the region, working with regional colleagues to grow the business, as well as compliance and risk management oversight.

Prior to joining Bank of America, she served as a senior consultant for Mercer Investment Consulting and Capital Resource Advisors. She began her career in the banking industry as a capital markets expert with the Comptroller of the Currency.

Mary has a passion for childhood education and serves as an Atlanta advisory board member for the Posse Foundation and foundation board member for Georgia State University. She is also actively involved in A Better Chance.