Monday, October 6, 2014
Cerro Coso proudly congratulates Professor Matt Hightower on the successful completion of his degree of Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) with emphasis in quantitative methods from Northcentral University, something he has wanted to accomplish for over 30 years. He found Northcentral's fully accredited online program too appealing to pass up.
The topic of Dr. Hightower's dissertation was A Comparative Study of Participant Satisfaction with Group Decision-Making between Consensus and Analytic Hierarchy Process Techniques and he held six quasi-experimental group decision-making sessions, two up north and four in Ridgecrest, using Cerro Coso faculty, staff, and community members as subjects. He truly appreciated the tremendous support he received from the college president, vice president, ESCC director, and all those who participated in the study and encouraged him in meeting his goal.
Dr. Hightower was in the same cohort as CCCC adjunct instructor Anthony Damiano, who earned a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree during the same timeframe.
Dr. Hightower began his career at the college in 1997 when he transferred from Bakersfield College to take a position at Cerro Coso's Eastern Sierra College Center in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes. He played a key leadership role in the successful implementation of the college's online education program, serving as faculty director for the program from 1997 to 2006. He is currently teaching business, computer information systems, and economics in class and online for the college.
In addition to his Doctorate in Business Administration from Northcentral University, Dr. Hightower holds a BS and MBA from California State University, Bakersfield. He enjoys hiking, cycling, fishing, photography, and music and resides in the Mammoth Lakes area with his wife Kay. CONGRATULATIONS DR. HIGHTOWER!