Strategic Assurance Consulting

As the President and CEO of Strategic Assurance Consulting, Dr. Verna Lowe brings many years of experience in higher education into all of her consulting work. Her journey includes leadership roles as dean of education, assistant to the president, and vice president for compliance in both independent and public institutions.

Dr. Verna Lowe serves as the National Director and Dean of Educator Preparation at Western Governors University. Dr. Lowe has served in two other prior roles at the university: the Academic Program Director for Teachers College’s Initial Licensure Programs and Senior Manager for Academic Compliance and Engagement for Educator Preparation Teachers College. Prior to her work at WGU, Dr. Lowe served 22 years as a Dean of Education at both private and public universities. She has also served as Vice President for Compliance. In addition to various leadership roles, Dr. Lowe served as a tenured, full professor in Education, specializing in Special Education. Within the public school setting, she has served as a special education teacher and school psychologist.

Dr. Lowe has been active at the state and national levels. She is the former president of the Kentucky Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (KACTE) and served on multiple state committees regarding issues of educator preparation. At the national level, Dr. Lowe served as a Board of Examiner member and chaired teams for the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education(NCATE). For more than eight years, she served as a member of the Accreditation Council for the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). She had the privilege to serve on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) and be appointed by the governor as a commissioner for the Education Commission of the States (ECS).

Dr. Lowe has an Ed.D. in Special Education Personnel Preparation from the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include children and youth with learning and behavioral challenges, Competency Based Education (CBE), practices for quality educator preparation, performance assessment systems, and accreditation.

Dr. Milton Lowe serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Strategic Assurance Consulting. He is retired from Asbury Theological Seminary after serving there for 24 years. For 21 of those years, he served as the Associate Director or Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program helping ministers from every continent seek their D.Min. degree.

Prior to this, Dr. Lowe pastored for over 20 years and spent 5 years doing tech support and training for a church software company.
Dr. Lowe has a D.Min. degree from Asbury Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Christian Leadership.

R. Dale Hale serves as the Online Education Consultant for Strategic Assurance Consulting. He holds a PhD from the University of Kentucky in Education Policy Studies and Evaluation (Higher Education Administration), a Masters in Social Work, and a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. His undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies provided the foundation that allowed him to build on the focus for Christ-centered education. Dale has been serving in online education for more than 20 years. He has been the Dean of the Global College, the Director of the Center for Digital Instruction, both at Christian Brothers University, and the Director of Distributed Learning at Asbury Theological Seminary. In these roles, Dale has developed his specialty in digital instruction, leading these institutions to deploy and employ the technologies that are at hand and useful for education. He has helped guide institutions in selecting Learning Management Systems, training faculty in the fine art of online instruction, established training protocols, and instituted a rubric for quality assurance and enhancement for online instruction.

Even though distance education is not a new mode, Dale strongly believes leveraging current and future technologies to reach beyond the limited space of the physical classroom is vital to the health and growth of the institution. Through the use and adoption of technology, the faculty can reach more students, make a bigger impact on a broader market, and cast a broader influence on the world.

Myrna M. Hale is the Data and Financial Operations Consultant for Strategic Assurance Consulting. With 30 years of experience in Data Storage and Financial Operations in corporate America, Myrna’s expertise focuses on the important tasks of document management and financial operations. She has been instrumental in helping institutions move to a viable financial model that will provide them with the opportunity to continue on a growth trajectory through the careful application of a working budget.

Myrna’s experience has been varied and full. She has served as an Account Executive at Kentucky Underground Storage and Document Imaging and Storage Company, Director of Business Operations for Registrat, Inc., and Human Resource Manager for Clintrials Research.