Alun Reese

Alun Reese is not our typical graduate. He has an award winning career as a writer and journalist, teaches in the DCR course, and yet he is still searching for more. Alun is a graduate of our Allied Health Leadership and Management program and looks forward to using what he learned in that program to create online courses focusing on the competencies and values of leadership in health care. We look forward to one day hosting some of Alun’s courses!

 Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? Family? Children? Hobbies? Likes/Dislikes?
I am not a citizen of the US but live in the UK countryside close to the Georgian city of Bath.  I was born and raised in the country of Wales and I’m a proud Celt.  I have three ‘grown-up’ children, the eldest Harry is a Classics graduate of Oxford University who chose a career in publishing and is currently UK head of Audible books. My daughter Alice is deputy editor of a US video gaming magazine; she’s a tiny woman with a powerful feminist voice. The youngest, Morgan trained as a traditional blacksmith but he’s a brave and handsome chap who wants adventure so he’s enlisted to serve in the UK Army, in our Airborne as a Combat Engineer.

I have three hunting dogs who I love and cherish but my passion is Bronze Age archaeology and living as I do within the Stonehenge area with burial mounds and ancient hill forts all around, I have ample opportunity to enjoy that passion. I like people with integrity and I absolutely dislike cheats and I’m not keen on stodgy food either.

 What kind of work do you currently do?
I combine work as an author and blogger with teaching online Violence Prevention classes for Casa Loma College and others under the auspices of Live Life Resources.  Currently, I’m working on a fiction trilogy in the ‘time shift’ genre with intertwining plots in the present and the past. The first of these novels, called The Druids Egg should be published later this year.

My previous career was in journalism when I was staff correspondent for UK print titles including the Daily Express, Daily Mail and then Mail Online. This took me on assignments around the world covering disasters and wars. About five years ago I wrote a book with a member of Seal Team Six on how best to survive an active shooter event and this led Dr. Shelburne to invite me to use my experiences in harm’s way to teach online Violence Prevention classes.

 What do you like about your career?
I love communicating and I love writing fiction. But I’ve also found online teaching, remote communication if you like, to be a fascinating challenge. I particularly enjoy the feedback I get from students expressing their gratitude for the enhanced confidence the DCR courses have given them.

 What are your career goals for the future?
My goals are two-fold. I look forward to publication of my novels but I am also very excited about the possibilities of creating new online courses to address the challenges of interprofessional Allied Health Teams and their core leadership competencies and values.

 What motivated you to enroll in the AHLM program?
For me it was a step into the unknown as, unlike my co-students, I have no background in the field of healthcare. I was also the oldest in the cohort by a couple of decades so there were obvious mountains to climb. However, I have always believed the key to living a fulfilled life is to embrace change and fresh challenges in order to re-invent oneself. The opportunity arose to join the program and I decided to take up the challenge. I found it hard work at times but the program drew back a drape to reveal a whole new world for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 How do you think this program will help your career?
I’m in the odd position of already having a successful, award winning career behind me but I am determined to write and teach new classes using the knowledge I have gained to help inspire others to rise to the absolute priority for Allied Health Leadership in the coming era of Artificial Intelligence.

 What advice can you give current students in the AHLM program that can help them be successful?
The best advice I can give is to read and watch the material provided at the start of each class as soon as possible. On the couple of occasions I did not get to grips with the sources early in the class I found myself scrambling to complete modules successfully. Trust me, it’s good advice.

 What are some highlights from your time in the AHLM Program?
I think one thing that stands out in my memory was in the Leadership module. Briefly, Earth has been wiped out by a meteorite cataclysm. There are fifteen people with a variety of very useful skills but only six can travel on a shuttle with the aim of repopulating our planet. The class was tasked with reaching a consensus as to which six should get a seat on the shuttle. Easier said that done and this classic ‘storming’ test ended in failure. We had an apocalypse but no consensus.

What was your favorite course in the AHLM Program and why?
The work on understanding Living Systems theory stands out for me.  The analogy of a team being structured in the way of all natural organisms seemed to be a light bulb, or last piece of the jigsaw moment and from that point on I felt I had an intuitive understanding of the studies we undertook. It remains central to my understanding.

 What do you like to do in your spare time?
It seems so long ago as I look back from the present Covid lockdown, but I think it’s travel. I love my visits to the Unites States with it’s grand landscapes on a truly continental scale and I cherish the unforgettable memories from driving across your great nation in a Jeep.  But I also love travelling around the UK with a landscape marinaded in history from Stonehenge to Hadrian’s Wall. I can’t wait to get back on the road.

 Where do you see yourself five years from now in your career?
A lot can happen in five years, but my ambition is to write and teach the best online course possible in the field of AHLM and I aspire to be an inspirational, online teacher.

 What is something not many people know about you?
I’m a tick magnet. I’ve had Lyme Disease six times from six separate tick bites and survive in good health.