By Tara Owen, Student Reporter
Teri Allen is a new professor in the business department at both the Alva and Woodward campuses. She is familiar with northwest Oklahoma, growing up in Vici and Weatherford.
She received her bachelor’s degree in finance and master’s degree in business and administration, both from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. In her free time, she helps run her family farm.
Q: What brought you to Northwestern?
A: When the position opened at Northwestern, I was excited knowing that they also had a Woodward campus. I feel very fortunate that they agreed for me to teach primarily from the Woodward campus.
I commute to Alva one day a week usually, and I really like Northwestern. I feel like the students are from northwest Oklahoma, and northwest Oklahoma is where my heart is.
Q. What are you looking forward to this year in the classroom?
A: I always tell my students my No. 1 goal for them is they learn — that they truly learn the information that they need to succeed, not just in their careers, but in life.
I hope that my students can learn, even if they do not think it’s useful now. At some point in the future, they will be able to look back and remember what they had learned at Northwestern.
Q. Who was one of your heros growing up?
A: A lady who was a friend of my parents. She was the vice president of a local bank. I was very inspired by her because her family was very similar to mine.
They also homesteaded in northwest Oklahoma, came from nothing, and she was a female role model in a business and finance environment.
At that point in time, there were not a lot of women in that profession. She was really an inspiration to me to go ahead and get that degree in finance.
Q. What is one of the scariest things you have ever done?
A: I am very afraid of heights. But I once zip-lined. I decided that I had to face my fear. To me, that was the scariest thing that I have ever done. I have also swam with sharks, but that was not near as scary as zip-lining.
Q. What would be your superpower if you could have one?
A: I would love to run fast. There have to be superpowers that are much better, but I have just never been a fast runner. I think it would be very neat to have the power to run fast.