Jon Sexton 2004

Employment: I currently serve as the Chief Culture Officer at Vibrant Credit Union where I’m responsible for overseeing Talent Development and Talent Management initiatives. I started in my role last September after spending the majority of my career working with student services and leadership development programs in Higher Education. I was drawn to Vibrant based on the organization’s desire to create unique development opportunities for staff. It’s exciting and invigorating to blend my previous experience in Higher Education with building developmental opportunities for our team at Vibrant. I spend a lot of time working to build and enhance a strengths based culture at Vibrant (based on employees’ individual results from completing the Clifton Strengthsfinder Assessment). It’s great to have an opportunity to consistently talk with our staff about what they’re passionate about, what they naturally draw energy from, and working to ensure that they have the opportunity to do things they naturally do well on a regular basis.

What I’m reading: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

Memorable Central College moments: Goodness…where do I start? Central for me was all about relationships. Key memories that stand out include being among the first group of students to live in what was then called the pods. We had a fun loving group of people in the building that year and broke it in well for future generations of students.

One of my favorite memories was from the day before graduation. We were moving a sectional out of the building that day. We were bummed about saying goodbye to the couch, to the pods and to Central in general. After we set the couch on the curb a few of us sat down…and as our friends were coming back to the building that day, they sat down as well…not wanting to say goodbye. We ended up sitting on the couch for four hours that afternoon, talking and reflecting upon our time at Central. One of my favorite pictures (shown here) came from that day which I always have on display somewhere…either at home or in my office.

I also loved working in various roles for the college as an Admission tour guide, an orientation leader and as an Upward Bound tutor counselor. If I wasn’t working on campus, I was working with a great group of people at Smokey Row. There were a lot of great folks from Central that worked there with me. One additional favorite memory included an unfortunate ending to the “Water Challenge” that I held with Betty Bahn Baker ’04 during Iowa Private College week in 2003. You’ll have to ask her for details if you want the full story.
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My life after Central College: Life after Central has been good. I have an amazing partner, wife and best friend (Nicole) whom I met a few years after Central. She’s a Coe alum, which generates some fun reactions from people when we’re both wearing gear from our respective alma maters. I remain connected with many of my close friends from Central. Several of us get together every year for a fantasy football draft which is a great chance to catch up and stay in touch. Central lit a fire in me for education. I went on to pursue advanced degrees focused on student development, partially because of the profession’s connection to psychology, and partially because my time at Central left me a fascination for the college experience on the whole. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to use that knowledge now to provide developmental opportunities to people in various settings, whether it’s via my role at work, as a speaker, or individual through developmental conversations as a Gallup Certified Strengths Couch.