The Front Lines of Leadership: Stories to Inspire the Rising Generation of Leaders | Hosted by Jackson Taylor

Front Lines of Leadership | Dr. Rick Muma, President of Wichita State University
Dr. Rick Muma started his career in 1985 as a physician assistant caring for HIV and AIDS patients. Today he is the 15th president of Wichita State University, and the lessons from those early days still shape how he leads.
In this episode, Dr. Muma shares what a mentor taught him about grace and integrity in hard moments. He also explains why the best leaders give their people a clear path, and how his healthcare background helps him diagnose problems on campus. We talk about his book, Student Centered, Innovation Driven, and WSU’s Innovation Campus, where more than 12,000 students gain paid, real-world experience. He also explains why leadership is an activity, not a title.
His advice to the rising generation: walk through open doors, show up, and stay curious.
🎧 Listen now, and share it with a leader in your life.

Rob Morris has seen leadership from every angle: first-team All-American linebacker at BYU, first-round draft pick, and Super Bowl XLI champion with the Indianapolis Colts. His toughest season started after football. Seventeen surgeries, personal loss, and the collapse of an identity built on performance taught him that pushing harder isn’t always the answer.
In this episode of Front Lines of Leadership, Rob talks about what the NFL taught him about pressure, what life after the game taught him about real strength, and how he now helps leaders and organizations move forward when the old playbook stops working. His central lesson is that resilience isn’t about enduring uncertainty. It’s about learning to act before certainty arrives.

What if the biggest leadership breakthroughs come from the smallest moments?
In this episode of Front Lines of Leadership, I sit down with Dr. Spencer Holt: leadership speaker, coach, and Managing Director of Leadership & Development Advisory at Red Nucleus. Spencer is the former Chief People Officer at Merlin Entertainments and has spent his career helping leaders and teams grow around the world.
We talk about the everyday habits and principles that set transformational leaders apart, the research behind what makes leadership stick, and the ideas in Spencer's new book, Small Things Make a Big Difference. Spencer explains why the way we show up for others each day can matter more than any big gesture, and how anyone can build five simple habits that make a lasting impact.
Whether you lead a team of hundreds or you're just starting out, this conversation will give you practical ways to lead better starting today.

What does it take to carry on a family legacy while building your own path? In this episode, we sit down with Joe Lane, owner and operator of 12 McDonald's franchises across Kansas.
Joe's story starts in 1974, when his uncle opened the very first Lane Enterprises McDonald's in Arkansas City. Joe grew up immersed in the family business, watching it grow further when his father became an Owner/Operator in 2000. After college, Joe branched out to build his own path in the industry — and today he leads a team across 12 McDonald's locations.
In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to grow up in a family business, the lessons Joe learned from watching his father and uncle lead, and what it takes to run a large franchise operation while staying true to the values that built it. Whether you're leading a team of 5 or 500, this episode is packed with practical leadership lessons from someone who's been on the front lines for years.
Tune in to hear Joe's story of legacy, leadership, and building something of your own.

Samantha Card spent her college years as a Division I softball player before building a career that took her through an MBA and into the Fortune 100 — and today she coaches athletes through one of the hardest transitions in their lives: figuring out who they are after the game ends.
In this conversation, we talk about what it actually takes to build leaders — not just motivate them — and why so many high-performing athletes struggle to translate their skills into a professional identity once competition isn't structuring their day. We dig into working under pressure: what separates people who perform when it matters from people who fold, and how that skill is built long before the moment it's tested. We also explore the athlete-to-professional pipeline directly — the mindset shifts, the identity questions, and the practical steps that make that transition work instead of stall.
If you've ever wondered what happens when the scoreboard goes away, or how the discipline built in competition can carry into a career, this episode is for you.

What separates companies that scale from companies that stall? On this episode of Front Lines of Leadership, we sit down with Brandon Fish, Chief People Officer & Capital Strategist at VIAM, to talk about the thing too many leaders treat as an afterthought: culture.
Brandon has spent more than 20 years building the people side of high-growth organizations — Domo, Entrata, LiveView Technologies, and now VIAM — and he's seen firsthand how talent strategy and culture can make or break a company's trajectory. He was part of the leadership team that helped LVT grow from $17 million to over $200 million in revenue, a 500%+ expansion fueled as much by people decisions as by product or market timing.
We dig into what it actually looks like to build a values-driven culture at scale, why relationships are the foundation of every high-performing team, and how leaders can align people strategy with business objectives instead of treating the two as separate conversations. Brandon also opens up about the personal side of leadership — investing in marriage, family, and faith — and why the same principles that build strong organizations build strong homes.
If you're a leader trying to figure out how to grow your people alongside your business, this one's for you.

What does it actually take to build leaders of character? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Ralph Pim, a globally recognized expert on developing leaders of character through sport.
Ralph spent 12 years at the United States Military Academy building a values-based sports curriculum that transformed a program — tripling national championships while cutting disciplinary problems and raising grades. He's coached at every level, from Ohio high school ball to Division I programs, and has taken his expertise abroad, training national teams in Wales and consulting on sport development in New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia.
In this conversation, Ralph shares what he's learned about developing character through sport, and the mentors and coaches along the way, like Coach K or Pat Riley, who shaped his own leadership philosophy. It's a conversation about what really builds character, and why the leaders and coaches around us matter more than we often realize.

In this episode, we sit down with retired U.S. Army Major General Matthew Van Wagenen, who capped a 35-year military career as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Intelligence at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) — a role overseeing 45,000 Allied personnel across three continents.
Matthew shares hard-won lessons from 19 years stationed in Europe, combat deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Georgia, and his time leading deterrence operations across NATO's Eastern Flank. We dig into what it takes to lead at massive scale under high-stakes pressure, how he builds trust across diverse international stakeholders, and what business leaders can learn from military-grade change management and technology integration.
Whether you're leading a team of five or five thousand, Matthew's insights on transformational, people-first leadership offer a masterclass in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and high-tension environments.

In this episode, Mike McInelly—entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Lumio Dental—shares how he leads from the front and builds leaders along the way. Mike opens up about his approach to developing the dentists across his platform, helping them grow into stronger leaders within their own offices. At the heart of it all is a deep commitment to team: Mike doesn't talk about employees, he talks about teammates, and that mindset shapes everything from how he coaches to how he scales. A conversation about leadership, culture, and what it really means to build people up.

Amy Folan is proof that bold leadership can elevate an athletics department to extraordinary new heights.
Since taking the helm at Central Michigan University in 2020, Amy has launched a $25 million fundraising campaign, secured a $5 million health partnership, and delivered the department's best-ever fundraising year. All while keeping the focus where it belongs: on the student-athlete experience.
In this episode, Amy shares her journey from compliance professional to athletics director, the leadership philosophy that drives her decisions, and what she's learned about building culture and leading change at the highest level.
A conversation worth hearing for anyone passionate about leadership and college athletics.