Katie Tyler is the current Rural Leadership North Dakota Program Director at North Dakota State University. With more than 15 years of experience in various roles in higher education, she has served as a director of enrollment services at Minot State University, a 4-H youth development specialist with NDSU Extension, and an associate director of student activities with Philadelphia University. Her research interests include leadership and organizational development, student access to higher education, institutional efforts to impact student engagements, and success, and the impact of pandemics on organizations. Her current work examines higher education institutions as COVID 19 impacted their operations.