OC introduces three new chief officials

There are some new titles in the Oklahoma Christian University administration this year.

Vice presidential roles are now chief officer or chief of staff roles. Everyone in administration has different titles: even the president now goes by chief executive officer John deSteiguer.

Jeff McCormack now serves as chief academic officer and Jeff Dimick has become chief recruiting officer. Both McCormack and Dimick held different roles at Oklahoma Christian, as dean of the college of natural health sciences and chief operating officer respectively.  John Hermes has also transitioned into a new role as chief operations officer after serving as the university’s chief technology officer.

Jeff McCormack 

Jeff McCormack is an Oklahoma Christian graduate.  McCormack went on to receive his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma before beginning his career in the medical field and later becoming a faculty member at Lipscomb University.

Jeff McCormack came to Oklahoma Christian as a faculty member and dean of natural health sciences six years ago. He now serves as chief academic officer.

“My responsibility is oversight of all academic programs, whether it is existing programs or new academic programs here on campus,” McCormack said. 

McCormack said he wants to successfully launch a new college, which is an online and nontraditional college, and increase enrollment for the winter.

Jeff Dimick

Jeff Dimick was a student at Oklahoma Christian in 1980 to 1983. Dimick earned a bachelor’s degree in math and computer science and went to Oklahoma State for his master’s degree. After receiving his master’s degree, he moved to Los Angeles and worked for Hughes Aircraft which was later bought by Boeing. 

Dimick was an astrodynamicist for 12 years and worked with launching satellites and making sure they stayed in the station. Dimick later worked ground system development for 15 years as a program manager on the GPS ground system. He also pursued a  career in video production.

“I started and ran a video post-production company,” Dimick said. “The company edited many TV shows like ‘Pimp My Ride’ on MTV and plenty of other networks like PBS, History Channel and ABC Family. I ran that business for about 10 years.”

Dimick never lost touch with Oklahoma Christian and was on the board of trustees from 2007 to 2018. He stepped down when he became an employee. Since June 2020 Dimick has been the head of recruitment at Oklahoma Christian. 

“My goal is or us to have a large freshman class to come into OC, about 450 new freshmen, and exceed the budget’s expectation,” Dimick said. “Also, to get more international students on campus to exceed the diversity on campus and to bring in different cultures.”

John Hermes

John Hermes attended Oklahoma Christian as a student and has been a faculty member for 27 years. After graduating from Oklahoma Christian, Hermes went to Oklahoma State University, where he received his master’s in IT management. He later moved into IT at Oklahoma Christian as chief technology officer. Hermes currently holds the role of chief operating officer.

“I am responsible for all the operations on campus, anything that is not academics, like athletics and student life and admissions and anything with facilities,” Hermes said. 

Hermes said some of his goals include finishing up the soccer building and North Crossing with the new fountain on campus. He said his’ main focus is to finish up some big projects on campus this year.