Current Award Recipient

Charles F. Kettering Award – Employer

Dr. Ralph Brigham is the Global Director of Campus Relations for Southwestern Advantage.  For the past 17 years he has traveled to over 200 universities in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia coaching hundreds of corporate recruiters, speaking with campus officials and addressing many student classes and clubs. Most recently he was in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

Dr. Brigham holds a doctorate from Montana State University.  Prior to his current work with Southwestern, he spent 25 years in various administrative positions in higher education, most of them as Career Services Director at Montana State University.  His most fun job, though, was working for a ski resort on the highest mountain in Germany.

Dr. Brigham has served as president of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and in 2013, he was inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows, the organization’s highest honor.  Dr. Brigham currently sits as Professional Vice President on the National Council for Pi Sigma Epsilon, the collegiate sales fraternity. He’s also served as president of the Rocky Mountain Association of Colleges and Employers.

Ralph is a certified Life Coach and works with college students and professionals about such topics as goal setting, self-talk, attitude, focus, career, vision, passion, motivation, and life balance.

If you want, you could pick out 2 or 3 additional fun facts:

• Ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain (twice)
• Jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, voluntarily (it’s called sky diving)
• Toured Europe in a purple and white Volkswagen microbus with yellow and purple tie dyed curtains
• Saw both Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix live in concert
• Has been chased by an irate elephant in South Africa
• Traveled through 114 airports on 6 continents in last 10 years
• Attended Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany (and remembers it)
• Visited Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, South Africa
• Ran a marathon in 3 hours, 11 minutes
• Golfed St. Andrews, where golf originated, parring the The Road Hole!
• Swam in The Dead Sea
• Climbed to the center of the Great Pyramid in Egypt
• Climbed Mt. Vesuvius
• Gambled in Monte Carlo
• Attended “24 Hours at LeMans” in France live and in person
• Climbed the Munster Cathedral in Germany (the tallest cathedral in the world)
• Researched, found, and stayed in his ancestral home in Brigham, England, (over 400 years old)
• Golfed on 5 continents and in 33 states
• Photographed “the big five” in the wild in South Africa
• Caught a record-size sailfish off  the coast of Acapulco, Mexico
• Led a peace march in memory of those killed at Kent State University
• While he doesn’t often drink Dos Equis, he’s regularly been called “the most interesting man in the world.”