On March 21, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey selected Arizona State University alumnus Gregg Brewster to serve on the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), the governing body of Arizona's public university system.
In April, members of the Arizona Senate Education Committee will make a full Senate confirmation vote to approve Brewster for an eight-year term as one of ABOR’s newest regents.
Gregg Brewster speaks at the ASU Alumni Advocacy Breakfast in 2021.
“Gregg Brewster has a tremendous record as an engaged and dedicated advocate for Arizona higher education," ASU President Michael M. Crow said. "Gregg's extensive service and leadership as an active ASU alumnus demonstrates his personal commitment to student success and his experience will provide valuable insight to the board."Brewster is a retired senior health care sales executive whose expertise includes strategic marketing, international business, sales leadership, and supply chain management and transportation with Owens & Minor and Cardinal Health Enterprise.
Brewster’s legacy of civic engagement and serving fellow Sun Devils and Arizonans started during his time as a communication student on the Tempe campus when he worked alongside student body presidents from Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona.
“It was an exciting part of my ASU experience,” he said. “We worked together and met with the state Legislature on issues that were important to all three universities of this great state. This experience opened my eyes and gave me a perspective to the needs of all the other universities here in Arizona.”
Even though the three state universities can be rivals, Brewster’s experiences working with NAU and UA helped him learn how to collaborate.
He brought an equally collaborative approach to his career in the highly competitive health care industry, where he was charged with housing various brands of medical devices or pharmaceutical products under one distributor and/or manufacturer. Brewster calls this “coopetition,” the blend of competition and cooperation.
“Coopetition” is one of the driving forces for Brewster’s goals as a regent, which encompass public service, fiscal responsibility and bridging the gap between institutions of higher education, business and the community in both urban and rural areas of the state.
“I always made a point in my career, regardless of what I was doing in the health care industry, to be involved in civic, charitable foundations or educational boards and committees,” he said.
Two of those organizations serve Sun Devils in particular. Brewster is a member of the Association of Operating Room Nurses Foundation Board (AORN) Foundation Board of Directors, as well as an active participant on the Arizona State University Alumni Board, where he serves as the 2022–23 chair elect.
In fact, one of his goals as a regent is to connect nursing students with AORN leaders to create a perioperative/surgical curriculum at ASU's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Additionally, Brewster plans to be actively involved and engaged with the ASU Alumni Legislative Advocacy Committee to improve state of Arizona funding for the ASU-led New Economy Initiative.
Gregg Brewster (right) at an ASU basketball game.
Mentorship and leadership is another key pillar for Brewster’s vision as a regent, and he credits ASU’s culture of service leadership for helping him to realize it.
“It is inspirational leadership. It is servitude leadership, but you can see why our university is known as No. 1 in innovation. There is no resting on laurels. There's constantly pushing forward to be better tomorrow than we were today,” he said.
Brewster, who is not just one, but more than nearly a dozen Sun Devils in his family, said he is proud to see the growth of Arizona.
“Through the years, it was so great to watch the university evolve,” he said. “The state of Arizona is evolving to where it is no longer a sleepy little state that people come to to warm up from the Midwest. It is certainly a place of economic power, especially in my industry of health care.”
Brewster looks forward to making a positive lasting impact for every learner and resident.
“I live by a motto to truly give more than you get and leave more than you take,” he said.
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