UOPX alumni spotlight: Rodney D. Lehrbass
When Rodney D. Lehrbass (BSIOP, 2022; MSIOP, 2024; DM, in progress) was growing up, money was tight, and his mom was good at figuring out how to make the dollars stretch. Lehrbass recalls how she’d sew clothes for the family, take apart appliances to repair them herself and even repurpose cereal box flaps as shoe inserts when the soles wore out.
As it turns out, the apple doesn’t fall far from the Lehrbass tree.
Today, Lehrbass may be 60 years old, but he’s not done hustling. Like his mom, he knows how to take things apart and fix them — he’s a field service engineer and technical lead for a medical-device company — and he knows how to get the most out of the resources he has. For his mom, that was money. For Lehrbass, it’s time. In addition to his career, which has him on 70 flights a year and logging 30,000 miles on the company car, he is a master woodturner who is simultaneously pursuing a Doctor of Management at UOPX.
The common denominator for all of it? Figuring out how things work.
Roots of curiosity
Lehrbass traces his curiosity back to his childhood. His father worked in commercial real estate in Southern California, and at one point acquired the contents of a pawnshop. These he moved into the family garage, much to the young Lehrbass’ delight.
Rodney D. Lehrbass
BSIOP, 2022; MSIOP, 2024; DM, in progress
“I would get a large crate or packing-type box, and I’d build a spaceship,” he recalls. “Or I’d build various things and use all these gadgets from our garage to make controls or elements of what I was building, so I was always working with something. I found working with my hands very natural.”
In this same vein, he was used to working with wood. He started off using simple tools as a child. Then, in high school, it became a passion. “I took one wood shop class, and I was addicted to the feel of wood, the smell of wood, the look of wood,” he says.
Unfortunately, that passion didn’t extend to spending the rest of the school day sitting at a desk. He recalls how he’d routinely check in at first period for attendance and then skip out on the rest of the school day to stroll through the community. He wasn’t getting into trouble, per se. He would watch local artisans work with wood and metal in their shops.
Finally, the school administrators caught on and worked out a deal. If Lehrbass, who was sharp and earned good grades, could commit to attending his classes, the school would allow him to work as a teacher’s aide for wood shop class and apprentice at a local cabinet shop.
This was the moment that could change Lehrbass’ life! And it did — but not in the way he’d hoped.
“At the age of 15, I cut my hand in a table saw,” Lehrbass says. “I’d been there for two days, and the boss walked up behind me and distracted me.”
His hand, which was in a cast for six months, eventually healed. His courage took a bit longer.
When strengths only go so far
Lehrbass grew up and tapped into the work ethic he’d had since he got his first job at 13. Laboring, saving, providing — this was the pattern he followed throughout adulthood to support his family.
He also brought key strengths to the table. He’ll be the first one to tell you he’s adaptable, extroverted and good at figuring things out.
His mentors — and he has more than one — can corroborate this. Rob Followell, who is currently CEO of a leadership consultancy, recalls working with Lehrbass at a hospital where Followell was the CEO.
Rob Followell
Leadership Consultant and CEO of The Followell Company
“Rodney was always willing to join projects, research potential solutions and share the information with the team,” Followell says. “He is a big thinker but does not shy away from the details.”
Energetic and motivated, Lehrbass moved all over the country, logging years in Maine, West Virginia and Oregon before landing in Texas, where he lives today. Sometimes a job took him to a new place. Sometimes curiosity. But the momentum finally came to a halt during a performance review a few years ago.
“My manager made a simple statement: ‘I would like to see you get your degree,’” Lehrbass writes in a personal essay titled “In the Autumn of My Life.” This was more than encouragement. The manager said Lehrbass should’ve been “first in line” for a promotion that had instead gone to someone Lehrbass had trained. The reason? According to Lehrbass, he needed his degree.
While Lehrbass had plenty of training courses and certificates under his belt, he had no transcripts for the smattering of college classes he’d taken in the ’80s. Still, he approached University of Phoenix with his experience, the documentation he did have and the drive to earn his bachelor’s degree.
Using knowledge for good
Perhaps the biggest surprise was not that he could complete his degree but that he savored the process.
“I enjoy learning, taking in new concepts and new ideas,” Lehrbass says.
Bolstering his knowledge complements his natural skill set. He’s always worked with his hands, always figured out how pieces fit together to operate. (“I can fix anything,” he says. “It doesn't matter what it is. If I know what it’s supposed to do, I can figure out.”) Adding theoretical and intellectual information to that knowledge only enhances his abilities.
“Einstein was quoted as saying that … as long as he knows where to find the information, he pretty much knows everything,” Lehrbass says. “When there’s not an answer, then we have to create [one].”
In Lehrbass’ case, both approaches seem to apply. After he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology (where, arguably, he spent time finding answers), he rolled right into his Doctor of Management program, where he now creates answers. Specifically, his dissertation addresses how to align instruction with learning preferences of engineering-minded technicians.
It’s something he knows quite a bit about.
Like his mother, who used her skills to effect practical results for her family, Lehrbass wants to use both his experience and his academic accomplishments to effect positive change in his field.
“I am not where I believe I am designed to be,” he says. Lehrbass sees God in much of his life history, from guiding him in his latest relocation to Texas, where he can be closer to family, to aligning circumstances in his life so that he could not only pursue his degrees but also thrive during the process.
“When God puts His hand out there and says, ‘This is where I want you to be,’ everything just falls into place,” Lehrbass observes.
Perhaps it is this faith then that makes him bold in his pursuit. He doesn’t just want another job, you see. He wants the right job.
“I want to be a lifecycle optimization specialist where I make sure that not only is [a product] manufacturable, but it’s serviceable, and at the same time, it’s usable and it’s going to be productive throughout its lifecycle,” Lehrbass says.
What’s more, he wants to build a “culture of teamwork” between quality assurance, engineering and research-and-development teams. This is another nod to both his industrial-organizational training and his varied work experience.
And while all that is happening? Well, he will be working with his hands, creating veritable artworks out of wood. Some things never change.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Exline has been telling stories ever since she won a writing contest in third grade. She's covered design and architecture, travel, lifestyle content and a host of other topics for national, regional, local and brand publications. Additionally, she's worked in content development for Marriott International and manuscript development for a variety of authors.
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