A Force of Change

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As an incoming freshman in 1986, Anne Root said she was “scared to death to be on campus.” She continues, “I didn’t know how I would get to my classes, I didn’t know how anything worked!”

How did she go from frightened underclassman to president of the SOU Foundation Board? Anne says she owes it to her faculty and the many others here who invested in her. “It wasn’t any one particular person, because all the faculty invested in me. I was a single mom at the time, trying to put myself through school. I didn’t have a lot of money. I was poor and scared.”

She remembers the turning point came when she started working for Phil Campbell, director of housing. Anne recalls, “I got to be a secretary, and I met a lot of students and faculty, which got me into student government. I really connected with the administration. By the time I was thirty-one, I was in business, and I related well to administrators and faculty. All those people made such a huge difference for me.”

As the mother of two elementary-age children, Root had moved to southern Oregon from Thermopolis, Wyoming. After graduating with a BS in psychology and a minor in business, Root moved to Australia, where she completed her master’s in commerce. Today, Anne is an accomplished businesswoman, and she lends her skills to the winery she and her husband own. “His family, the Root family, has been in the pear industry since 1908,” she explains. “I got into it from property exchanges and orchard conversion. I was involved in the property management. I had a real estate license from back in Wyoming, so I took that on.”

Anne’s psychology degree has helped her in the wine trade. “The agriculture part you pick up. It’s the business principles and the psychology of understanding people that you have to learn, so I really used my degree.”

She is quick to add, “I’ve been active on campus since the day I came here. I was on the Business Advisory Board for a number of years, and I’ve been asked to sit on a lot of searches for some of the top positions. I’ve been active in the Foundation Board and currently serve as president. I met my husband here, too,” she smiles. “He was president of the Regional Advisory Board when I was president of the student association.”

Because she had such a wonderful experience as Southern Oregon University, Anne is eager to give back to SOU and the community that so inspires her.

Asked to deliver a speech to incoming freshmen last fall, Anne said her biggest piece of advice is to become involved and not just sit by, waiting for opportunities to grow. She urges students, “This is an amazing school with small classes and committed faculty. Take advantage of whatever aspect the University has to offer—every experience and every department, the cocurricular and extracurricular activities. Really involve yourself with the faculty. It makes a lifetime change in you as a person, and it sets you on the path of having a network of people who care about you. You’re wasting time if you come to this school and you don’t integrate with faculty and administrators. You will miss more than 50 percent of the experience if you do.”

Over two decades after Anne first arrived on campus, shy and nervous about her new adventure, she is a force of change not only at Southern Oregon University, but in Oregon, as well. We’re glad she had the courage to get involved.

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