{"id":2312,"date":"2026-08-28T18:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:18:39","slug":"presidents-speaker-series-leaders-legacy-launched-with-buckley-wetzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/2026\/08\/28\/presidents-speaker-series-leaders-legacy-launched-with-buckley-wetzel\/","title":{"rendered":"President\u2019s Speaker Series \u2018Leaders & Legacy\u2019 Launched With Buckley, Wetzel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 Tarleton State University launched its new President\u2019s Speaker Series, \u201cLeaders & Legacy,\u201d Aug. 28, welcoming Tarleton State alumnus Colton Buckley and veteran sports journalist Dan Wetzel for a conversation centered on their careers, leadership and the experiences that shaped their professional journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The series brings accomplished leaders from a variety of professions to Tarleton State, providing students and the university community an opportunity to hear firsthand about the decisions, experiences and lessons that define successful careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeadership is shaped by experience, purpose and a willingness to learn from every opportunity,\u201d said Tarleton State President Dr. James Hurley. \u201cColton Buckley and Dan Wetzel have built remarkable careers in very different fields, and their willingness to share the lessons behind those journeys gives our students a valuable perspective on what it takes to lead with confidence, adapt through change and leave a meaningful legacy. That is exactly what we want this series to offer our students, faculty and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buckley serves as chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the federal agency that works with farmers, ranchers and private landowners to conserve natural resources on working lands. He was appointed to the role in May after previously serving as the agency\u2019s associate chief and chief of staff. A Tarleton State alumnus, Buckley earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in agricultural services and development. Earlier in his career, he worked in rural economic development and served as the first student regent from Tarleton State for The Texas A&M System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wetzel is a senior writer and multimedia journalist with ESPN\u2019s Enterprise and Investigative unit. He joined ESPN in March 2025 following more than two decades at Yahoo Sports, where he was a national columnist, broke major stories and investigations, covered major sporting events around the world and co-hosted the \u201cCollege Football Enquirer\u201d podcast. He also is a New York Times bestselling author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the inaugural \u201cLeaders & Legacy\u201d conversation, Buckley and Wetzel reflected on their career paths and the experiences that have influenced their work, giving attendees insight into two distinctly different professional journeys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Tarleton State University launched its new President\u2019s Speaker Series, \u201cLeaders & Legacy,\u201d Aug. 28, welcoming Tarleton State alumnus Colton Buckley and veteran sports journalist Dan Wetzel for a conversation centered …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":2313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-staff","category-students"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"jpartin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/author\/jpartin\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/08\/Leaders-and-Legacy-300x200.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Faculty<\/a>","Staff<\/a>","Students<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Faculty<\/span>","Staff<\/span>","Students<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 8 hours ago","modified":"Updated 8 hours ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 28, 2026","modified":"Updated on August 28, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 28, 2026 6:18 pm","modified":"Updated on August 28, 2026 6:18 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2315,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}