Written by: Amanda Blake
After 22 consecutive years of working at Southern Adventist University, Doug Frood, former associate vice president for Financial Administration, recently began a new chapter of his career as chief financial officer of Thomas University in Thomasville, Ga.
Frood spent his tenure at Southern serving in various financial positions, but some faculty members and students know him best from his sponsorship roles in Student Association (SA), Studio 4109 and the SMARRT Fund.
Several of Frood’s best campus memories derived from his interactions with students. For nearly 10 years, he simultaneously acted as SA’s finance adviser and as a co-sponsor for Studio 4109, a former campus comedy show. In an interview with the Accent, Frood said that decade was the best of his life.
“As I’ve told people, … I’m blessed beyond measure,” Frood said, “because I would go to meetings with other accounting professionals from other higher ed [institutions] and talk about what I was doing with Studio [4109] and SA and some of that, and they were just all like, ‘I didn’t get to do that.’ I said, ‘Well, fortunately, I’m working at an institution that values that and has the grace to allow me to do that.’”
In the late 2000s, Frood oversaw Southern’s Food Services budget. While speaking with individuals in similar positions at other institutions about their experiences, he was inspired to begin a comedy show on campus hosted in Southern’s Dining Hall. His idea turned into a reality when Studio 4109, stylistically similar to Saturday Night Live with the goal of showcasing student talent, was born in 2011. The show grew popular, moving to Iles P.E. Center after a few years. It was discontinued in 2021.
Studio 4109 skits often poked fun at prominent issues on campus and within the Seventh-day Adventist church; for example, Frood remembers one skit in which a student acted like a drug dealer and pretended to sell bacon. These comedy acts were about elevating people above rules, just as Jesus did, Frood said.
Despite this intention, Frood often received criticism for certain performances.
“Doug always felt his purpose at Southern was to engage in student relationships as often as possible and reach students who might not participate in other campus events.”
“I took heat over the bacon [skit], and I just said, ‘Listen, then you missed the point a little bit,’” Frood said. “It wasn’t a statement on the health message; it was a statement about feeling you were holier because you were doing it.”
Mistakes were made, but complaints typically focused on “two minutes out of 95,” according to Frood.
“Let’s try to not throw out the baby with the bathwater,” he said, referencing his outlook on flak directed at Studio 4109.
Kevin Christenson, a 2016 Southern graduate and current head of the Seventh-day Adventist film department Hope Studios, co-founded Studio 4109 alongside Frood. He described his previous sponsor and co-director as a creative champion for students.
“[Doug] was our guide, but he was also our protector when criticism came from administrators more concerned with disconnected critics than present students,” Christenson wrote in an email to the Accent. “He put students first.”
Christenson said Frood’s support helped grow Studio 4019’s audience to 1,000 members. On a more personal note, Christenson explained that Frood introduced him to Southern administrators who shared a similar outlook to his own and who fought, often quietly, to create a loving atmosphere on campus where students could grow closer to one another and Christ.
“Even good-intentioned administrators aren’t infallible, so when Southern experienced some upsetting responses to social issues, policies or decisions from administrators, I was thankful for Doug,” Christenson wrote.
Often forgotten, a Christian’s biblical calling to act as salt in this world is a principle Frood demonstrated well, he added.
“[Doug] found ways to make our Southern experience flavorful and slow the decay of negative alternatives for weekend entertainment,” Christenson wrote. “I wish Doug the best as he continues to be salt and light in his new role.”
Frood’s Southern experience was not all championing and comedy. Both Keith Snyder, chair for the Biology Department, and Braam Oberholster, professor in the School of Business, mentioned Frood’s knack for staying informed about current financial and higher educations news, which helped the university succeed fiscally, in emails to the Accent.
“Doug had the uncanny ability to pick good books to read and podcasts to listen to, which helped him see the bigger pictures in academia,” wrote Snyder.
According to Oberholster, Frood went above and beyond in his role on Southern’s Endowment Investment Committee. He not only transacted investments to provide student scholarships, but also monitored international and economic news with potential impacts on the university’s investments and was on constant lookout for potential investment opportunities.
From 2020-2023, he served as a staff sponsor for the SMARRT Fund, a student organization that manages over half a million dollars of Southern’s endowment, according to Frood.
“[Doug] loved being engaged with students and continued to look for opportunities where one-on-one interaction with students was possible,” wrote Oberholster, a SMARRT Fund sponsor who worked alongside Frood.
Marty Hamilton, another associate vice president for Financial Administration, worked with Frood throughout his 22-year tenure. Hamilton described his longtime co-worker as dedicated and passionate, his mind continually focused on bettering campus life for students.
“It was always about caring and giving students a chance to learn and grow,” Hamilton wrote to the Accent. “Doug always felt his purpose at Southern was to engage in student relationships as often as possible and reach students who might not participate in other campus events.”
Tom Verrill, senior vice president for Financial Administration, also mentioned Frood’s student-centric perspective and added that he was instrumental in developing Southern’s current accounting, budget and financial reporting structure. Under Frood’s leadership, Southern’s endowment assets grew considerably over the past several years, according to Verrill.
He wrote, “Doug was a good friend and valued colleague, and will be missed within our Financial Administration office and across campus.”
Frood spent four months training his replacement, Steven Miller, who has two decades of finance experience at AdventHealth, an Adventist health care system.
“Doug had obviously been [at Southern] for many years, and it’s impossible to put a value on that knowledge that gets built up over the years,” Miller wrote to the Accent. “I just really appreciated the various insights he was able to share in higher education, as my previous career was in healthcare.”
Frood is enjoying his new position at Thomas University, a private institution smaller than Southern, which presents both challenges and opportunities Frood said he is excited to encounter.
He plans to continue forming close relationships with faculty and staff and is trying to start a SMARRT Fund program.
When he was a college student, Frood never expected his career path to weave its way into higher education, but he said the Lord continued to pave in that direction.
Higher education can be messy at times, Frood said, but it’s OK to be messy. He hopes his journey — filled with comedy, mentorship, conversation and accounting — will help current students worried about life after college realize that they should focus on elevating people and loving like Jesus loved; the Lord will open doors.
