Dan Bailey of Fairway, Kansas, who earned a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering in 2003 and a master’s degree in engineering management in 2005, became president of the Miner Alumni Association Oct. 26, during Missouri S&T’s Homecoming festivities on the Rolla campus. Bailey replaces Dr. Chris Ramsay, who served as president for the past two years.

“My goal is to help the Miner Alumni Association continue the great work it’s doing and, ideally, increase engagement, whether that’s in-person or online,” says Bailey, who has served on the association’s board of directors for more than a decade.

Bailey was inducted into Missouri S&T’s Academy of Miner Athletics in 2020; in 2022 he was inducted into the Mines and Metallurgy Academy. Bailey’s wife, Wendy, earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering in 2007 and a master’s degree in civil engineering in 2008. Together, they endowed the Dan and Wendy Bailey Scholarship in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, the Dan and Wendy Bailey Scholarship Fund for cross country and track athletes, and the Dan and Wendy Bailey Scholarship in Geological Engineering. The Baileys are members of the Order of the Golden Shillelagh, an organization of S&T alumni who support the university through their leadership, service and philanthropic partnership.

“We were supported in college in various ways, and we made the decision early on to give back,” Bailey says.

Bailey is vice president of Cogent, an employee-owned provider of fluid processing solutions headquartered in Riverside, Missouri. He believes that volunteering with the alumni association is a great way to stay connected to Missouri S&T.

“The alumni association does a great job at connecting us with the university and the students,” he says. “Every time I’m on campus there are lunches, awards ceremonies and other events where alumni and students are in the same room.”

Those interactions, he says, are often opportunities to meet students who are likely to succeed at Cogent, which has grown from 40 employees in 2005 to nearly 300 today.

“I have a passion for helping people get to the best, most ideal spot for them,” he says. “I have a good sense of where people fit best in the corporate world. I’m able to help students see options they may not know about.”

While Bailey strives to be unbiased when helping students identify career opportunities, he acknowledges his bias toward S&T students.

“While there’s nothing wrong with any of the universities where we recruit, it’s been consistently proven that your average S&T grad is going to be a little more driven, focused and technically competent,” he says.

Even better than the opportunity to recruit what he considers the best and the brightest, Bailey says his favorite part of serving on the alumni association board is going to Rolla regularly.

“Otherwise years will go by, and you’ll never get back down there,” he says. “It’s great to see the university operating today in a very proactive way. What S&T is doing now is clearly setting up future success for today’s students and students of the future.”

About Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.