Note: This interview in the Weekly Wisdom Series originally aired on May 1, 2023 as part of the University Innovation Alliance’s Innovating Together Podcast, appearing live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The transcript of this podcast episode is intended to serve as a guide to the entire conversation, and we encourage you to listen to this podcast episode. You can also access our summary, along with helpful links and audio from this episode.
Daria J. Willis:
We're in 2023, and we're getting all these firsts, and I wonder how long these firsts are going to last, because presidents today, especially if you're president of color, you are evaluated. In my opinion, this is just my opinion, there's no research behind it, completely differently than presidents of the past who didn't look like me, who were evaluated on how many pretty buildings we can put on a campus. So, thank you for recognizing that piece. I think from a standpoint of how do you do it, it depends on the situations that you have facing you. So, to me, if it's a situation where the college is essentially going to be put at risk, then that's something that you need to go on the battlefield for. If it's a situation where there's people on your leadership team that's just annoying, and you just don't want to look at them, and they've been long-serving, okay, you can wait on that. You just need to go take a chill pill and figure out how you can make that happen and wait them out.
Bridget Burns:
Welcome to Innovating Together, a podcast produced by the University Innovation Alliance. This is a podcast for busy people in higher education who are looking for the best ideas, inspiration, and leaders that will help you improve student success. I'm your host, Bridget Burns. Each week, I partner with a journalist to have a conversation with a sitting college president, chancellor, system leader, or someone in the broader ecosystem who's really an inspiring leader. And the goal is to have a conversation to distill their perspective and their insights gathered from their leadership journey. Our hope is that this is inspiring and gives you something to look forward to each week. This episode, my co-host is Inside Higher Ed co-founder and CEO, Doug Lederman.
Doug Lederman:
We're going to welcome back to Weekly Wisdom President Daria Willis, who's currently president of Howard Community College. She was president before that at Everett Community College, and she was on the show when she was there. Welcome back, President Willis.
Daria J. Willis:
Thanks for having me. It's good to be here outside of the pandemic.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah, we first met you and were, I mean, you were doing all the really hard work up there in Everett, Washington. And now, you are in a very different part of the world. You're also on your second presidency. That's where I'd love to position the conversation, because I think it's really interesting the advice that you would give yourself or have given yourself that you've benefited from as you've moved through and into this new second president. Let's just start there in terms of where you are now and how you think about the second presidency because of your first.
Daria J. Willis:
Yeah. I'm at Howard Community College now in Columbia, Maryland, an institution with a little over 23,000 students. I'm terrible at math and geography and stuff, so we're somewhere between Baltimore and DC, nestled in the cute little community that thinks very highly of themselves, which they should. So, it's a wonderful place to be. So, the college has been here for 52 years and just really excited about being here for the last 16 months. Now that I'm in my second presidency, the biggest advice I think I'd give to myself, things that I think about often, is trust no one when you come in the door. And I say that because you get so excited. "Yes, I'm the president," and you think that everybody is happy to see you there. They really are not, especially what I call the root guards, folks that have been rooted in the institution for decades or years, or a root guard could even be someone who's been here four to five years but is just caught up in whatever they've been doing for however long of a period of time.
So you are the oddball. You're coming in, you're the outsider coming in. And typically, what I found is the ones who hit you up first with that welcome card or the welcome email to say, "Let's go to lunch." Or, "Here's some little tidbits for your kids when you move into the town." Or, "This is where you should go eat and do the things." I don't know, just be careful of them. I have just learned in my experience that they are the ones who cycle back three to six months down the road, and there's an issue that you need to take care of because of whatever relationship you started with them in the beginning.
Bridget Burns:
I think that's super interesting advice. I do feel like a lot of presidents, when we talk about this, we get a lot of platitudes, so I love that you're being so honest about it, because it's true, because a lot of people could get a promotion because of you. A lot of people could get something they want because of you. Too often, presidents in their day-to-day, what I observe is that they primarily interact with people who work for them or who want something from them, and that's it. You don't talk to a lot of other folks. So you being guarded is, I think, a smart move. It's not a sign that the people are bad, it's more you would want someone to be guarded in that moment.
Daria J. Willis:
Yeah. And I've made that mistake before, where I have been -- I trusted a little too much coming in the door, right? And I've given something, or because this is what they told me, and then after I've done it, maybe six months down the road, you have a much clearer picture of what the real story is. So I'm not saying this to say I've never done it before, but I have made my mistakes, I've gotten my cuts and bruises from that. So just be guarded, protect your inner peace and all of that, but don't trust people when you first walk in, because everybody wants something, and you need to figure out where you fit into that and where the institution fits and what's best for students in that process.
Doug Lederman:
If that's the starting point, what happens next? How do you go about determining -- and again, it sounds like you're not saying you think that everybody's to get you or anything like that -- but how do you go about figuring out who to trust and who to take counsel from, and how long does that take typically? I mean, you're only on number two, so I don't know if you have seen patterns yet, but what's the sort of process that unfolds from there?
Daria J. Willis:
So I wish I could say an average of a time period, and it's a really good question, but what I've done is I've just taken myself out of it and I listen, because what I found is when you listen to all of these varying reviews and views of people, and views of systems and departments or what's happened in the past, and a lot of people like to tell you in the past, in the past, or they'll say, "Oh, the past president got on my nerves because blah, blah, blah." But you can't fall into that trap, because one day you're going to be the past president that somebody else is going to talk about. So you got to be very careful as you get that information. But for me, it's just been a process of listening and picking up themes. And when you start hearing the same themes from groups that are literally all across the campus and the community, then you begin to see, "Okay, this might be the clearer picture than what I was originally told." Then you start having little birdies come and just slide -- literally, I had somebody slide a packet of information under my office door.
Just wait, be patient. Don't be so quick to come to judgment or to make a friend on campus that you want to quote-unquote trust. So I think in my first presidency, I would honestly say I kind of moved a little too quickly with that. This time around, I took the foot off the gas, and I sat back, and I did a good six-month tour listening to folks, writing things down. At night, I would keep a journal of this is what I'm hearing, and then in my fourth or fifth month, I started to just read it out loud and replay some of those themes. And then, honestly, I brought in somebody that I trust from a previous institution with me here, because I needed somebody else to tell me, "Are you hearing these same things?" And, "What are you getting from this person?" Because they'll ask one way with you and then present themselves a different way to other people. So I brought a trusted colleague to come and just really help me look at things in a different way. And people don't like that when you do it, either.
Bridget Burns:
I think this is a really interesting conversation. This was a point Doug was making a note about who to bring in. You do have to be guarded, you're right. And I think that you should know that everyone has an agenda, and it's for the best for the institution that you be that guarded, because you don't want to be a football that just gets tossed around. The piece that struck me is just this idea of disparaging your predecessor, because I do see that where it's not so overt, but I do think that new presidents, there is a very clear expectation they're going to immediately distinguish themselves from their predecessor. And that in itself, if we weren't thinking about the presidency, if we were just thinking about the long-term effects on these institutions and the whipsaw of that where we had a strategic plan and now we have a new president, now we're doing -- And that is one of the things I observed consistently is that turnover, especially if it's every five years, then the institution is kind of on a hamster wheel of not making any progress. And yet, even the most noble leader coming in who doesn't want to participate in that, they are asked how they are different. I feel like the institution kind of forces you into that position of, "Well, they were this way, and I'm this way." And I'm not saying anything negative, but we're going to be doing things different. Again, I just think about the head like pivot constantly and what that effect is.
Doug Lederman:
Can I actually just add one thing? I mean, if you're a rank-and-file faculty or staff member, how do you establish sort of continuity of confidence in the institution? Which, remember, that's ultimately what we're talking about here is, again, careerism is important, and what happens to any individual leader is important, but it ultimately needs to be about long-term arc of the institution. And I do fear that sometimes boards contribute to this in the hiring process by saying, "We need somebody to do X." And the suggestion is, "Oh, partly because our previous leader didn't." I don't know, I'm just curious. There's a lot of really interesting stuff here for you.
Daria J. Willis:
So that's interesting that you say that, Doug, because boards say it all the time, and even in my previous institution, they'll say, "We need a leader that'll take us to the next level." And then after you're hired, and you sit down with them, and you say, "So what does next level mean?" They can't tell you what next level means. And then when you start to see, okay, this is what I'm hearing, and you go back to your board and you say, "So here are the things that I'm finding." You know what? They sit there with their mouths wide open because they had no idea that this is the stuff that's going on. And so, especially with this position, I've been very careful not to do that. So, the things that we are embarking upon are challenges and issues and opportunities that the college said that they wanted to do prior to my arrival.
So, when I start saying, "All right, we're going to get this done," and people try to slightly push back, I remind them, "No, you said you wanted to do this X amount of years ago. Here's when you said it. I'm just giving you the space to make that happen." Instead of coming in and saying, "We're just going to completely flip this institution around and decide to go this way,' because you're right, the ten years are short. And even when ten years are longer, and I followed two successful presidents who have been there for a while, there's a certain point where everybody kind of takes their foot off the gas sometimes, and we begin to coast a little bit. So I think it's a double-edged sword, if I may add to that. But that's why, for example, we were facing a reorganization when I was hired. But before I was hired, I said, "So somebody make a decision about this reorg before I come in, because if you make the decision when I come in, then I have no other choice but to push it through, because that's what the college decided."
But they didn't do that. So, they had a reorganization committee, they had a wonderful document that they produced. I listened to people for five or six months, I read the document. I had this all-campus meeting where I announced what my decision was. And what I did when I announced the decision, I referenced each page in the document where they said that this is what we wanted to see. So I'm not doing anything radically different than what you all had already set yourselves up to do. I'm just the vehicle. I'm like the conductor. I'm helping you push it through to make it happen.
Ray Magliozzi:
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Bridget Burns:
I think this is a really interesting kind of deeper theme for us to cover on this, and I love that, because it's your second show that we can go here, but I know of currently, I know of two institutions, I possibly know of a third where you have had a long-serving beloved president, and they're followed by the first -- in one case, is a first person of color, first woman. Only after a few months on the job do you realize that that long-serving president hadn't been making hard decisions for a while. I can't even judge that, because honestly, I've never been in a position for as long as these folks have served. And I understand that you do take your foot off the gas, and you do have to choose your battles about when you're really going to be mounting an offensive versus when you're going to be kind of guiding on a flat path.
That means that you have left the first woman, the first person of color, in both cases, to get rid of a lot of people, and to make a lot of really hard choices that are going to make them far more vulnerable. And that we frequently do this when there's a first-time president, there's such accumulated buildup that you set them up for failure. So I'm just wondering about picking and choosing your battles in that first year, about how you don't just take on everything at once so that you immediately put a bunch of targets on your back. How do you decide which things that are going to be hard but essential? Do you consider spacing them out, perhaps, so that you don't just take it all in the first six months or the first year? Is there even that much strategy to it?
Daria J. Willis:
God, I wish, Bridget! I mean, first, let me just say thank you for recognizing that, because it's a conversation that I literally just had with a friend to say, we're in 2023 and we're getting all these firsts, and I wonder how long these firsts are going to last, because presidents today, especially if you're a president of color, you are evaluated, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, there's no research behind it, completely differently than presidents of the past who didn't look like me, who were evaluated on how many pretty buildings we can put on a campus. So, thank you for recognizing that piece. I think from a standpoint of how do you do it, it depends on the situations that you have facing you. So, to me, if it's a situation where the college is essentially going to be put at risk, then that's something that you need to go on the battlefield for.
If it's a situation where there's people on your leadership team that's just annoying, and you just don't want to look at them, and they've been long-serving, okay, you can wait on that. You just need to go take a chill pill and figure out how you can make that happen and wait them out. And sometimes you can use it to your benefit, because some people want to see you tell them to go so that you can get big severance packages, and then they can go in the community and say all this stuff. But when you, the president, sit back and say, "Actually, you know what? Take all the time you need, the college will be here. La la la la la," it changes the entire dynamic of the relationship. But at Everett -- or, excuse me, at my last institution at Everett, the challenge there was a pandemic came on top of everything else. So, I was only there for eight months until you had this global pandemic, and I'm dealing with some things we needed to change, and then I've got the pandemic on top of that. So I think, to a certain extent, I took on much more than I would've anticipated just due to other issues out of my control.
I think here, I have been able to strategically say, "Here are the things that we need to do." But before I do it, I go back to my board, and I said, "So what's your temperature on these things? Because here's where I think we need to hit first. We're going to have to hit this hard, and we're going to have to drive it through until the end, but here's some other things that we can kind of wait on their problems, but it's not going to kill us if we don't deal with it today."
So I think that's important, because when the survey results come out and they're a little bit lower -- which I can attest to, that the last five years, the campus loved the president and everything else. And then this year, they're like, "Uh-huh, I don't know about it." I mean, results dip a little bit. Then you can explain it, and your board is behind you, because you've prepped them and you showed them, "Here are the things we need to deal with now." And they remember these were the hard decisions that needed to be made. But if you don't have that relationship, it makes it harder for presidents of color to survive in those instances. And then I'll also add that, for me, I have made it a point to be very active in my community my first year. I've tried to be everywhere, be seen everywhere, take pictures, eat all the chicken dinners, kiss all the babies, go to all the things, so that I can build a community and support system out there while I'm building and fixing in here.
So when things get just a little bit -- mmmmh! -- in here, I still got the support system on the outside that understands the direction that you're trying to go. I know that's a long way around. I'm sorry to be so talkative.
Bridget Burns:
No, it's really interesting.
Daria J. Willis:
Okay.
Bridget Burns:
I'll pause for Doug, but I did want to add one of the other phenomenon that is, again, I don't need the scientific evidence to point to it. I've seen it so many times. It's like it's a trope, which is institutions that have only been led by one type of leader for the length of their existence, and finally they're running into the ground. And that's when the board finally has the courage to choose a woman or a person of color as the leader. And there's so many public examples of this where it's only when it's on the cusp of exigency or something that they're now going to shift, and just owning that you are setting that person for failure, and it's one of the easy ways that they then go back to that same type of leader. It's a thing that I've seen so many times. I'm not alone in noticing that pattern.
Doug Lederman:
Yeah, and it's interesting. So, I did a story about a year ago that looked at -- it was focused on presidents of color who had been hired in the 18 months before and the 18 months after George Floyd was killed. It used that 36-month period and divided it up in a very artificial way, and it showed a not insignificant increase in the afterwards, in the proportion of people of color who'd been hired. And talked to a bunch of smart people around it who thought it was interesting and potentially a good sign. But it all came down to that question of, "Will the boards stick with them? Will they give them the support they need?" And I used in the story, Eddie Cole from UCLA, who was one of the people I talked to, we came up with this analogy separately, but both came to it, it's how it used to be with sports teams that the only time an NFL team would hire a black coach was after they'd gone two and 14 or whatever.
And it's that what you're talking about, Bridget, and I think it's too early to tell whether this increase takes hold, but I think the phenomenon that you described is certainly true. I do think the expectations of presidents are changing, for all kinds of presidents. I think that building buildings is not going to be the mark of a successful president anymore. So, I think it's bad luck that this is the period where you seem to see more women and people of color being hired, but it's a brutal job. To me, so much of it comes back to, are the boards transparent about the institution's problems in the hiring process? I mean, I think you're smart to go almost step-by-step and get reaffirmation of what the board wants you to do, maybe get it in writing. I think we have the phenomenon of seeing presidents kind of hung out to dry for doing what seems to be what they were hired to do is really troubling.
Daria J. Willis:
I hate to say it, but I do. I go back to my board all the time. "All right, so this is what we found. Okay, before we do this, let me --" I mean, and I'm not asking for their permission, not in any sense, but this is what you hired me to do, so y'all got to have my back on this. Give me a heads-up, because your board members are in the community, and so people are going to hit them up in many different spaces where you aren't located. And I often think when you get ready to hire the first and how much celebration comes after that, you see all the articles and "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" about it. But the question becomes, is the community ready? Is the board ready? Is the college ready? And are you going to hold that president to the same standards that you held your predecessors?
Don't continue to move the goalpost further and further back, and then point the finger at them when or if they don't meet whatever these standards are that you put out there, that you all didn't have a clear understanding on when you came into the position and the roles together. And I think that's a part that I've really seen just in my, look, quote-unquote short time as a president in two separate institutions.
Bridget Burns:
I do think that that's an important point for our listeners, is the board is willing to bring on someone who is different than the prior. Then the real question for the board, and I think that perhaps AGB has some process to support this, is how are we going to support them differently? How are we going to show up differently? Because if they are different and in any way, and that means maybe they do or do not have a partner, maybe they have young children, there are all kinds of versions of different that make the presidency more difficult. And every time there is someone coming in who is in some way, not the exact typecast of the predecessor, the board should shift its behavior and how it supports and how it engages, and have a process to actually identify what is most useful. So I wanted to go to support because I want it to be hopeful.
So given all of this complexity, and I think this is a really important frank conversation that I'm delighted to have, because I have this often with people without a microphone. And I just want to know what support for you as you're in your second presidency, as you are in this new place, what kinds of things are actually helpful? And as you're talking, I want to especially be thinking about people who are thinking about becoming a president so that they could ask for these things in their negotiation, like executive coaching, or maybe it's certain things like not having to live on campus or whatever, but I just want to know what support looks like when we're talking about all of these challenges.
Daria J. Willis:
Vacation time. My first job, I didn't negotiate that part. I didn't think about it. I was so excited I got a presidency, but then I came down to, I think it was Christmas break, holiday break? And dear God, I didn't have enough time to take off for the holiday break. I was sitting in my office the week of Christmas, and when I went back to the board and was like, "Hey." "Oh, we --" So think about those things. Everybody talks about work-life balance and all of that. Vacation time is key. Executive coaching, that is so important. And you need more than one executive coach, because you need one that's going to help you with the academic stuff and all of that. But in this day and time where we're looking at a different version of the presidency, where funding from county, local, regional, state levels are diminishing, colleges have to be much more entrepreneurial than we were in the past. So you need a coach that's going to help you think.
Like me, I've got three degrees in history. I didn't have to take one business class going through college. So I need a coach that's going to help me think from a business entrepreneurial mindset about these -- here are the things that you need to be focused on to grow your revenue, and all that type of stuff. I mean, you have your CFO and your business officers, but you need a true out-of-the-box thinker to support you with that. I think the face of boards needs to change. Many of our trustees are older, much more established, and come from backgrounds that people of color don't. So when we come into our positions, a lot of times, I didn't eat out of a silver spoon growing up. I didn't have all the retirement accounts and all these things, and da, da, da, da, da. So, I'm looking for people that -- and I think what we need to see is more trustees that have lived experiences, so that when it comes to the levels of support that new presidents require and different presidents require, you have someone on your board that understands what your lived experience is and can help articulate that to the rest of the trustees that are there.
And finally, I'll give a shout-out to my last board chair at Everett. During the pandemic, she was completely amazing. She became our -- You know how people built the little safety pods? So, we went to dinner. We, as in me, my husband, and my three kids. She let us come to her house, and she cooks Sunday dinner every other Sunday. And that was our time where the kids and everybody's playing, doing their thing. She and I would sit, and we'd eat her fried chicken and peach cobbler, whatever she cooked. She had a little down-South home cooking thing. And we'd talk about the issues. And I was a new president. I needed somebody I could trust, because I couldn't trust anybody internally to go through these things. And she was a -- or still is -- a powerhouse, had spent 40 years in the school district, had a lived experience of being the first Black principal in that district. So when I would go and be upset about what I experienced as a Black woman in that part of the world, she listened to me for a few seconds and then she said, "Okay, get over it. This is how we're going to move through." So, I got off my soapbox, and I was able to move forward. But I was able to build that type of relationship with her, and that really helped me help move the college through that scope of the pandemic.
And then I'll also say, lastly, the board needs to give you space to figure out who you are going to be as a leader at this college, because you can be a leader one way at an institution in the Pacific Northwest, for example. But then when you go all the way across the country to the East Coast, that looks very different, because you're in a completely different community. So now I'm in a community that was a planned community by Jim Rouse, and it's supposed to be about equity and all these other things, but it's the third most affluent community in the nation. So they're very different conversations that we have here, that I didn't have when I was in Texas, that I didn't have when I was in New York or Washington State. So the board needs to allow you to have that space to do that, versus coming to you and saying, "Here are all the things that you need to do on day one."
So I got to give my board props here at Howard, because my first year we agreed, like, we're not going to really give you any true goals besides keeping the strategic plan and all that moving. But see the lay of the land, see how you want to do things. Bring us back the issues, and then let's talk through how we're going to do, how we're going to hold you accountable to what we've hired you to do at the institution. Does that make sense?
Bridget Burns:
Yes. And this is --
Daria J. Willis:
I feel like I just keep talking. I'm sorry if I --
Bridget Burns:
No, this is so good. I think this is going to be my favorite episode we've done. It's just so rich and full of great advice. I normally would ask you about the advice you find yourself giving, but I'm like, this has just been fantastic advice throughout, and especially for new presidents. We need to definitely recommend this because we're actually dealing with some of the bigger issues.
So I guess my last question would be if there is a book that has been helpful, or a couple books that have been helpful for you as a leader. I love your thinking about executive coaching. I also usually think of it as you need to cycle them, because sometimes you've gone through growth with that person and now you're ready to be challenged with different skills. But I love this idea of different at the same time. I'm wondering if there's any books that are like your touchstones for leadership that have helped you.
Daria J. Willis:
So, I'll say one book and then one experience that I've had that has just been phenomenal for me. The book that I can remember -- and two, this is bad. I haven't read a lot of books. I'm just going to be honest. I mean, I read a lot of emails and text messages. By the time I get home at night -- I envy the presidents that can sit in with a book and write them. Who are you? Can I do that?
Bridget Burns:
They don't. I know they're skimmers. They don't admit it, but they're skimmers.
Daria J. Willis:
Right? So this book is from grad school that I actually re-read before I got into my first presidency, but it's Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America by Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden. And it just talks about the intersection between race, class, and gender for Black women and how they have to live these double lives inside the home and outside. And just a thought piece, in my opinion, on how you don't have to do that. So, I have worked really hard because of that book to just be my authentic self. I don't have the energy to be one person at home and then somebody else on campus. So, I have learned that who you see, what you see is what you get. I'm going to keep it 100, and I know how to act when I get in front of state legislators and all of that stuff, but I'm still Dr. Willis and Daria. It is what it is.
So that was a really influential book. And then, for me, an experience that I had right before I became president at Howard, I was selected as an Aspen Ascend fellow, the 2021 class. And when I say that is the most influential experience that I've had. So, my advice is -- and here's why. Sorry. The reason why is because it gave us the space to be leaders, to think. The thing about your days as presidents, it's back to back. You're traveling, you're doing this, you're doing that. When do you really have the space to sit back in the woods and stuff? You know where Aspen is and that kind of interesting compound place, whatever. But that, where it's quiet and you can practice the Socratic method. You can read, and you can discuss with different people who are outside of higher ed, who are in different industries in the world or in the country, that y'all are all going for the same goal.
You're trying to help children and families across the country, but you're doing it in very different ways, and you can take pieces of that back to your institution. So I just love that 18-month experience of being able to take a step back away from my college, thankful to my board that they supported me in that. And it was actually, when I was going through the search process, I said to them, "If you can't accept me doing this, then you may as well not hire me. I'll just stay here where I am." So they did accept it. But find your -- not a leadership development academy, because if you become a president, then okay, you can do it. But find that space to where you can think about what you're doing before you do it, where you can reflect, where you can challenge each other and people outside of higher ed to learn and grow, and then bring that back in your leadership journey at the college.
Bridget Burns:
I love it. This is perfect. This has been a perfect episode. I just think you've given so much insight and perspective and wisdom, and I think people are the better for it. I know I am and love the shout-out to Aspen. Everything they do is so world-class. And Josh's team, every time I interact with them, like they're doing just such incredible work and how they build out pedagogy and everything, it's just like, hmm, 100 out of ten. So, that's a fantastic plug. And that's our new sponsor I guess. Just kidding. Thank you again, President Willis, this has been a real delight. If there's ever a time when you want to come back, we'd love to have you back on the show. So, good luck to you all and to you at home. I hope this has been as inspiring to you all as it has been for us. So we will see you next time.
Bios of Guest and Co-Hosts
Guest: Daria J. Willis, President, Howard Community College
Dr. Daria J. Willis, the fifth president of Howard Community College (Columbia, Maryland), is the first Black woman appointed to that office. Previously, she served as President of Everett Community College (Everett, Washington), and Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at Onondaga Community College (Syracuse, New York), where she implemented programs targeted at increasing enrollment and providing access and equity to underserved and underrepresented populations, as well as overseeing curriculum development and streamlining faculty hires. Dr. Willis began her educational career in 2007 teaching at Florida A&M University before transitioning to Tallahassee Community College. Starting in 2010, Dr. Willis served as an Assistant Professor of History, department chair, faculty senate president, and Executive Dean of Centers at Lone Star College (Houston, Texas). She also implemented Lone Star's first Doctoral Support Group for faculty and staff. She later served as Dean of Academic Studies at Lee College (Baytown, Texas), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, where she started its first National Model United Nations program. Dr. Willis is a 2018 recipient of the American Association for Women in Community Colleges’ “40 Under 40” Award. She is a 2017 Cohort Fellow for the Thomas Lakin Institute for Mentored Leadership and was featured in the December 2017 issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. She earned a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University, and bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Florida A&M University. Dr. Willis is married to Dr. Isiah Brown, and they have three children.
Co-Host: Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Dr. Bridget Burns is the founding Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA). For the past decade, she has advised university presidents, system chancellors, and state and federal policy leaders on strategies to expand access to higher education, address costs, and promote completion for students of all backgrounds. The UIA was developed during Bridget’s tenure as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship at Arizona State University. She held multiple roles within the Oregon University System, including serving as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor, where she won the national award for innovation in higher education government relations. She was a National Associate for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and has served on several statewide governing boards including ones governing higher education institutions, financial aid policy, and policy areas impacting children and families.
Co-Host: Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder, Inside Higher Ed
Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country. His work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003, after working at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one for a 2009 series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug and his wife, Kate Scharff, live in Bethesda, MD.
About Weekly Wisdom
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that happens live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, we join forces with Inside Higher Ed and talk with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations will be filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. Hopefully, these episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and a bit of inspiration.
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