Memorable Leadership Traits of Colleagues and Friends: Lessons to Guide Us

Russ Hodges, Ed.D.Texas State University-San Marcos

CRLA 2010

Leaders Establish Relationships &Weave Real Connections

“Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.

You cannot tell always by looking at what is happening.

More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.”

--Marge Piercy, “The Seven of Pentacles”

Photo:http://www.arborcentre.co.uk/images/roots.jpg

Lesson #1: Love What You’re DoingKathy Carpenter

“And who in the Heartland Chapter wasn't strong armed by Kathy to get more involved, to take a leadership position, and to get busy and work for CRLA? Even her presidential address was a call to service.”

--Karen Agee, Reading and Learning Coordinator Emerita, University of North Iowa

CLADEA Fellow

President and Treasurer of CRLA

Organized and served as the first president of the Heartland Chapter of CRLA

Director of the LAC / Faculty at University of Nebraska Kearney

Prolific Scholar

Lesson # 2: Expect the BestKaren Smith

“Karen was fierce and tenacious when it came to promoting the cause of helping students succeed academically.”

--Emily Miller Payne, Associate Professor, Texas State

“There are not enough words to adequately describe my relationship with Dr. Karen G. Smith. She really believed in me. I don’t know what she saw but, when she said I could do anything—I believed her!

--Valerie Smith Stephens, Asst. Dean/Director Educational Opportunity Fund, Rutgers University

Founding Fellow, CLADEA

CRLA Past President, New Mexico State Director, Recipient Long and Outstanding Service Award

International Reading Assoc. member and

New Mexico Chapter State President in 1977

Consulted widely with other colleges and universities for over 20 years

Designed, developed and directed learning assistance centers at Rutgers University, Tulane University, and New Mexico State University.

Lesson # 3: Inspire the Leader WithinMartha Maxwell

“I wish that Martha could know the impact she has had on so many lives—not just on those like mine that she touched on a very personal level, but the butterfly effect, the enduring impact of operationalizing what it means to be truly student-centered.”

--Jeanne Higbee, Professor and Senior Advisor of Research, University of Minnesota

Envisioned CLADEA Fellows & Founding Fellow

Pioneer in the field of learning assistance and developmental education

University of California at Berkeley Faculty She was a Counselor, teacher, academic advisor, reading/learning disabilities specialist, researcher, administrator, and perennial student.

Mentored hundreds of professionals and students

Prolific scholar including her classic, Improving Student Learning Skills

Lesson # 4: Lead by ExampleDr. William White

"Let Bill's reverence and tenacity serve as beacons in our life's journey."

--Willie Daniel, Student

CLADEA Fellow

Professor, Grambling State University

Held Two Doctorates

Award Winning and Prolific Scholar

Was major professor and currently working with 18 doctoral- and 7 master-level students at the time of his death

“Albert Einstein once said, ‘Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another; it is the only means.’ I believe Dr. William (Bill) G. White, Jr. knew this to be true as he sought, through his example, to inspire his students to fulfill their own unique potential.”

--Russ Hodges, Associate Professor, Texas State University

Lesson #6: Guide with a Gentle HandDr. Gene Kerstiens

Co-founder and Fifth President of CRLA

CLADEA Founding Fellow

Director of Andragogy Associates

Co-author of the Study Behavior Inventory

Professor of English/Reading and Associate Dean of Instruction at El Camino College, CA

CRLA’s Board Special Recognition Award (Jade Award 35th Anniversary Award) in 2002, Long and Outstanding Service Award

Editor of the Review of Research in Developmental Education, Journal of College Reading and Learning, and Advisory Editor of the Journal of Reading

“If I were to sum up Gene's professional life, a life of over 40 active years, I would use the following words: collegial, intellectually challenging, mentor, author, editor, administrator, researcher, critic, and above all a colleague--for many in developmental education and learning assistance, a caring friend.”

--Frank L. Christ, Co-founder of CRLA

Lesson # 7: Nurture the Potential Dr. Cindy Peterson

“Cindy was a true scholar, and she embodied what it meant to be a professor. As a result of our collaboration, she taught me how to look critically at my own classes and formulate research questions that would better inform my practice and contribute to the larger body of professional knowledge….

…Rather than co-presenting the session, she encouraged me to present our work by myself. As the more experienced professor, she could have easily taken center stage, but as a mentor she wanted me to have the experience of sharing the information in front of all these scholars.

…I remember her sitting on the front row beaming like a proud parent”

--Nathan Bond, Associate Professor, Texas State

Associate Professor, Texas State University

CRLA’s Karen G. Smith Special Recognition Award

Editor, Journal of College Reading and Learning

Co-Founder of the Technology Institute for Developmental Educators (TIDE)

Prolific Scholar

We need men [and women] who can dream of things that never were.

--John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963