Love is on Board

The leadership of ACPA has asked me to introduce myself by video. And I wanted to start that process with you, the members of ACPA, here on the Abilene Christian University campus. I grew up four blocks from here. My family has attended this university for three generations. It is one of the most important influences in my early life, and certainly one of the intersections that catapulted me into another life that I couldn't have imagined, growing up in the south in West Texas and certainly never as a woman.

 

Most of my professional work while traditional in the duties assigned has been at the contested edges; the places where people are not sure they want to be. I consider that to be the most fortunate aspects of my career. 

 

When we moved back from Texas in 1978, I became and an Educational Diagnostician. This was my first school, Locust Elementary. It was the lowest socioeconomic school in the city. There was a lot of stigma and prejudice; a lot of overt discrimination. It was one of the best experiences in my life. I came here with a new speech pathologist, a new principal, new head teacher and a new counselor. None of us knew that the kids in this school could not be successful. So, one of the things we did together was we hung that sign you see behind me. It's still here this many years later. 

 

One of the things I've discovered is whether your in a non-profit or for-profit, a corporation or a school, there's this amazing space where people make a decision to break down or break through. It's when we take everything we learn, sort of in a crucible and then we begin to apply it with real people and real situations. It draws the character out of us as human beings in ways that nothing else can. My best work has really been in those spaces where people are trying to decide, "We're just going to stop. We're not going to make any progress." or "No. We're going to break through."