I’ll begin with a question: How did a Jamaican girl from Queens, the oldest of four children, the daughter of wonderful parents who had no more than nine years of formal education between them, rise to become the first black female dean of a Harvard graduate school?
First, I did not get here alone. We do not exist in isolation. The people in our lives, our social and political context, our access––or lack of access––to opportunities, are a big part of the equation.
And so is good fortune. In my case that involved my family’s decision to move to the United States. Also, the handful of remarkable and pivotal teachers whom I encountered in New York City public schools, including a teacher who urged me to aim higher when applying to college, which is how I got to Princeton and from there, to graduate school at Harvard.
But other things matter too, things we can control. In reflecting on my path, I have identified three key strategies that have been crucial in my own leadership journey.
These strategies are my touchstones. I look to them for inspiration, courage, and replenishment in a world that sometimes requires Herculean levels of resilience from women and people of color as we build our careers.
Find your North Star
You’ve got to find your North Star early in your career. You’ve got to be committed to a guiding principle.
I’m the first in my family to go to college. While studying genetics at Princeton, I found it didn’t feel right to me to pursue knowledge chiefly for knowledge’s sake. I felt obligated to share that knowledge leverage it to solve problems.
My choice to pursue knowledge translation led me to the Harvard Chan School for graduate work, a place where life scientists and population scientists work side by side addressing real-world problems in real time. I became an epidemiologist–––someone who studies the distribution and determinants of diseases with the goal of preventing their spread. I knew that for me, public health was about more than academics. It was also about activism.
I found my North Star. Ever since, it has steered what I do and how I serve. A North Star will do the same for you. As you rise in your career, there will be different agendas and value systems coming at you all the time. If you have that North Star, your decisions will not feel ad hoc. People will start to see a consistency and that builds trust.
Ask yourself: What are you here to accomplish? Let that guide you.
Break down barriers
As your career gathers steam, break down barriers.
It’s important that you first break down barriers in your own imagination. Identify role models––trailblazers, beacons––women who can show you what this journey looks like, that it can be done, that you can be successful. Your sources of inspiration may come from past and present colleagues, but also look beyond your own sphere. Look to politics, to science, to industry—the list goes on. Look for trailblazers in any field, learn from them, and use their accomplishments to help you shape your own path to success.
Whenever possible, gather the courage to reach out directly. Speak to that role model, learn from her one-on-one, hear about her pathways. When you meet her as a real person, you can find out about her struggles, her small wins, how she got from point A to point B.
You can also break down barriers by intentionally building connections with other women. For years now, I’ve met informally with three fellow Harvard deans, all women of color, on a regular basis. We offer each other support and laugher and, when needed, commiseration and a reality check.
Building these circles of support is invaluable for your personal resilience. You may even find that you’re inspiring to others. During a visit to Ethiopia, I met a young faculty member from Addis Ababa University, who had read a narrative about the four of us deans. She told me that’s a source of inspiration for her. So, break down barriers, build warm connections. It’s well worth it.
Redefine leadership
The final strategy I’ll share today: redefine leadership.
What I mean by this is: pursue excellence in a way that reflects your values.
When I was growing up, the movie and TV series Paper Chase were all that most of us kids could see of the Ivy League––a guy walking across the Harvard Law School courtyard in a tweed jacket. When I was accepted at Princeton, I thought, “Wow, I’m in Paper Chase.” But because of Paper Chase, I used to think that excellence meant that you had to put up with working and learning in an abrasive, hard, uncomfortable environment.
That is not true. You can achieve excellence and still have joy and balance in your life. As dean of the Harvard Chan School, I’m determined to nurture an environment that allows our faculty, students, and staff to find that balance and enjoy their work––even as we strive to solve the world’s most formidable problems.
That is how we break the bias.
That is how we build a brighter future for everyone.
