Connections Across PK12 and Higher Education with Mary Erina Driscoll
In this episode of In the Lead with UCEA, Executive Director Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jiménez talks with Dr. Mary Erina Driscoll, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Regis College, and president of UCEA from 1999-2000, about how her experiences in Catholic education and interactions with mentors shaped her dissertation on schools as communities. Mary provides a deep dive into UCEA's evolution from an exclusive club of doctoral institutions to an inclusive organization championing diversity and collaboration. Leadership in education is a complex dance of balancing resources, advocacy, and communication. Drawing from her extensive experience as a dean and provost, Mary offers invaluable insights into the dynamics of leadership and partnership within higher education and its interplay with K-12 education. This episode is packed with practical advice and reflections. Listen in and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and rewards of educational leadership and policy, all while celebrating the rich history and ongoing impact of UCEA. In the Lead with UCEA is produced by University FM. Episode Quotes: Discussing the challenges within the higher education When I went to City College, which is a great place, but, interesting in terms of the politics, and people would say to me, "Well, you're in leadership," and especially when I went into the provost position, "What books have you read?” And I said, "Wolf Hall." And the reason I said that is because Thomas Cromwell, who's a very difficult character in that, not anybody that you would want to necessarily emulate in terms of his particular values but one of the leadership behaviors he engages in is he looks at the people that he's working with, and he tries to figure out in a given situation what is it that they want, what is it that's important to them, not what would he want if he were in that situation. And it's amazing when you look at some leaders. They can't make that shift. And I think, as a dean of education, or as a professor that was working in partnership when I was at NYU, again, with my colleagues with districts, it was very important to say, "What's important to the people that I'm working with in K-12? What are they looking for out of this relationship? And what can we provide there, not what makes sense for us to do?" On being vocal about the value and importance of education It is important for our scholarly community to be vocal about the value and importance of education, period, and increasingly higher education. It's not just because it's our bread and butter. We, sort of, self-select into it because we like it or we see its value or whatever, but in most cases, it's an exceptional case where that's driven by, boy, this is a great economic place to be in. I mean, how many of our professors are teaching either master's students or doctoral students that are making two, three times their salaries as district administrators. They deserve it, but I think we have to talk about, so, what is it that this community allows us to do? What are the benefits, not just to us personally, but benefits that accrue in helping to elevate the scholar practitioner within that K-12 community? We don't do a great job of supporting people once they finish their degrees, right? We're, sort of, not set up to do that. When we're able to bring together policy makers, scholar practitioners, professors, graduate students into one space, it can be really extraordinary. One of the greatest things UCEA has done as a guild organization One of the things that UCEA has done as a guild organization, which I think is great, is provide opportunities for you to work with other people on joint projects. And even smart people have to learn how to do that well. As director, you have to learn how to work with an executive committee. You have to learn how to work with a board. You have to learn how to deal with the plenum. If you're reviewing something, you have to understand what does a good revie
