Address to Faculty

I thank you for the opportunity to make some remarks this afternoon about my “onboarding” experiences at Lehigh to date.

So how did I end up here today? I have an intense curiosity about how things work; in my early years in academia, that meant building lasers, doing experiments with students, working late nights in the machine shop. I conducted research in the areas of chemical physics, biophysics, atmospheric sciences, and various forms of imaging. I am interested in education; I have written textbooks and tried out new approaches to teaching (some of that did not go well). At Duke, I became interested in how universities work (or do not work). This led me into strategic planning, campus culture, the intellectual challenges of how you work to advance a complex decentralized organization where the reputation often rests on the accomplishments of individuals. This ultimately led me to Virginia, where only the Grateful Dead can capture my experience: “Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

I chose to answer the request to interview for this position. When I arrived at Oak Tree Capital in NYC, Kevin Clayton came out to talk – his first words being “Welcome to Lehigh.” It felt like we had known each other forever. The relationship was a natural; the fit felt right. The search committee sold the institution. While they interviewed me, they were also selling all that Lehigh had to offer. I felt at home. I have now made about 10 visits to campus, met with a variety of students, faculty, and staff groups. I think the education you provide here is among the best offered in the U.S. You are innovative and have seized interdisciplinary opportunities that others sit around and think about. And this gives me a great sense of security as my son is seriously thinking of enrolling next year!

I had the pleasure of delivering the Sigma Xi lecture on April 16. I talked about our research on melanins, ranging from human tissues to Jurassic fossils. I remain passionate about this work, and I feel it is the most interesting work I’ve been involved in. But at the same time, I think it would not have gotten me tenure in a chemistry department. This challenge is one we will face more often in the future as the borders between our disciplines and schools are no longer as solid as they used to be. Nor should they be.

Today, I hope to give you a sense of how I approach this leadership opportunity. At a later date, I hope to discuss the Lehigh of the future with you (probably many times and in many venues) – our opportunity to work together to lead this university forward, to embrace a bold set of aspirations, to take risks to distinguish ourselves, to seize this moment to innovate during a time of angst across U.S. higher education.
I am a life-long learner of leadership.

I have had the honor of working with three university presidents: Nan Keohane, Richard Brodhead, and Terry Sullivan. Very different styles, each was tested in different ways, each approached their office and responsibilities differently. What I learned was that leadership must be thought about within the context of the institution’s needs – what are we asking a leader to do: steward, change, restructure. It is about fit. 

I have learned to work with leaders, be led by leaders, deal with leaders, and lead leaders. And I have learned much from situations that could have been avoided.

So what is leadership in academia? I look at it simply: the art of assembling resources and people toward achieving strategic goals.

As an academic leader, you are called on to: influence people, empower people, take responsibility for your and others’ actions, be an example to your peers, be accountable, be a role model, be a motivator, be a visionary, be a decision maker, serve as a mentor, be a strategy planner, and be a team citizen. Good luck!

Leadership is about “discovering the right question to ask.” Good leaders relinquish the process of discovery of the answer(s) to the community they lead. There is no shortage of “vision,” or maybe I should say “visions,” in an academic institution.

What do I see as the characteristics of academic leaders?

• Integrity – trusted by faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni
• Data driven – different from metric driven
• Intellectually curious – desire to learn, seeker of connections
• Deliberative – principled, consistent in behavior, respectful of shared governance, make decisions
• Persuasive – active listening, build networks, letting others see and discover the value of moving in a certain direction
• Frames issues as a seeker, not as a skeptic or a doubter
• Generosity of spirit – knowing that one does not have all the answers; but characterized by an eagerness to engage and learn from others, to be able to respectfully disagree as well as change one’s mind
• Loves the institution, places the needs of the institution first

Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to meet, talk to, and work with the current senior officers and deans at Lehigh, and more recently I have met many faculty in a variety of settings. Together, what we can achieve for Lehigh depends on assuring open communication, trust, transparency, and teamwork between the senior administration of the university and the faculty.

I know all of you are amazed by how challenging it is to effect change at a university. In fact, we all have our own story of why it is easier to change the course of history than a history course.

I recently read Make It in America by Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of the Dow Chemical Company, the third largest chemical producer in the world.

He writes: “Education isn’t an end in itself. It has a purpose – many purposes, in fact. Beyond empowering our children to think critically, beyond inspiring intellectual curiosity, beyond encouraging social mobility, our schools exist to prepare the next generation for the world they will be entering – and the economy they will be inheriting.” Liveris goes on to say that he believes “it is failing in that vital purpose.”

We need to think about his words as we assess what we do at Lehigh. After all, the most important outcome of our university is and will always be embodied in the human capital we create. This is true across our colleges and the many degrees we award each year (bachelor, master, Ph.D.). The alums I have met mention how their experience at Lehigh changed their lives. We need to make sure the next generation has the same depth of experience, but given changes in the world and changes in who comes to Lehigh, it will likely need to be a different experience.

In addition to our historic strengths, there are many outstanding faculty here doing great things in areas Lehigh is not known for. Our faculty should be comfortable and encouraged to take credit and promote their excellent work. We, the administrative leaders, should also highlight that work as we engage with external (and internal) constituencies.

When the dynamic trio of Brad Scheler, Kevin Clayton, and Jane Jamieson convinced me to consider being president of Lehigh, they used phrases like “I have never been more bullish on Lehigh than I am now,” that Lehigh is “poised to do something great,” that Lehigh is “positioned to be an innovator and leader in education.” This was echoed by your four faculty representatives on the search committee: James Peterson, Todd Watkins, Mayuresh Kothare, and Lee Kern. They made the point that the university is alive with opportunity and the new president could focus on four key areas:

• Our people – faculty, staff, students, alums, parents, friends – establish trust and a sense of common purpose across our constituencies.
• Shape what a Lehigh education should be for the current generation of students – or, in other words, what our students should know and experience to become leaders and job creators.
• Make connections (inside and outside of Lehigh) to build distinction and excellence, to connect the student experience at the university to the challenges facing our world, think integrative: teaching and research (not or); student safety and personal responsibility; academic flexibility and rigor.
• Work with the community to improve the quality of life at Lehigh and in South Bethlehem.

These challenges attracted me to Lehigh, and it is galvanizing you to guide me in facing these challenges that sits at the core of work we have ahead of us, together. We will need to be strategic about how we conceptualize and operationalize our plans around people and programs to make impactful moves.

Finally, I want to thank some of you who reached out to spend time with me: James Peterson invited me to his class on Afrofuturism; part of my itinerary for the Sigma Xi visit included meeting the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering; Neal Simon and Vassie Ware informed me about the great work being done by the HHMI grant at Lehigh; David Anastasio gave me a tour of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Rob Rozehnal introduced me to the work of the Center for Global Islamic Studies; and the list goes on. The large number of entries by staff, students, and faculty on the Our Lehigh site have helped me learn about the institution. Dick Brandt provided a great overview of the Global Village and its programs, Heather Johnson offered insights into her experiences living in Sayre Village, and Jack Lule educated me about the Global Studies major and the history of The Brown and White, to name a few.

I look forward to working together and will be here full time in about two months!