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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."