Question: What does women’s history month mean to you?
Answer: “Women’s history month to me is the opportunity to celebrate all women, not just historically, although that’s critically important. It shapes who we are and how we’ve gotten here. But also what the future holds for females and for women at Sam Houston and in society in general. So, it’s really the opportunity to celebrate the past, present, and perhaps most especially the future.”
Q: How would you describe or define leadership in general?
A: “To me, leadership is really about the opportunity to help support and motivate others to do better and to be better and to accomplish more and to move forward. It’s about empowering people to see what’s possible and giving them the tools and the direction to make a difference in that sort of way.”
Q: Who is the most influential woman in your life?
A: “I would say the most influential woman in my life is my mom. She passed away about three years ago and she’s the most influential to me not because she was perfect, she actually was far from perfect. But I learned from her the value of hard work, the value of making mistakes but learning those mistakes, and the value of using all of those tools. Hard work, mistakes, learning from mistakes, and moving forward and becoming a better person. I also learned from her the value of love because I do wholeheartedly believe she loved me unconditionally, even when she was imperfect, and there’s such an important lesson there.”
Q: How important is it to have a leadership role as a woman here at Sam?
A: “To me it’s a great honor and privilege to be able to be a leader here at Sam Houston and I value that but, I think it’s important for us as women to see leaders in a lot of different roles and capacities. The fact that Sam Houston is majority female student body and ensuring that we have people in those role model positions that our students and future generations can look up to and can learn from and can be mentored by, I think that is a really important part of the education experience here at Sam Houston State.”
Q: What word of advice could you tell a woman who wants to take on a leadership role?
A: “My word of advice would be believe in yourself, find people to help you, and go for it. Whatever it is you aspire to do and to become, that opportunity is there and don’t sell yourself short. Just take those opportunities and believe in yourself always and when you don’t believe I yourself, you find someone to help remind you to believe in yourself. And really take those opportunities when they come.”
