Early life sows seeds for successful leadership.

Do women's early life experiences with family, school and extracurricular activities predict their success as leaders? Research by four women at Western Carolina University suggests they do.

The initial goal of a research study conducted by Dr. Jacque Jacobs, Dr. Sandra Tonnsen, Dr. Ann Alexander and Dr. Kathleen Jorissen--all faculty in the school's department of educational leadership and foundation--was to determine the "reciprocal impacts of teaching and leading."

Because their careers have zig-zagged between K-12 and higher education and between the classroom and administration, they wanted to determine how teaching informs practice and practice informs teaching.

From there, the quartet shifted their study to explore personal experiences in their early lives in hopes of identifying the origins of leadership. Their intent was to use the information to better support their graduate students.

Jacobs is professor and chair of the department. Tonnsen and Alexander are associate professors and Jorissen is an assistant professor. Using themselves as case studies to test their interviewing skills and refine a questionnaire, the four explored how the environment in their childhood and adolescence led them to teaching and administrative roles in K-12 schools, community colleges and the university.

They spoke at the University of Nebraska conference on Women in Educational Leadership in Lincoln in October 2008.

Seeds of leadership