'Accidental' administrators describe view from the top.

Neither Carol Brown nor Dr. Sue Hammersmith ever set out to become top-level administrators in higher education. Yet in the summer of 2002, Brown became president of Waukesha County Technical College WI, while Hammersmith moved to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

At the Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) conference in October, they spoke about life in the positions they've now held for over a year and the journeys that brought them there. Dr. Karen Knox, president of Southwest Technical College WI, facilitated the session.

What path brought you to your present position?

Brown: "Wherever I was, I just took advantage of it and loved it," the technical college president said. Always engrossed in the current job, she didn't plan strategic moves. Each of her job changes happened at the suggestion of someone who recognized her potential.

While she was an ACE fellow in Texas, a man told her, "I think it's time for you to leave." He wasn't firing her but commenting on her strength. She'd been at Houston Community College for 17 years, rising through history faculty to social studies division coordinator. Sometimes there is only so far you can go in one school.

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In 1993 she moved on to Oakland Community College MI as dean, rising to vice chancellor when there was no budget to fill that vacancy otherwise. Her next job move would be back to the South or Southwest, she promised herself and her husband.