Considering moving from faculty to administration?

The road to administration was not straight for three women who shared their experiences on the journey at the October 2003 Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) conference.

At the start of their careers, none said she would have imagined herself outside the classroom. They were: Carol Kopp, associate dean of general studies at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College; Dr. Deborah Cureton, campus dean at the University of Wisconsin college at Richland Center, and Dr. Mittie Nimocks, dean of liberal arts and education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

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The women had held leadership positions in other areas, such as Kopp's work with the YWCA. After she was identified as a change agent during a state initiative in 1991, Kopp decided it was "now or never" to move to associate dean. Participating in the Wisconsin Leadership Development Institute helped her re-frame and expand her teaching skills into administrative strengths.

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Cureton also joined administration at a time of change for her college in South Carolina. Her beloved college had a painful schism between factions, and Cureton felt "prepared and fortunate" to be able to "step in to bridge the gap." For her, administration was a "personal way to help my campus heal."

Although Nimocks had to look on a map to find Platteville in Wisconsin, she has enjoyed being an administrator there. From a family of educators in Mississippi, she sought a career in higher education, but didn't enjoy teaching as much as she'd expected. After attending a WWHEL conference, she was comfortable moving to administration.