Page 27 - BusinessWest July 7, 2021

Linda Thompson says the timing was right for her to pursue a college presidency, and Westfield State University was the ideal fit.
opportunities awaiting her as she takes the helm at the 182-year-old institution, founded by Hor- ace Mann, whose pioneering efforts in educa- tion — and inclusion — are certainly a source of inspiration for her.
“He wanted to look at how education is important to a new society — a society that was going to be self-governed and where people needed to understand how to engage in civil society. I was very intrigued with this history, the inclusive nature of his approach to higher edu- cation, and how he looked back at some of the historical development of what I will call democ- racies in ancient Greece and the importance of an educated community to support democracies
and health societies.”
For this issue and its focus on edu-
cation, BusinessWest talked at length with Thompson about Horace Mann, the challenges facing those in higher education, and why she believes WSU is well-positioned to meet them head-on.
Grade Expectations
As noted earlier, Thompson brings a diverse portfolio of experience to her latest challenge.
Our story begins in 1979, when she began her career as a clinical nurse spe- cialist in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Henry Ford Hospital
in Detroit. Soon thereafter, she would begin interspersing jobs in education
with those in the public sector.
In 1987, she became assistant dean at the
School of Nursing at Coppin State College in Bal- timore, and two years later took a job as director of the Office of Occupational Medicine and Safe- ty in Baltimore. In 1993, she joined the school
of Nursing at the University of Maryland, where she would hold a variety of positions between 1993 and 2003, with a four-year diversion in the middle to serve as special secretary for Children, Youth & Families in the Maryland Governor’s Office.
In 2003, she became dean of Nursing at Oak- land University in Troy, Mich., and later returned to the East Coast, where she would join the staff at North Carolina A&T State University, first as provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, then as associate vice chancellor for Outreach, Professional Development & Distance Education.
In 2013, she became dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and a professor of Nursing at West Chester University in Pennsyl- vania, and in 2017, she came to UMass Boston, serving as dean of the College of Nursing and Health Services.
“I see myself as a servant
leader, a person who tries to see
how I can help another person
maximize their opportunity
to dig deep inside themselves,
and identify their strengths and
”
Slicing through all that, she said she’s had decades of experience working collaboratively with others to achieve progress in areas ranging from student success to diversity with staff and faculty; from forging partnerships with private- sector institutions to creating strategic plans; from creating new academic programs to secur- ing new philanthropic revenue streams for fac- ulty research.
And she intends to tap into all that experience as she leads WSU out of the pandemic and into the next chapter in its history.
Thompson
Continued on page 45
bring those strengths out.
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