 | Is your mic working? Do you want me to get everybody’s attention for you now? You are a great leader; I know you’ll do a fabulous job. Those are the things I said to our then Northeast Wisconsin Women in Technology President, Adrienne Hartman before she went onto the stage at one of our breakfast series presentations. In 2020, right before the global pandemic hit, the room was filled with over 100 women eager to network and engage in professional learning. I felt proud to see the room full of participants, most younger than me, and to see Adrienne do a fantastic job on stage, guiding and leading the group. |
While others may have been jealous and wanted to be in the limelight, I was delighted to serve as a supportive leader, picking up loose ends, taking photos of the event, and recognizing the efforts and talent it took to bring an event like this to fruition. My role was to lift others and serve as a steady hand to my team and participants in the room. I felt a sense of pride as I said to myself, “Look what our leadership board has created,” and “so many lives will be impacted by this.”
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Personally, it took me a while to find my support system in technology leadership when I started as an edtech leader. I am not only a person of color, but also a female in a traditionally male-dominated position. Twenty-four years of teaching in a classroom didn't necessarily prepare me in 2006 for the challenges I was about to face in a technology leadership role. Fortunately, I had numerous colleagues and role models in my professional life who saw potential in me and helped me to grow.
The superintendent in my first school district saw my potential and she converted my edtech leadership teaching position to a Director of Technology position. After four years as an administrative technology leader, I was hired in a large school district in Wisconsin to work for another female superintendent. The recruiter who encouraged me to apply for the position said, “She’s building an exciting leadership team in which I think you’ll want to play an important part.” The consultant was right.
The role I was able to fill was the Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO) for Green Bay Area Public Schools. In that position I was invited into rooms I did not have access to before as a classroom educator. When I did enter those technology leadership rooms, I was one of the very few females in the room. It was lonely. Wisconsin has had some powerful and well-respected female edtech leaders who have gone before me at the state level, and I felt fortunate that they supported me and encouraged me in my early edtech leadership years, but those numbers were few. I also continued to have very strong male sponsors who used my name in rooms where I was not present, thus exposing me to more edtech connections and opportunities. I would not be the edtech leader I am today without the positive influence of my family, church, and professional community.
The superintendent in my first school district saw my potential and she converted my edtech leadership teaching position to a Director of Technology position. After four years as an administrative technology leader, I was hired in a large school district in Wisconsin to work for another female superintendent. The recruiter who encouraged me to apply for the position said, “She’s building an exciting leadership team in which I think you’ll want to play an important part.” The consultant was right.
The role I was able to fill was the Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO) for Green Bay Area Public Schools. In that position I was invited into rooms I did not have access to before as a classroom educator. When I did enter those technology leadership rooms, I was one of the very few females in the room. It was lonely. Wisconsin has had some powerful and well-respected female edtech leaders who have gone before me at the state level, and I felt fortunate that they supported me and encouraged me in my early edtech leadership years, but those numbers were few. I also continued to have very strong male sponsors who used my name in rooms where I was not present, thus exposing me to more edtech connections and opportunities. I would not be the edtech leader I am today without the positive influence of my family, church, and professional community.
Women lifting up other women
It was during that time of starting my career in edtech leadership as a CTIO, that I joined Women in Technology (WIT) - the regional start-up organization whose goal it is to attract, grow, and retain women in technology. WIT Wisconsin provided me with the needed support system and allowed me to give back to my community of intelligent, insightful, and get-it-done women. The group resided outside the familiar circles in education, and included women from many industries such as marketing, manufacturing, data science, development, engineering, and more.
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My role as a mother of four daughters caused me to instill the importance of empowering and building skills/dispositions in the technology field. The imbalance of gender representation in most rooms could either intimidate me or drive me to perform at a level to which others were well aware of my competence. I chose the latter. One of the main goals of Women in Technology to help build confidence and skills in our members. Our work reminds our members that YES, you are in the right place, and we will provide a support system to keep you there.
I joined the WIT governing board in 2013 to serve and not be in the spotlight or on stage. It was there where I found lifelong sisters who were not interested in competing, but in building each other up so that we could all advance. In the process of getting to know new members, it was heartbreaking to hear from young WIT members who said they had never been at women-led meetings or had other females around them had never lifted them up. Some people would say that in earlier times it seemed like there was only room for one woman at the top. With that mentality it may have brought about competition for positions higher on the corporate ladder. Nevertheless, it permanently etched in my mind that we will all gain more when we work together and advance others.
As more years passed for me as a CTIO I met Sheryl Abshire, Frankie Jackson, and Donna Williamson through my national connections at CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). As we all began talking about our origin stories, I felt so fortunate to have found colleagues who had similar experiences in edtech leadership, of being of an under represented group in a room of technology directors and CTOs. They too, have unique and engaging stories as to what brought them into the educational technology sphere.
I joined the WIT governing board in 2013 to serve and not be in the spotlight or on stage. It was there where I found lifelong sisters who were not interested in competing, but in building each other up so that we could all advance. In the process of getting to know new members, it was heartbreaking to hear from young WIT members who said they had never been at women-led meetings or had other females around them had never lifted them up. Some people would say that in earlier times it seemed like there was only room for one woman at the top. With that mentality it may have brought about competition for positions higher on the corporate ladder. Nevertheless, it permanently etched in my mind that we will all gain more when we work together and advance others.
As more years passed for me as a CTIO I met Sheryl Abshire, Frankie Jackson, and Donna Williamson through my national connections at CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). As we all began talking about our origin stories, I felt so fortunate to have found colleagues who had similar experiences in edtech leadership, of being of an under represented group in a room of technology directors and CTOs. They too, have unique and engaging stories as to what brought them into the educational technology sphere.
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What I admired most about these women is that they all had operational stories about how they got things done. They found solutions to situations that may have seemed impossible to solve. They built networks of colleagues who, together, went very far. They had the drive and charisma to lead, but also served as great followers. What I loved most about this group of women is that they were interested in lifting others up and helping others advance their careers in technology - just like I had felt about serving as a leader in Women in Technology. Their goals matched mine in reminding new entrants to the edtech leadership scene that YES, they do belong here in the field of technology and would do everything they could to help others succeed in the field, whether it be serving as an ally, mentor or sponsor, teaching about educational technology leadership, or investing in building systems and processes that help others achieve. On top of it all, these were women I had “fan-girled” over for years as I watched their rise to national leadership roles. As I got to know them better, I loved their openness and the easy way we collaborated on joint projects. When one of them said, “We should write a book,” I don’t think any of us hesitated in saying YES.
Our book, The Savvy EdTech Leader, is a love letter to our technology community and is designed for anybody who wants to grow their leadership skills. We share with you some of our experiences and most importantly, our lessons learned. We hope we can help you sidestep some unfortunate leadership situations by sharing with you what has worked for us. While we discuss leadership, we also discuss being a part of a team and its importance in your leadership journey as well as having an internal vision that drives you.
We hope you will give some attention to our book. We break leadership down into fifty-two elements with key strategies. You could explore and practice one strategy a week for a year, take our leadership quiz to find your gaps, and then read the chapter for some new information that can help you grow.
It’s our way of saying just what I said to Adrienne at the top of this story: You are a great leader, and I know you’ll do a fabulous job.
Our book, The Savvy EdTech Leader, is a love letter to our technology community and is designed for anybody who wants to grow their leadership skills. We share with you some of our experiences and most importantly, our lessons learned. We hope we can help you sidestep some unfortunate leadership situations by sharing with you what has worked for us. While we discuss leadership, we also discuss being a part of a team and its importance in your leadership journey as well as having an internal vision that drives you.
We hope you will give some attention to our book. We break leadership down into fifty-two elements with key strategies. You could explore and practice one strategy a week for a year, take our leadership quiz to find your gaps, and then read the chapter for some new information that can help you grow.
It’s our way of saying just what I said to Adrienne at the top of this story: You are a great leader, and I know you’ll do a fabulous job.
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