Quick post

Hi All,

Life is particularly busy this week and next. We are nearing the end of the CAP session. Students are busy writing final papers and preparing final journals. We as faculty are busy with grading. In addition, Sandie, Martha, and I are headed to Mobile, AL later this week to present at the Adult Higher Education Alliance conference. More on that soon. This is an exciting time!

Take care,
Harriet

Suggested reading

Hi All,

Sorry this post is a few days late. I was without electric for a few days and that put me behind regarding email and other online work.

Molly Prosser, our departmental assistant, worked with our friends at Divanation, to develop this blog posting.

Professional Leadership prides itself on being part of a larger community than Carlow itself. We foster relationships with diverse regional, national and international organizations by building networks and forming partnerships. Through these affiliations, we support leadership at all levels and stay current with what is really happening in leadership outside of academia.

One organization with whom we have developed a relationship is Divanation™. Divanation™ is an international identity- and narrative-development business consultancy, which focuses on women’s leadership. They work with organizations, leaders, and decision-makers to help facilitate and integrate both individual and structural change to attract, develop, retain, and reclaim women talent and women clients.

Leanne Meyer and Frank Lehner founded Divanation™ with the intent to apply the power of narrative, storytelling, and identity development to promote women’s leadership. Their partnership blends Leanne’s women’s leadership and program development expertise with Frank’s work in narrative, identity, and change.

We asked Leanne and Frank to come up with a list of their favorite books for the Professional Leadership blog! We wondered what they thought were important texts in the field, what inspired them, what made them think, what they love to read.

Here is their response:
1. Biographies – too often we find women have a dearth of female mentors and role models, thus making them feel isolated and alone making decisions and prioritizing their various demands. Biographies offer insights into how different women have made sense of their lives.
Personal History – Katherine Graham ; Half life of a Zealot – Swanee Hunt; Girls like us – Sheila Weller; Loving Frank – Nancy Horan; Why women should rule the world – Dee Dee Myers; Lee Miller: A Life -Carolyn Burke; Alice Waters and Chez Panisse - Thomas McNamee; The Dance of the Dissident daughter - Sue Monk Kidd

2. Identity Development through Narrative – the work Divanation™ does whether coaching, consulting, workshops, or keynotes is based on narrative, on story, on helping people understand where they want and should go, based on where they’ve come from, to giving meaning, urgency, and relevance to what they do in the present.
Composing a life – Mary Catherine Bateson; Writing a Woman’s life – Carolyn G. Heilbrun; Story Catcher - Christina Baldwin

3. Women, Men and the Differences between Them – we have come to see that often the greatest unquestioned assumption in the environments we work in is that women and men are the same—the same as leaders, the same contributors, the same communicators, the same team-builders, the same decision makers. We believe it important that we all realize that women and men are not the same. Not better. Not lesser. Just different.
In a Different Voice – Carol Gilligan; Talking from 9 to 5 – Deborah Tannen; Why Different? & This Sex Which Is Not One – Luce Irigaray.

4. Shapers of our Worldview –
Disclosing New Worlds – Spinosa, Flores, Dreyfus; Birth of the Chaordic Age- Dee Hock.; The Dream of the New Earth - Thomas Berry; Thoughts in the Presence of Fear - Wendell Berry; Anger - Thich Nhat Hanh;

5. Just because we like to eat –
My Bombay Kitchen - Niloufer Ichaporia King


For more information about Divanation™ or Leanne Meyer & Frank Lehner, check their website at http://www.divanate.com/

Student stories: Linda R.

Photo: Linda R. (center) works with two classmates during their Communications and Leadership course.

Words from Linda R.:

After many years of raising four children, working part time and volunteering, I decided to return full time to the workforce. I readied my resume and cover letter and began applying for entry level professional jobs. Despite being sufficiently qualified for the positions to which I applied, I could only find work as an administrative assistant. I worked unhappily as an assistant for about two years when I finally decided that I needed a fresh degree to jumpstart my career and I applied and was accepted into the Master of Science in Professional Leadership (PRL) program at Carlow University.

Being in the PRL program has done two major things for me. First, not being able to find professional employment had caused my self-confidence to wane. With each class I take, discussion I participate in, and paper I write I am beginning to feel much more confident in my abilities and the worth of my opinions and theories. Also, the PRL program emphasis of “leading from where you are” has helped me to see that despite my lack of professional experience, I have been and am a leader. Second, since adding the Professional Leadership program along with my expected graduation date to the education section of my resume, I was able to find a professional position at Community College of Allegheny County and am interested in pursuing a career in higher education administration.

My experience in the PRL program has been one of the most positive experiences of my adult life. Check it out and see if it is the right program for you!