Donna Jones

I would say take advantage of opportunities, even if you are nervous or anxious about them. I only have progressed through my career because I've had wonderful mentors and supervisors that really built up my confidence, and also really approached my career trajectory as a vested interest of their own. So they showed an interest in me in giving me opportunities to develop so that I could move into a role, and still learn, of course, in that role, but be prepared as I could. They just really took the time to talk with all of my teammates. I've really had a great, lucky experience with people that want to see me succeed. So I just take advantage of opportunities, get to know people in your field. You never know who might be a person you can list as a reference, or a future collaborator.

I would say find other women in your field. Find your group of people that you can be absolutely authentic with, share in the understanding of what it's like if you are a person that has a family, or you have caregiving responsibilities, how you're managing that alongside work duties and your personal life. I have a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old, and I have been really lucky to have women that advocate for each other in the spaces, whether that's concerning health or also looking at salary and job advancement. So, finding other women, or people that identify as women, in your workplace is so important for your mental health and personal well-being.

I think one challenge is just the landscape of education. Coming from Arkansas, there are a lot of differing political opinions, and that is easily seen on college campuses. Knowing how to both support our students and their work, but also understanding how to stay civil, and how to engage in different discussions of things like social justice and access and need, whether that's food insecurity or political discussion - that's definitely a challenge day to day. And then also, thinking about how we sustainably fund and grow our programs while also making sure that our students and our staff have capacity to keep up the good work they're doing in all of our service programs. So I'd say managing that landscape of education right now, whether that's through free speech or talking about different programs we bring to campus, and then also how do we sustainably fund those. We are a public institution and people have a lot of needs, and there's only so many resources.

Communication, for both work and personal life. I would say the better communicators or the more willing you're able to be in talking with different people and gaining perspective is just so important. Even if it's bad news, being able to communicate that effectively. And then being able to understand different people's perspectives and goals, and being able to see how that fits into your own goal, whether that's working with a team or with a family. So, considering different perspectives and communication.