Evelyn Wynn

I have this borderline obsessive need to accomplish the next thing, and I don't know what has instilled that in me, but I'm always moving and thinking about the next thing to better myself or make myself more marketable. That's just an internal motivator. Beyond that, it's surrounding myself with people who support you and support your goals and want to see you accomplish and do big things. Working at my current position, no one wants to see me go, but at the same time, they're all my biggest cheerleaders because they know moving into higher ed and being a professor in my field is a huge dream of mine that I've worked very hard to accomplish one day. Feeling the love from the people around you that support you through good and bad is so important.

I had a colleague named Heidi Lee who told me, as you grow throughout your career, never forget what it was like to be a teacher. I think admins sometimes lose sight of all of the directions that teachers are pulled into, and that has really helped a lot of my decision-making in my role as a dean. Another good piece of advice I received was that being a leader means you work for your team. So you're part of the team, and whatever I can do to make the team's job easier is my role as a leader. What can I take off your plate? I'm in the trenches with the people that I quote-unquote supervise, or lead or guide. It's boots on the ground leadership.

Be relentless. You're gonna have lots of doors slammed in your face, and you're gonna hear no quite a bit. As long as you're relentless, and you work hard, and you do what's right, the right opportunities will come along. I think that's hard sometimes when you're being told no, to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel. I bring that up because I'm kind of in that position right now, trying to move into a higher education space, and I'm applying all the time. You gotta wait for somebody to see your potential, and it'll all end up working out. You have to kind of keep being relentless. Don't get down on yourself, and the right thing will happen for you.

I think public education in general is a challenge, especially out in Arizona. We're not ranked the highest in education, and it seems like year after year, it gets more and more difficult with behaviors and parent support, government and oversight, and lack of funding. I could go on and on. But at the end of the day, if it's your passion and it's what you love, you just keep being relentless and you keep on. If you love it and you love coming to work, then you deal with those speed bumps.

Just hard work and goal setting. I always have a next thing, and I don't know what it is about my upbringing or something that happened to me internally at some point in my life, but I just grind. You grind your ass off, and when you work hard and you put that effort in, things eventually work out the way they're supposed to. I'm a big believer in the universe, so what's supposed to happen will happen for you, but that takes a lot of your own hard work and gumption and relentlessness. I don't like to fail. Failure is not an option.