Kimberly Bright

I have parents who modeled hard work and valued education, instilling that into their children. I went to a really, really great high school - one of the best in the country. This sounds crazy, but I didn't have a college degree for many years. I was a chief of staff for a state agency before I had a college degree, and I do think it's partly because I went to one of the best high schools in the country. I've also had some really good people in my life who saw something in me and helped to nurture my growth. Sometimes they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. So I think those three things - my parents, my high school education, and having really good people in my life - in addition to, of course, hard work and all the other things. I've had some really good people in my life.

The best career advice I ever got came when I was Chief of Staff at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and had just been accepted to Harvard. I was in the first year with a new commissioner and felt like there was so much work to do - it was never a good time to leave. I talked to someone about it, and they said, 'Kim, you can't fix RIDE.' I had this sort of savior complex, thinking the work was too important for me to even pursue a huge dream I had, which was to go to Harvard. The advice was that we are not bigger than our organizations. If you love your work, you never want to step away, and you think everything is so critical. But you have to make room in your life for yourself, for pursuing your dreams and pursuing your goals. The work is going to continue - they'll find someone else. And they did, and the walls did not come crashing down when I left. So just think about how you can consider what is best for you, in addition to what is good for the organization where you work. Now thinking back, I was like, that was crazy that I was not going to accept that.

The biggest challenge I face is that it is not easy to be a Black leader in predominantly white spaces. I'm saying that from a blue state, but microaggressions are real, and some things that happen are not micro at all. I have had to deal with just outright racism, just bold racism. I've had to deal with being overlooked or passed over in favor of white men who are less educated, less qualified. In our current moment, that is exponentially more salient now than it ever has been in my career. Fifteen or twenty years ago, this wouldn't have been my answer. But it's not uncommon for me to be the only person, definitely the only Black person in the room, but could be the only person of color period in the room. People don't always recognize their biases, and some people are not open to getting challenged on those biases. So navigating that is something I wish I had a different answer for. I wish I was not at this point in my career where that's a thing that I have to deal with, because I feel like I've earned my way in - I should be having a different experience. And I will say that it's not just me. This is not a Kim problem - it's systemic. There are all sorts of articles and reports being written about it right now. As for opportunities, I am finishing my doctorate, and the design of this program helps practitioners incorporate research and data into their practice. I see opportunities in consultancy work - supporting organizations with strategic planning, change management, leadership support, executive coaching. I could also work with professionals, especially professionals of color, on career coaching and navigating this environment. I am open to what the universe offers me at this point. My career has been unexpected the entire way, so I just think the universe will provide great opportunities for me.

Integrity is certainly important to me. I have my own personal integrity, but I also need to feel like I work in a place that values integrity as well. I tend to work in senior leadership roles, and so I need to have a good, honest communication channel - reporting up, reporting sideways, and reporting down. I just think being able to have honest discussions is essential, especially because I've had these chief of staff type roles where you have to sometimes be brutally honest. I don't know how to work otherwise if I can't have honest discussions with the people that I work with. And then always in my life, in work and in all efforts of my life, I am always trying to just make the world a more equitable place. So I also need to feel like, in my professional life, that I'm working in an organization that honors that and is committed to that, and not just sort of lip service. That's a hard thing right now. But also in my personal life, or my volunteer life, that's sort of what I try to work towards as well.