Monique Jordan, Ed.D.

I really pride myself on investing in those that report to me or that I mentor, and watching their careers grow and sometimes just skyrocket. There's nothing more rewarding than that. Early in my career, I had a leader who understood that in order for me to continue to grow, he had to invest in me. He provided me opportunities to work on global projects, asked me to take a short assignment in Singapore for several months, and then later asked if I would go to the UK for a year to do training and backfill an interim role. That really allowed me to grow without having to leave the company. It is important to me that I pay that forward. My business experience, global travels and love of learning all brought me to where I am today. I think part of what draws me to education and higher ed is that mentoring aspect, meeting someone where they're at and giving them all the tools that they need to be able to grow both personally and in their career. It is the same with students - you're meeting them where they're at and watching who they are when they come in the door and transform into who they are when they're walking across the graduation stage is just so rewarding.

The best career advice I ever received was from a vice president at Timberland early in my career. He told me I really had to work on my gravitas. At the time, I was early in my career and still developing as a professional, but that advice stuck with me throughout my entire career. It was about developing executive presence, confidence, and the ability to command respect in any room. Years later I actually had someone tell me that I have great gravitas, and I just burst out laughing because it was like a full-circle moment. I remember thinking I had to go call him and tell him I got it now! That piece of advice fundamentally shaped how I showed up in my career and how I developed as a leader. I would also say that I so many other leaders who modeled the type of leader I wanted to be. It was not necessarily advice, but how they showed up day to day, in all situations.

You go into education because you love it. You go into education because you want to invest in others. You go into education because you yourself are a lifelong learner, and you want to be able to model that for those that are around you. And you go into education to continue to learn. I learn just as much from my students as I do from my colleagues. It's about being curious, being open to new experiences, and understanding that education is not just about teaching - it's about building relationships and being part of someone's journey. When students choose wherever they are for their schooling, that's a choice they've made, and for them to have that trust and desire to want to build a relationship with you is pretty incredible. It's those moments, when a student comes to your desk beaming from ear to ear to tell you they got the internship they were trying to get or just stopping by to tell you how their day is going, those are the moments that are priceless. Pursue what interests you. I am currently working towards my WSET Level 3 certification. Be curious! Also, surround yourself with strong women, those you look up to, those who support you and those who are coming up behind you.

The world is moving at a rapid pace and some of the skills needed to succeed are critical thinking, curiosity, adaptability, resilience, and communication are ones that all discipline areas need to focus on. There is beauty in having diverse groups of individuals working together to find the best solution to problems. Working with business advisory boards for our programs allows us to better understand the current and future needs of industry.

Lifelong learning and curiosity are at the core of who I am. My ability to travel for Timberland, living and working in Singapore and traveling around Asia, then living and working in England and traveling around Europe, really changed who I was. There is an HBR article that talks about the value of living abroad that has really resonated with me. Those experiences opened up a curiosity in me - I realized there were so many perspectives I had never considered. When I was with Hult living in London, I really tried to have a theme every month so I could go try different things. One month was a cooking theme where I took cooking classes. Had I not done that I might not have come across Migrateful Cookery School whose mission is to "support migrants and refugees on their journey to integration by enabling them to teach cookery classes to the general public." This then inspired me to introduce non-profit challenges to Hult Business Challenges, first with The Felix Project in London and then with YMCA Greater Boston. It was rewarding to see business students showing the same focused energy on a non-profit challenge as they did on a well know company challenges. I look to find things that are of interest to me that I've never done before and think, why not? Why not try that? It's that continuous learning and constantly challenging myself that is important to me. I'm also deeply committed to empowering women and food access. Food access is one of the most basic human needs, and for any individual to be successful in life, they need safety and security first.