Teresa Berger

I would attribute my success to two main things. The first would be the way that my parents raised me. I always say I have the best parents in the world. They're square dancers, and they raised me with the mentality of, yes, you can work hard and accomplish whatever you put your mind to. They've been incredible about supporting me through this kind of crazy career shift, leaving the higher ed field into the nonprofit world. It was kind of a big jump. They were super supportive, and just one of those, like, yeah, if you work hard, you work through the problems, you work through the challenges, you trust that you've done your best, and you just leave the rest to work itself out. The second thing is the people I've had in my corner. I've had some really great folks supporting me. The prior director was incredible to learn from, super supportive. And when the executive committee hired me, they kind of took a chance, right? It was a radical shift to go from an organization that is primarily male-dominated. I was the first female executive director, and I was also young when I started with the company at 26. Every other director had been retired, in their 60s. So the executive committee that hired me were just really encouraging throughout the process of navigating what it looks like to gain respect in the field and to help people build that trust. We experienced the pandemic shortly after I started, which was a major challenge where I really needed people to trust me to continue on. The leadership team we worked with were so encouraging and just great supports for me in every aspect.

If there's something that you are passionate about, get involved there. It may lead to something that becomes a career. I was a member of the association, so I had that direct connection where I was super involved in something, super passionate about something, and was able to make that my hobby, my gig, and my career as well. I would just advise anybody that if there's something you are passionate about, jump in and take the risk to explore if it's worth it, if it's something that could be more to you, if you can make your work your hobby as well. It's certainly super rewarding. Challenging, but super rewarding.

The biggest challenge for us is helping folks step away from the 'we've always done it this way' mentality and embrace change. We've gone through a really exciting reevaluation of the square dance programs in the last year and a half, and it's been a cool process to see the discussions that have happened, where there's been this opening of the mind to allow for change. Yes, we can implement change, yes, we can shake it up a little bit, yes, we can try something new, and that doesn't negate the beautiful history that we have and the hard work that people have done before us. But navigating that change is challenging for many folks, and that would be one of the biggest challenges for me as the director. On the opportunities side, the biggest opportunities within my field are the folks that I have met. It's been super incredible. We've got 1,300 members worldwide, and I've gotten to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories specifically about square dancing. This past January, we held our very first mini convention in Japan, and I got to put faces to names with people that I've been talking with for my entire career in this organization. To be able to see them in person and visit their hometowns and work on how can we best serve square dancing in Japan as a team was so incredible. It's so cool that our organization has formed those connections and that we're able to make those kind of things happen.

Honesty is probably one value that's really important to me, just in general. Whether that's in terms of transparency and making sure that people are informed and engaged and aware of things they need to know, but then also from a personal side, that's something that's important to me in general. I would also say hard work and determination are important for me as a person. That's how I was raised. But then also for our organization, it's certainly important. There's a lot of different dynamics that come with serving in a nonprofit in all of the aspects of running the company, and then also with being an effective square dance caller. You're constantly having the ability to learn and grow, and so working hard to do that helps me be the best version of myself for the world, for the company, and for the people that I teach too.