The Legacy of Leadership

During grad school (parts 1 and 2), I had the distinct pleasure of working for Melinda Knight and Alicia Yi Remolde at the Center for Writing Excellence at Montclair State University for nearly 6 years. I want to take the time to celebrate these two women because they are exceptional leaders.

(The TLDR version is available at the end)

Let's start with the facts, Melinda and Alicia took over the writing center in 2009. At that point, it was a small operation-- literally an old classroom hidden in a hallway of a building that was incredibly difficult to find. Our workspaces were three broken half-height cubicles, and our reception desk was one of those awful desk-chair combos placed next to the classroom door. I think there were 5 consultants and 2 undergrad work-study greeters. We wrote everything on paper. Humble beginnings, indeed.

Fast forward just over a year and Melinda made the case to the university that the writing center was a valuable asset. They built a space for us at the back of the campus library. A real reception desk, new laptops to use to log in to our new tracking software where we could leave notes about our sessions and collect information for appointments ahead of time, and beautiful desks to sit with our clients side-by-side. Wow!

By year 5, we had grown significantly. The CWE served several hundred students, staff, and university community members. We held workshops in-house and mobile workshops. We ran programs for seniors and youth in the community. It was a wonderful place to be. But we had also outgrown our library corner.

So again, Melinda compiled the data and made the case for a dedicated space where the librarians never felt the need to sush us. This time, we were granted nearly an entire floor of a residence hall building, custom built to meet all our requirements for best serving our clients. It was beautiful and wonderful, and also a true testament to Melinda and Alicia's work because, as you know, getting a small budget, let alone an entire space and a larger budget, from a university is no easy feat.

But they did it. They believed in our mission, and they knew the importance of data. Time and time again, they were able to demonstrate our impact and get us what we needed to be better serve the community.

It's been over 11 years since Melinda and Alicia took over and rebranded the Center for Writing Excellence, and its good work still continues, as well as its positive reputation on campus. The CWE has been recognized for its outstanding working by the Conference for College Composition and Communications by the NCTE and granted the power to certify tutors through the College Reading & Learning Association.

So, aside from being great at telling data stories, how did Melinda and Alicia grow this tiny group in a forgotten room into a powerhouse, national-award winning team?

Melinda made sure her writing center consultants (always consultants, never tutors) were trained professionals. Every week, she had us read scholarship about pedagogy/literacy/writing/mentoring/disability studies and circle back during our weekly staff meeting to discuss this work and its applications. It was important that all of our practice was supported by evidence-based best practices. She emphasized this constantly. Additionally, Melinda gave us opportunities to research, present, and develop workshops beyond our consulting duties. And perhaps most importantly, she gave us the opportunity to discuss our work openly. Were there challenges we faced with clients that week? Were any of the systems the CWE implemented not working for us? As consultants, we had a say in what happened in our workplace, and we felt heard.

Alicia supported us day to day. With her experience as a former consultant and great people management skills, she made sure we had everything we needed to perform our roles, provided feedback and helped us improve our craft, and made sure we always had a safe environment in which to perform our work. If we had a problem, she was the first one to step in and try to get it solved. She was also usually the first one to get faculty complaints that we "didn't fix a student's grammar" and make them perfect writers in one session, and yet, she always defended the writing center without bashing the colleague who didn't quite understand how writing centers work. Alicia always brought a positive, can-do attitude that was infectious. She was never preachy, just inspiring.

It's been quite some time since I worked at the CWE, but the lessons I learned there about instructional design, teaching, mentoring, and management are important ones that I still apply in my profession today.

For the TLDR crowd, let me sum it up:

• Consistently provide your people opportunities for professional learning and arm them with evidence-based best practices
• Give your staff the opportunity to honestly express what is/isn't working AND address those concerns
• Allow your team stretch tasks so that they can continue to grow in their careers while being provided the guidance they need to learn to do the task well
• Foster a sense of community
• Go to bat for your team, when necessary
• Learn to collect data and tell stories about that data
• Lead by example