From Foster Care to Exceptional Nurse to College President: GlobalMindED 2024 Health & Wellness Inclusive Leader Award Winner, Dr. Linda Thompson
We are thrilled to announce the first of our 2024 fifteen winners over the next few weeks, as GlobalMindED remembers MLK and welcomes the new year in the most inspiring way possible. Read our feature stories every day, and you will know why these remarkable heroes were chosen as the GlobalMindED Inclusive Leaders in their fields. For those of you following these awards over the last six years, all of the prior winners in health have been medical doctors. We are delighted to shine a bright light on the field of nursing and also show a woman who broke ground to catapult from nursing to college president. Congratulations Linda! You will get the chance to meet Linda at the Inclusive Leader Awards dinner on June 17th and hear her wisdom the following day as one of the key panelists on the Health Equity track.
What is your personal story?
When I was very young, I lived in a poor household in Detroit. I had a humble beginning, living in foster care till the age of seven and then moving to live with my mom who raised five children as a single parent on welfare. My older sister was a teen mom, never finishing high school, and my other sister was addicted to Heroin and died from a gunshot wound at the age of 21. I knew I didn’t want to follow that route. By pursuing my education, I was able to blaze my own path to success.
The foundation of my professional career has been health care. I am proud to be a nurse and to hold a Doctor of Public Health degree. My experience in health care – including my years advising the Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland on health policy – had a strong influence on me. Even over the course of my transition to higher education and roles at a number of institutions, most recently at the University of Massachusetts Boston, health care has continued to be an integral part of my life.
How did you find your purpose and your passion?
My purpose and passion was found through education. Education for me was my ticket out of poverty and an opportunity to make a meaningful life. I finished high school and became a nurse. I started working as a public health, community-based nurse with populations of young mothers and children. I learned how social, environmental, economic, and political forces impacted the social and health outcomes of children, youth, and families. It wasn’t that I was so sophisticated then, but I saw, and I observed. This knowledge sparked my curiosity and interest in pursuing
graduate education.
What led you to the leadership role for which you are being recognized? Who was instrumental on
your path to success?
The Dean of Nursing at the University of Maryland nominated me for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows program that provided me with a Coach and Mentor in Leadership. I worked with Dr. David Matthews, former president of the University of Alabama and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, who worked with me on building skills in participatory governance while he was president of the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio. I also was coached by Brit Kirwan who was the Chancellor of the University of Maryland system. He thought that I had the
potential to be a University President.
What does Inclusive Leadership mean to you and what would you like others to know and do as
inclusive leaders?
I look at creating a vision and an idea and working with and through people — people who are above me, people who work alongside me, people who are younger — and learning from people at all levels and ages and stages of their development. I tend to see myself as someone who is transformational. I see myself as a servant leader, a person who tries to see how I can help another person maximize their opportunity to dig deep inside themselves and identify their strengths, and bring those strengths out. In terms of my foundational background in nursing, I feel we shouldn’t forget that Social Justice is part of the Code of Ethics for Nurses. According to the Code of Ethics for Nurses, the profession
has an obligation to reduce disparities within our cultures and advance health and human rights. This is an ethical mandate not everyone practices. As nurses, we need to explore what we can do to make a difference in our communities. Nurses should embrace the title of social justice warrior and identify and counteract systemic racism within the healthcare profession. We all have an obligation, at any level, to influence others through passion, purpose, and processes with a focus on people. The potential to exhibit qualities of leadership exists on every level.
In my role as university president, guiding the direction, mission, and values of a 21st-century institution of higher education, my success ultimately depends on those who make the university function effectively. Faculty, staff, and librarians all play an essential role in making the day-to-day operational decisions that ultimately lead to the success of our most important university community members – our students.
Throughout my career in healthcare, government, and education, I have found effective leading, guiding, and motivating involves reasonable, relevant, measurable, and smart decision-making. But most importantly, to develop and advance staff, management strategy must be combined with compassion, kindness, and fairness.
How can the GlobalMindED Inclusive Success Network inform, advance and/or multiply your mission and goals?
Through organizations like GlobalMindED, we have the opportunity to explore how to reach underserved individuals through mentoring so they may reach their potential. I share the mission and purpose of GlobalMindED through my engagement with our area communities. As educators, we have an obligation to reach out to all of our communities and present opportunities to those who wish to build prosperity for their families and communities.
What is the legacy that you would most like to leave the world?
I would like to be known for building bridges between different cultures and being a role model for first generation college students of color.
