Cultivating opportunities

When Leah Merrifield left St. Louis and her job advising undergraduate business students at the University, she really didn’t expect to be coming back — much less coming back to the same environment she left.

But 10 years after accompanying her husband, who took the head basketball coaching job at Emory University, she found herself back in St. Louis after a few stops along the way.

Now, she’s special assistant to the chancellor for diversity initiatives, her third position during her second stint at the University. Upon her return in 1996, she advised full-time master of business administration students; then she served as director of community relations.

While some people are interested in their destination and how they get there, it appears that Merrifield is happy with going on the ride and trying different things.

“It illustrates to me that it’s possible to have a really rich career at Washington University,” Merrifield says. “When I was looking for new opportunities for growth, I wasn’t limited to what was in the business school; I was able to look beyond the walls of Simon Hall and got the opportunity to work with Pam Lokken (vice chancellor for government and community relations).”

And what an opportunity it was. During her years in that office, Merrifield was involved with such issues as acquiring the property that would become North Campus; the seemingly endless construction projects; and yes, of course, the MetroLink expansion.

But perhaps leaving the business school for this new venture wasn’t such a stretch.

“It was a switch, but at the same time, there were many aspects that were similar,” Merrifield says. “The environment in the business school is really one that is driven by what we call customer satisfaction, and my job was to work very closely with the full-time M.B.A. students to understand what their needs were.

“When I saw the community relations job, what I thought I saw in it was the opportunity to use the same kind of skills. It was really a kind of position where you were one of the more public faces for the University for certainly the surrounding communities and to a certain extent other organizations in the St. Louis region.”

According to Merrifield, it was about listening to concerns about the neighborhood, the University’s role in the region and helping articulate that role and position to the constituents, listening to their needs and responding appropriately. Usually.

She’s quick to point out that sometimes when someone voiced a concern, there was nothing to be done to ease that person’s angst.

“We’re all human beings and Washington U. is the 800-pound gorilla for the surrounding neighborhoods; we are right in their back yard,” she says. “We have been here for more than 150 years.”

Then came a day for which she wasn’t exactly prepared: the principal came to her office.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton came across the hall in North Brookings, knocked on her door and caught her a little off-guard.

“When I met with him in the past, I’d go to his office,” she laughs. “I mean, he’s the boss, so to have him come into my office unannounced, my brain is thinking ‘What did I do?’

“But I got over that and listened to what he wanted to do and why, and how he thought I could help him. The more he talked about what he wanted to do and the more I saw his commitment and passion, the more I thought ‘Yeah, that sounds interesting and could have a different kind of impact for our students, faculty and staff.'”

What Wrighton wanted was for Merrifield to take a new role with the University — that of special assistant to the chancellor for diversity initiatives.

The goal, in part, was to apply new energy and creativity on the campus to build a stronger faculty and staff by strengthening diversity and improving gender balance where that is an issue.

“Leah has spent the last year applying new energy and giving new life to our approach to diversity,” Wrighton said. “She is laying the groundwork for what may be one of the most important and far-sighted initiatives this University has ever created. I value her contributions to this effort and her dedication to the mission of the University.”

While steady progress in strengthening diversity had been made over the past few years, a recent accreditation review by the North Central Association’s Higher Learning Commission concluded that the University had not done as much in this area as it had done in other important areas that have contributed to the University’s success.

So, Wrighton asked each school and major administrative area to designate a person to serve as a point person in connection with the renewed effort to strengthen diversity.

And he wanted Merrifield to coordinate this group.

“Leah cares deeply about expanding diversity and building community,” Lokken says. “Her commitment to both of these challenges is what gives me great confidence that the University will advance its aspirations in both areas.”

It didn’t take long for Merrifield to accept the chancellor’s offer, in large part because of his commitment and passion.

The immediate goal was enhancing the diversity of the faculty and senior administrative staff. So, the past year was spent taking a snapshot of where the University stands in terms of numbers, percentages of women and people of color it has in different roles, and also “comparing Washington University to schools that we like to compare ourselves with to see where we stand.”

According to Merrifield, there were no big surprises upon the first review’s results.

Everyone knew the University needed to do a better job of enhancing diversity.

And along the way, they learned that there is no one solution.

“What works at the law school might not work for social work,” she says, “then you have Arts & Sciences and that covers everything from art historians to physicists. It’s really dependent on the schools and disciplines.”

And some more so than others. With a place like the School of Medicine, it’s not a “pipeline” issue of finding women faculty members who have the credentials and experiences to be senior administrators.

But in disciplines such as engineering, or architecture where both women and people of color are underrepresented, the pipeline certainly is an issue.

“What I find particularly commendable about Leah is that, even though she has been appointed the head of the committee, she often seems in practice to be more our spiritual center than any hierarchical leader, and I appreciate that kind of leadership,” says Bob Hansman, associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. “She also seems to lead with her head and her heart both; she seems to be the right balance of vision plus the necessary nuts and bolts.

“She will not tolerate obstructionism or excuses, but she is also very encouraging rather than punitive in her approach to solving problems, and she expects us to be the same. If one truly cares about an issue like diversity, this seems to me to be the right approach: to get people to value the notion as much as you do, and for all the right, positive reasons.”

Which is definitely what’s needed in this position, because according to Merrifield, there is a much bigger piece of the diversity pie that needs to be worked out before realizing success.

“It’s not so much how we can recruit people from different backgrounds,” she says, “but what will we do once they are here to retain them? We really want this to be a place that people are successful and they can grow and thrive as researchers and teachers and administrators.

“Then, when they have wonderful success and other institutions come calling, they won’t feel the grass is any greener anywhere else.”

So far, in just over a year on the job (her position was effective July 1, 2005), she admits it’s too early to perceive any major shift in diversity.

Most of the past year has been a learning curve and much time has been spent on communicating internally the goals of the initiative across disciplines at the University.

“It’s about creating a culture here where everyone feels valued,” she says. “And what you need and what I need might be different, but neither one is better — they are just different.”

And while she’s served in several capacities in two different stints here, she thinks she may have finally found a permanent home as special assistant for diversity initiatives.

“As long as I’m providing value to the institution, I’d like to continue doing it,” she says. “I think it’s very important work — we want to remain competitive.

“Look at the census — the population is shifting, so the pool of students, faculty and staff members is evolving. If we’re not prepared to deal with that, we’re going to be left behind.

“And Washington University is not a place that’s going to be left behind.”