Perspectives on Leadership

Leadership

Chaco Doors

Perspectives on Leadership

A Brief Sketch

By: Dr. Ann M. Berghout Austin

As a junior in high school, I was a delegate to Maureen Utah Hearns Girls State. I will always be grateful for this benevolent gift of providence. At Girls State, I

With learned forethought about my responsibility to promote social justice and earned a scholarship to Utah State and intentionality, we

University at the same time. pass through awaiting

doorways to new spaces in which to create a new awareness.

Chaco Doors

Maureen Hearns

With forethought and intentionality, we pass through awaiting doorways to new spaces in which to create a new awareness.

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My family’s challenge involved both parents and all sisters working hard to help my profoundly deaf and multiple-handicapped sibling develop in a generative way. This experience helped cement my interest in social problems and social policy, and the USU scholarship suggested to me that I could really enact my dream. I entered university with the goal of becoming a UNICEF physician who could work with others to make the world a more just and equitable place for women and children. I was entranced by the UNICEF physicians interviewed on TV, their sweaty faces bristling with concern for others. “That will be me,” I thought.

Growing up, I spent most of every summer on my grandfather’s ranch in southern Idaho where I helped with his egg and dairy business. I also worked for other ranchers for hourly wages from 25 to 75 cents an hour. During the summer of 1965, inspired by the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I rushed through my chores every day so I could be in the house to watch the evening news. I was concerned about Dr. King’s work and, toward the end of the summer, I decided I would hitch a ride to Logan, Utah on the milk truck. I planned to use part of my summer money to ride the Greyhound bus to the Salt Lake City airport and use the rest to fly south to help Dr. King. But my parents found out and told me that such an escapade would brand me as a runaway, and no university would allow a runaway to study at their school. Of course, this wasn’t true, but I believed them, and that ended that.

In the spring of 1967, I was awarded a Kennecott scholarship along with several

others in our graduating class. My dad, who worked at the copper mines all of his life, told me that the scholarships were a result of monetary contributions from the many fathers working at Kennecott. That the men had set up a soda and candy machine to gather the money together. I was deeply touched and always hoped I was worthy of this tremendous gift. At the end of our senior year, all of the Kennecott scholarship winners were invited to the Alta Club in Salt Lake City for a celebratory dinner. There was a sign on the front door of the club that stated firmly, “Women and those making deliveries must go to the west door.” I walked around to the west door and found it was a teensy little hole at the end of an alley. I was sure the boogeyman waited in the alley, so I went through the front door anyway.

In 1978, I began doctoral studies in child developmental psychology at Iowa State University (ISU). Although my plan had been to go to medical school, by this time I had sufficient experience with children (classroom teacher for grades 4, 5, and 6, and music instructor) to know that, although I love medicine, my greatest interest was with children’s cognitive and emotional development. My husband, Dennis Austin, was working for the state of Utah as a big game biologist and researcher, and we had three little children ranging 1 to 5 years old. I took the three children with me to Iowa while my husband stayed in Utah to work. I arrived in Iowa on a Saturday and called the local pastor of my church to ask about the Sunday schedule for services. He asked a few questions about my circumstances, and I innocently answered.

When my babies and I got to church the next day, the door was blocked by two men in dark suits. It seemed to me they were about ten feet tall and ten feet wide. They introduced themselves as the local clergy. They told me to go home, that what I was doing was wrong, that I was not welcome at church, and if I had problems while living in Iowa they would not help me. I told them that the last time I checked it was Christ’s church, not theirs. I walked around their huge bulk,

I am grateful that my students and I have been able to put a few things in place to make life easier for mothers and children.

little children clutching anxiously at my skirt, and entered the building.

My days at ISU were a dream come true. I was unbelievably happy. Of course, I missed my husband, but it was wonderful to study at such a prominent university, and I treasured every single minute I spent there. In December 1981, two days after our fourth child was born, I graduated in absentia with my doctorate from ISU. I received several job offers, but Utah State University offered me the

best contract, so I came back to Logan, and here I have been for the past several decades.

I am a full professor and have been given administrative service as associate dean, acting dean, associate director of the agriculture experiment station, and vice provost. I am now the director of the Center for Women and Gender, a research and academic unit within the Provost’s office. I consider myself the most blessed of humans. I have a remarkable family, a fabulous husband, a great job, and wonderful students. I do the typical professor thing: teaching, editing and authoring books, chapters, articles, and being lucky enough to garner federal research grants. I helped our federal legislators write child care block grant legislation, and I worked with Utah leaders to develop the Utah Office of Child Care. Early in my career, I was one of fifty lucky Americans selected to be part of the three-year Kellogg National Fellowship Program (KNFP).

As part of KNFP, I visited children’s health, nutrition, and education programs in 17 developing world countries. Afterward I was the evaluator for a 10-year infant development program in rural Paraguay. My research area focuses on child development in out-of-home childcare and on girls’ and women’s leadership development. I have been greatly blessed by Dios y Diosa. My contracts and grants bring in more than two million dollars each year. I have served as major professor for 50 masters and doctoral students. I am grateful that my students and I have been able to put a few things in place to make life easier for mothers and children.

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