OF EDUCATION GRADUATES

LIPSCOMB’S DOCTORATE

BRING STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND GENUINE CARING TO THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS THROUGH LOCAL EDUCATION’S TOP POSITIONS.

When Lipscomb College of Education leaders established a Doctorate of Education to be focused on learning organizations and strategic change eleven years ago, little did they know that “change” would come to define the education world in 2020 throughout and after a pandemic.

Graduates of the program—especially those who have risen to the highest office in local school governance—say the strategic change focus of the program has been among the most useful skills carried away from their doctoral studies at Lipscomb.

Since the historic year of 2020, at least four Lipscomb Ed.D. alumni have moved into the top spots in their respective school districts: Montgomery and Rutherford counties and the city of Tullahoma in Tennessee, and Osceola County in Arkansas.

On March 31, 2020, when Dr. Catherine Stephens (’12) came to Tullahoma to sign her contract to become superintendent, she couldn’t even sit side-by-side in the same room with the school board chair to go over the paperwork. In the commemorative photograph, the two leaders sat six feet apart.

Thus began her first post as a school superintendent. Having been selected in the same month that Covid-19 took over in the U.S., Stephens, then associate director of schools for teaching and learning in the Franklin (Tennessee) Special School District, had to immediately help her current schools transition to all-remote learning while also preparing to carry the schools in Tullahoma through a pandemic that looked like it might never end.

“It was so odd to end one role and start another in the midst of this,” said Stephens. “We weren’t even sure on a worldwide scale what was happening yet.”

Dr. Catherine Stephens (’12), became superintendent of Tullahoma City School District in July 2020. The 2020-2021 school year, held partially virtual and partially in-person, “was like building the plane while flying it,” she said.

Stephens wanted to meet with every central office team member, school board member and school leader to hear their hopes and dreams for the district, but she had to do it one-on-one due to Covid restrictions, so it took a month to achieve that goal. Those she asked for advice said to “get all your stakeholders together,” but that couldn’t be done in large groups, so she spent a great deal of time on the phone, sent out emails and videos, and posted on social media to communicate effectively.

“That was an unbelievable experience—trying to build trust with people when you can’t have them all in the same room at the same time,” said Stephens. “My leadership style is one of relationships and service, but when you can’t bring people together—it was hard. I was stretched in what I thought I could be. It required innovative thinking about how to gather and build a team.”

Holding the 2020-2021 school year partially virtual and partially in-person “was like building the plane while flying it,” said Stephens. “There was not a position that was not stressed— teachers, bus drivers, custodians, nutritionists, everyone!”