Leading from the desert with new perspective

Victoria Theisen-Homer is Director of the Arizona Teacher Residency at Northern Arizona University and a 2023 Impact Academy fellow.

I was raised in the desert, a region where water is precious, and vegetation grows sparsely in the rocky earth. In this same desert, knowledge is also precious, excellent education sparse and unevenly distributed. Arizona’s current education rankings and outcomes do not reflect the resilience, the beauty, or the potential of this state. But I believe they could, if we worked to uplift the teaching profession. That’s why I do this work, that’s why I joined Deans for Impact (DFI) this year, to learn and grow and become a better educational leader for my home state.

Learning in Impact Academy arrived in a series of gentle desert rainstorms. Not the violent monsoons we have in the summer in Arizona, where heavy drops of hot rain beat down upon the parched earth in staccato bursts, but the soft winter rain we receive when it’s too warm to snow and too dry to pour, and the rain lands with uneven pitter patters, nourishing the native plants. Each leadership session softly shed knowledge down upon us, cultivating new learning, germinating new ideas. As the rain clears the dust from the air and the ground, so too did DFI wipe clear the lens through which I view my unique landscape, inviting me to map its opportunities and challenges like a cartographer, with great intentionality, adaptability, and reflexivity. When the clouds part, and the sun shines again, I am better equipped to see what has been there all along: possibility. Working in this context, I need to keep this at the forefront always, for possibility is what allows us to thrive in the desert.

When I think about the work I have led in my institution over the last year, and the work I still want to do, I imagine hiking up one of the small, arid mountains around the Valley of the Sun. One must navigate sharp rocks that can become blisteringly hot, “jumping” cholla cacti that attach to clothing or shoes when brushing by, and sometimes venomous fauna like diamond back rattlesnakes and bark scorpions. These are reminiscent of the obstacles leaders face the various contexts we navigate. As I weave my way over the rocky path that is this work, I climb higher and higher, passing sharp palo verde trees and spiny ocotillo shrubs, gaining more and more perspective with each step. It is relentlessly sunny and one must carry water with them everywhere. But when I reach the top, I see the path I have tread, how far I have come, breathe in air that feels fresher, and see the populous valley below with new eyes. There is so much work to be done around education in Arizona. Sometimes it feels Sisyphean – like pushing a boulder up a mountain. But perhaps the boulder in this case is ourselves, the mountain the context. We must navigate our own challenges, often personal as well as professional. To do so sustainably, we must pause to catch our breath, to practice self-care, so we can keep trekking amidst a sometimes-hostile climate. But when we reach each goal, we can reflect back upon it with renewed insight, enjoying how far we have come, setting intentions for a journey that again looks somewhat different.

When I consider how I have evolved as a leader in the last twelve months, I am reminded of the way rivers carve canyons and polish stone. With experience comes knowledge, this powerful force that erodes ignorance and opens new pathways. It moves over the jagged edges of our career, buffing away that which needs to be released. Over time, the stone becomes smoother and stronger. This is how it comes to sparkle and shine. I am far from smooth and sparkling, but I do feel that with each passing year, the pressure and friction of being a leader brings new insights and leaves me just a little more polished, a little more prepared for the next set of challenges on the horizon. It is not a painless process, growth never is, but it is elemental. As billions of human cells within our body are replaced every day, we have the opportunity to become a new version of ourselves. Each year, this one included, I hope to continue to evolve, alongside a community of other stones being polished in the riverbed of leadership. The path ahead in Arizona appears neither smooth nor shining at present. But with continued growth and fortification, I will work with others to help advance educational excellence through powerful teacher education and advocacy. Because the children of this desert deserve better.

From this journey, I have learned a great deal about myself as a leader. Vision is my greatest asset; it guides me on the expedition, helps anchor me during the friction, and is frequently nourished by new perspective. This vision must be both rooted and agile, anchored in values, but adaptable to an ever-changing landscape that can be seen from infinite angles. Like the desert, I, too, am resilient, but I can now see that self-care might be my weakness. Like many leaders, I sometimes feel like I am everyone’s rock. But in floods, rocks do not float. They sink. I have learned that I need to take more time to catch my breath, and make more effort to ask for help, so that this work can be sustained. Because I am not alone. I have a wonderful team who makes the work possible, and a community of colleagues in similar contexts who offer great insights. Ultimately, the destination we all seek is not one that can be discovered solo, we must journey together.   

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