Dr. Nancy Newton, EdD in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education | Grants and Sponsored Programs Manager at Montgomery College

In this episode, we discuss what led Nancy to pursue a doctoral degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education, the ways her degree has enabled her to have a higher-level impact in her work at Montgomery College serving underrepresented and underserved students and in her nonprofit educational work serving incarcerated women, and her take on the importance of mentorship for encouragement, support, and pushing your boundaries.

Hosted by Lois Dankwa

To connect with Nancy and to learn more about her story, visit her page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Lois Dankwa

Hi. I'm co-host Lois Dankwa and this is the 100 Alumni Voices Podcast, stories that inspire, where we explore the personal and professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from Johns Hopkins University. Today, we're joined by Nancy Newton, EdD in entrepreneurial leadership in education and current grants and sponsored programs manager at Montgomery College. Hi, Nancy.

Nancy Newton

Hi, Lois. Thank you so much for having me.

Lois Dankwa

Of course, I'm excited to chat with you and I'm excited to dive in. How are you doing today?

Nancy Newton

I'm well, thank you and yourself?

Lois Dankwa

I'm doing alright. Yeah, I'm. I'm ready to dive in. So, I I think I want to start by hearing a little bit about what made you interested in pursuing an EdD in entrepreneurial leadership in education and just more about your graduate work at Hopkins in general.

Nancy Newton

Yes, so I always joke with my husband that I'm a perpetual student because I I finished a masters and then I thought ohh should I do a PhD? Should I do a EdD? And I'm like no, I'll do another masters. So, I did another masters and then I thought you know what? Why not? Let me go for my doctorate. So, I my professional life is more in the I had no desire to be a professor, no desire to teach and but I really did want to have the best opportunity to have the knowledge to be able to provide the best opportunity for faculty, staff, students that are part of our program and I found the EdD program at Hopkins and it just seemed to really fit in to my what I was trying to achieve, which was to gain more knowledge in a practical sense to be able to apply it to create the best programs for my staff, faculty and students. And so being a manager, and I was a program director and then became a manager of grants and sponsored programs. And so, I moved I thought that the leadership part of the program was just great. And so, I went down the entrepreneurial leadership track and learned so many skills that I was able to apply and to truly apply. You know, sometimes when you're in a program, an educational program you like, you learn a lot of theory, like, OK, how is this applicable to my actual working life or to professional life or to personal life? And it truly was that the the information I learned in courses at Hopkins allowed me to apply them, but then I really like the fact that we were working on our dissertation from day almost before day one, because we had to join with an idea in mind. And granted, the idea I joined with is far from the idea that I ended up doing my dissertation on. Which I think is the case for about 90% of the people who were in my program. And I really liked the fact that everything I learned in the courses I could use when working on my dissertation. So yeah, it's just it was almost a no brainer for me to that this program was the one that I really wanted to be in.

Lois Dankwa

Yeah, I I can certainly understand and identify with a lot of what you mentioned from people's ideas change once they enter the program, but to being someone that identifies as a lifelong learner. I I love that you mentioned how you noticed there was great applicability of the some of the skills that you were able to practice and exercise in your doctorate program, and I'd love to hear more about what are the skills that you learned that you're now applying actively in what you do today?

Nancy Newton

So, I think one of the ones that really sticks out, I mean was the multicultural education course that we had to do. Even though it was a requirement, I'd always been invested in diversity, equity and inclusion in my personal life and in my professional life. But that course gave me access to so many different opinions, theories, authors, influences in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion that I started to see how it could apply through many different aspects of my work and I am now because of that knowledge base that I received and because of the way that I could apply it, I am now the chair of the Montgomery College President's Advisory Committee on Equity and inclusion. So, we do work throughout the college to work towards making sure that everybody is included, belongs and feels that they matter. And I I think that without that higher-level learning that I achieved through Hopkins, I would not be where I am today. I'm also a board member of a nonprofit organization that works with women who are impacted by the criminal legal system. I won't call it the justice system because, well, we won't go down that road but and able to really apply the the skills that I learned there in the work that we do to help women who are incarcerated with their education and to hopefully try and make sure that once they're returned, once they return to the community that the the recidivism rate is kept extremely low through education. That a lot of. A lot of skills and a lot of knowledge as well from let's say, risk management. You know in my job now as a grant manager, you know, it is a huge responsibility to make sure that we're complying with every—l cause I do federal, state, and local grants just to make sure that we're complying with, you know, universal guidance and that we're using federal money in a respectful wway and that we don't put the college at risk for any feedback that could help loose funding which would then impact the lives of our learners that we're providing this funding for. So yeah, it's it was just a really good program and with transferable skills which like I said earlier, you don't always get.

Lois Dankwa

Yeah, that's always good to hear. It almost also sounds like you were able to learn a lot of really valuable nuance that was able to let you kind of approach your topic of interest with more specificity.

Nancy Newton

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know that's the goal of the of a doctoral Program right is to make you hone in and become an expert so that then you can go on and provide guidance to others who are interested in the field and I feel and I am able to do that now. I feel that I really got that in this program.

Lois Dankwa

Oh, that's great to hear. So, something I'm curious about is while you were in your doctorate program, are you, I guess, are you doing kind of what you envisioned you would be doing after your degree or has like how has what you do changed since being in the program? And I know we talked about how you apply the lessons and stuff, but if it's a if it's a little bit different, I'm curious how.

Nancy Newton

So, when I was in the program, I was a senior program director at Montgomery College. And so, I was very involved with creating programs for underrepresented, underserved learners, and you know, Esola and his refugees, those who are incarcerated and and so really on working with staff and faculty and students. And then as I came towards the end of my program, I started to think, I I should, I should say, Lois, that I never intended not to be doing what I was doing. My doctorate was not to advance me or it was just to advance my learning so I could be a better program director. And the the vice president of my unit at the college, I was talking to him one day and he said so what's the plan with this doctorate? And I said, well, you know, just to carry on doing what I'm doing. He said, I think you could be doing more. And I said, what do you mean? He said, you've got so much learned knowledge now, but you need to be sharing that and doing higher things at the college. I was like, really? I've never thought about it. And so, when this position came up for a grant manager, I didn't want to leave my current position, my former position because I loved it so much, but I started to think, you know, you've done a doctorate in entrepreneurial leadership and you are a leader, but you could be making such a different but on a different level. So, I started to think about higher order thinking and applying and doing something that was much on a greater scale. So, taking this position when it was well, I interviewed for it, and then was offered it, allows me to put all of what I've learned into practice, but also allows me to have an impact at a higher level because writing going after researching federal, state and local grants is much different than what I was doing before. But it is still as rewarding because you know when you get the letter from a federal agency that says congratulations, you've got this multi-million-dollar grant that you can now go and use to make experiences for your learners who are historically marginalized much better, and go yes! And so, it's it's been a shift in my position, but not really a shift in my own personal mission, which has always been to make the best of the best opportunities for our learners, just more in a hands-off way, but still in a hands-on way if that makes sense at all.

Lois Dankwa

No, that, that, that definitely makes sense to me. I I love to say things that sound similar and opposite to me, the same thing. 

Nancy Newton

Yeah, right.

Lois Dankwa

So, I also love that you honed in on kind of what your rationale was for pursuing a doctorate degree where you were like, well, it was mainly for me because I wanted to learn and grow in different ways. But I knew that I wanted to kind of work towards the same type of impact. And I I'm curious how that influenced like kind of the desire to help the populations that you're most interested on how that really guided how you approached to learning in your program. Like were you intentional to seek out different types of information or different types of opportunity?

Nancy Newton

Yes, so it's interesting because when I was, I think my first couple of semesters in the program, I I talked to Doctor Pape, who was our leader, and said everything you have, all of the readings are all geared towards the K12 system. And he was like, yeah, I know. I was like, well, what you gonna do about it? Because there were a handful of us who were in higher Ed and just a tiny portion of us who were in adult ed. And so, it I had to it took a long time for the system to change to be more inclusive with the readings that we were doing and the focus of—I can't think of the word—of assignments to move them from the K12 realm. So, I have to intentionally look for things outside of you know the norm so that they fit into what I was trying to do. And I think that was the beauty of the program is that nobody ever questioned, you know, ohh you can't use that. Well, that's not what we assign. You can't do that. It was truly a program that you could mold and make it your own. And that's what I had to do because I've no interest in working with children. But also, I wanted to do to make sure that I would become a better practitioner for the people that I served, which was mainly adult learners. And so having that freedom to be extremely intentional in your in directing your own learning almost within the guidelines, the parameters was great. And then when it came to my actual dissertation it was I had to turn my dissertation cause COVID happened and so my my original dissertation was to do an ethnography in a maximum security jail. Well, that didn't work. We weren't allowed into the jail, so I had to switch. But it was really supported by not only my advisor, but the program as well, because they knew that that was where my passion lies. That was where I wanted, you know, I wanted this to be a meaningful experience and not just another piece of paper. And so yeah, the great support to allow for that intentionality of my own program was really, really helpful. And very I was very thankful for the program to allow me to do that.

Lois Dankwa

Ah, that's good to hear that you you were able to kind of receive the support you needed to still execute the type of project that you were most one that felt true to you. 

Nancy Newton

Yeah, definitely.

Lois Dankwa

I love how you you mentioned how even though you noticed there are aspects of your program that were not so specific to the groups that you worked with, you had the flexibility and like the flexibility to be to adapt what a lot of the examples were towards what made sense for the groups that you were looking into so that you could basically, make it make sense for you. And it seems like going back to the point of having a lot of different types of support you were able to be guided by a lot of really great mentors throughout your career journey so far, and I'm curious if there's any standout moments of advice or stand out moments where like you're continuing to carry that advice with you.

Nancy Newton

Yes, one of the most influential people throughout my journey has been the former president of Montgomery College, Dr. Darian Pollard, and one of the first times I met her, I said we were talking, she said, so what? What are your goals? And I said, oh, to have your job. She laughed. And then she said so how you gonna do that? And I said, ohh I was just joking. She said, no. How are you going to do that? I don't know. She said, well, think about it, cause you could be in my position. I was like, OK. Thought nothing more of it. And every time I saw her, she said, so, how's your plan? What plan? Your plan for world domination? Dr. Pollard, I don't. You really need to think about it. And so, she just kept on at me, kept on at me. And I was like, hmm, maybe I should have a plan. And so, anytime I had any wanted any feedback or any questions, she was there for me. And being the President of the college, you can imagine she's extraordinarily busy. But she always gave me time, and no matter whether it was a a phone call, no matter if it was a text or an e-mail. It always got a response. So, it made me with people that I have had the fortune to be asked to mentor to work with, it made me make sure that I always gave them time because time is such a valuable commodity that we don't have enough of. But if somebody can give me their time, then I will give it to somebody else. And she has now moved on from Montgomery College. She's in Nevada, but she still gives me time whenever I need it, and I really, really appreciate that. And then I I can't, you know, not talk about my mentors without talking about Doctor Chrissy I, who was my doctoral dissertation advisor, who was phenomenal. Her background working with in the I won't I won't call it the justice system. I'll call it the criminal legal system and working for education with incarceral institutions was so important, and we had such a connection, and again she was available whenever I needed her to be. And there was at one point where I thought about, I was going to quit my program. My father had died in my first year. I took a year out and like why am I coming back? And she was the one who said you need to go back cause you have too much to offer not to finish this so then you can better help people who come behind you. So, just been extraordinarily lucky in the support and you know, like most people, well, I hope most people, family and friends, my long-suffering husband who allows me to be a perpetual student.

Lois Dankwa

Ah, that's so good to hear the I love the advice that you got about how well it wasn't even advice. It was, I guess something you noticed from the example someone said about just making yourself available and giving your time to people. I certainly view time as like the most valuable thing we have and it's it almost makes me it's like a lesson in prioritizing things, recognizing that time is something that is continuing and being used even if you're not doing anything with it.

Nancy Newton

Absolutely, yeah.

Lois Dankwa

So, then I'm curious, what advice would you give to someone who's looking for a career that looks like yours, whether it's kind of exactly what you're doing or it's just having a similar approach to their career like you've had for your own?

Nancy Newton

Run away. Don't do it.

Lois Dankwa

Great advice. Thank you.

Nancy Newton

And we're done. No, I would, I would say it's a hard one to answer because everybody has their own interests and what have you. But if somebody was interested in going down the path of working with underrepresented, underserved students in non-traditional educational settings or non-traditional settings in the workplace, I would say that don't do it for your own personal satisfaction. This can't be a move you take because you think ohh, I'm gonna get praise and I'm gonna get all of this stuff. You have to do it to want to make a difference whilst working with your learners not for them, not, you know as their leader, but you're working with them. They have to be included in everything you do. And I would say go where your passion lies, because when you have passion, it drives you to want to be better. Be intentional. Don't think that you know everything and that your idea is the only way. If you have people that you're going to be working with and they may report to you make sure that you're investing in them the way that your mentors have invested in you. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You know we don't know everything. Sometimes when we're in doctoral programs, we think now we're now I'm an expert. No, you're not. You're an expert, but you don't know everything. And there's so many other people around that can help you. So, build yourself a team that is invested in the same priorities as you are, who want to make a difference like you do. And at the front of your mind all the time should be the learners. Why are we doing this? Who are we doing this for? And what is the impact that this is going to have? And if you have a team with you who all are on the same page but all with different strengths and all with different manners of doing things, that's OK. You don't need, you know, 15 Nancies or 15 Loisis in the same room. You need people who are very different and approach things very differently, but all have the same mission in mind. And I think if you do that then you know you can have a huge impact in the lives of learners. Of course, not everybody who's in a doctoral program is in education. That's where my field is. But these are all transferable skills into the workplace into, you know, healthcare sector into engineering. So just. And be you. Be authentic. Don't try and be somebody else. Don't try and fit in.

Lois Dankwa

I loved all of that. Everything that you said was so like it made me think ohh, these are great things that I can write on post it notes and keep around my house. 

Nancy Newton

Yeah, I work I work for hallmark on the side.

Lois Dankwa

See and there you go. It's it's working. So, I clearly was inspired by that and that's my last question. Nancy, I am curious what inspires you right now?

Nancy Newton

What inspires me is when I get a call from a learner who says I just became a U.S. citizen from a program that I had 10 years ago. What inspires me is a learner who walks the stage at graduation and I know they started off their educational journey at Montgomery College in a program that we ran at a maximum-security jail. What inspires me is the fact that even though we're in a very difficult world right now where everything seems so divisive, there are a lot of people who are doing a lot of good for a lot of people out there. And I just get inspired by the people I work with, the privileges that I am able to use to make a difference, and it's just a joy to do what I do. And to know that I’m maybe making a tiny bit of difference in one person's world. And that's OK. Just that one little bit of difference makes it can just have such an impact and a ripple effect. You know, education, I think is the key to so many opportunities. I like to say that education nobody should be locked out of education just because of the situation they're in. And it's a it's a true privilege to be doing what I do. Yeah, I get to inspire others as they inspire me. Very lucky, very lucky.

Lois Dankwa

Right. It goes back to kind of what you were saying about doing something that you're passionate about and that it feels authentic to you and you're doing it authentically. You're not trying to be, you're not trying to wear anyone else's shoes, basically.

Nancy Newton

Exactly, exactly. All I can do is be me, right. Everyone else is taken.

Lois Dankwa

That's right. Even if I tried, I would I would try and fail. Nancy, it's been such a pleasure chatting with you today and I am so grateful for the time that you've spent with us to share a little bit about your experiences and just share some of your perspective today.

Nancy Newton

You too, Lois. You too. And thank you so much to you and to Hopkins for asking me to do this and for helping us hopefully inspire the next generation of awesome doctoral doctors who come out of Hopkins.