A testament to the power of leadership
Education professor Felisha Herrera Villarreal remembers her own mentors after being named a fellow of a prominent higher-education leadership academy.
In late September, Felisha Herrera Villarreal attended professional meetings in her home state of New Mexico. She decided to use her visit to the Land of Enchantment to drop in on the University of New Mexico Taos — the community college that changed her life's trajectory.
As she stepped foot on campus for the first time in nearly two decades, the recently promoted full professor of postsecondary educational leadership at San Diego State University was unexpectedly flooded with emotion.
The moment caused her to reflect on the power of leadership.
“There were so many women throughout my journey who modeled leadership, who showed me examples through their work and also opened up so many opportunities for me,” Herrera Villarreal said by phone later that day as she waited for a flight home at Albuquerque International Sunport.
“I came from a really small town, with legacies of strong women in the community, but few examples of women with college degrees, much less being in formal leadership positions. The women who mentored me didn't just transform my life and my perspective, they literally saved my life in many ways given the barriers that I was facing as a low-income, first-generation college student.”
Leadership has been on her mind a lot of late, and for good reason.
Herrera Villarreal was in New Mexico as part of her induction as a fellow in the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities' (HACU) Leadership Academy, or La Academia de Liderazgo. HACU is an international association representing existing and emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), including SDSU. Its year-long Leadership Academy aims to prepare culturally diverse leaders for executive and senior level positions in higher education.
“What excites me most is the work — all the people and institutions doing great things to support Latinx students and build capacity at HSIs across the country,” said Herrera Villarreal, who is an expert in STEM education pathways. “It’s amazing to think I’ll be able to do that in this setting, where I will learn a lot from current leaders at HSIs among the alumni, those that are coordinating the program and the other HACU Fellows that I'll be in the cohort with. There's so much more that we can do in community and in collaboration."
Named a Presidential Research Fellow last year by SDSU President Adela de la Torre, Herrera Villarreal is certainly is not lacking in leadership chops. Working with a team at her Research & Equity Scholarship Institute (RES-ISTE), she studies the preschool through college trajectories of racially minoritized and underrepresented students to discover the contexts that either support them or perpetuate challenges. Along the way, she had secured more than $14 million in grant funding.
Nonetheless, she admits that until now she’s never truly viewed herself as a leader.
“I've always just kind of focused on the work, and it hasn't necessarily been about a career trajectory,” Herrera Villarreal said. “I often don't think about it as leadership, but for me it has always been about making the path easier or better for those behind me. Experiencing so many challenges along the way myself, I’ve wanted to do that for others — to make an impact every single day in people's lives.”
It’s what her mentors did for her.
Herrera Villarreal finds it hard to talk about her past life circumstances, but she also knows there are people who need to hear it.
How she enrolled in community college with a GED with little understanding of the academic world. How she juggled the demands of college while raising two young daughters as a single mother. And how she often hid these challenges from others fearing they would cost her opportunities or cause others to see her negatively.
“I know what it’s like for students to feel like you have to leave your identities, your personal life situations at the door in order to be accepted,” said Herrera Villarreal, now a proud mother of four. “Over the years I've tried my best to be a little bit more open about my story because of that one person in the room that might find inspiration from it.
“I want them to see an example that maybe they've never been able to see in somebody else.”
