What comes to mind when you envision a courageous leader? Better yet, what does a leader look like, sound like? How do they act? And what position do they hold? Courageous leadership can take many forms—and brave leaders, in particular, can come in every shape; they may or may not be wealthy; some are well known while others are known only by a few; and some have high-ranking status while others have a more modest rank.

In this special edition of Friday Forums, “Daring to Transcend,” Dr. Nelson E. Soto, President of Albizu University discussed how the most remarkable leaders are known for their bravery, courage, and acts that rise above any obstacle to exert influence and generate impact.

Transcript

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Mary Ann Villarreal: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. Before we get started today, I wanna take a moment if…how many of you have been with Kevin Fong today or yesterday, right? Okay, good, so you’re not going to be surprised by what I do, right? We’ve been moving fast.
We’ve been moving through so much material.

For those of you, who have not been with us the last few days, I’m gonna ask you to please be with us just in this moment. We’re going to do some warming hands, so everybody will take some warming hands. And I’m not quite as good as Kevin. But I’m going to ask you. Put one hand over your heart, one hand over belly.

(Mary Ann Villarreal exhales)

Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Before we begin our discussion today, I want to acknowledge that this land, which is named for the Ute Tribe, is the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribes. The University of Utah recognizes and respects the enduring relationship that exists between many Indigenous Peoples and their traditional homelands. We respect the sovereign relationship between tribes, states, and the federal government, and we affirm the University of Utah’s commitment to a partnership with Native Nations and Urban Indian communities through research, education, and community outreach activities.

And I said last night at dinner we will be welcoming 53 new students from the State of Utah’s Indigenous tribes. Yeah.

(Audience applause)

So, and that’s not including those who are not from federally recognized tribes in Utah. So good afternoon, friends, how are you today?

(Audience cheers)

Yeah, I got you tired, don’t we? Yeah, that’s all right. It’s all right. On behalf of the University of Utah is my pleasure to welcome you to this final installment of the Friday Forum series. Yes, final. I know more to come, more to come, but for today, we’re going to wrap up Friday Forum with a dear friend of mine. It is hosted in partnership with the New Leadership Academy’s 2023 Summer Institute.

All fellows! Raise your hands. Say a note. Yeah, all right. There we go.

(Audience applause)

Alright.
I want to pause for a minute I’ve had a lot of questions like, Why did I choose Utah? What do you exactly do as a vice president for equity, diversity, and inclusion? Not even my children know. One of them joined me yesterday to find out that she doesn’t want my job.

(Audience laughs)

I wanna say, “why Utah?” And I want to say, “why NLA, and why now?” And why two and three years ago, I believed, and I still do most days, and particularly on a day like today, that we have a responsibility to each other that we have to ask ourselves, how do we make space for one another even when we disagree and not just disagree like, “no, we shouldn’t do it that way,” but we do disagree about our own existence. When we disagree about how we share a space, or that we do not have the same lived experience.

And I try to do, and I believe this is where I can do this, that as Kevin Fong has taught me not only to warm my hands and take a minute but that he has taught me that my circles can be as large and as deep as the breath I take. So Utah is the place that we do this work, and we invite all of you from all over–this country, sometimes Canada we’ve had–to be here with us to take that breath back to where you live.

In a recent report by Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, “We need to talk about well-being.” They write, “understanding our connections at a human level helps us see our shared fate, ignite systemic change, and build racial equity across cities and communities.” Racial identities belong to everyone. That is our work.

So it is my pleasure and I am so delighted that you’ve chosen to join us today. Fellows, I know you didn’t have a choice, but thank you anyway.

(Audience laughs)

You could have had a meeting at work, right? That you’re joining us today for a lively discussion on “Daring to Transcend: An Unedited Version of Courageous Leadership” with Nelson Soto, president of Albizu University and a member of the NLA Advisory Board, and also one of the first fellows in the first cohort of 2015.

For the past three years, Friday Forums has been the living embodiment of a commitment by the University of Utah to ensure that all students, faculty, staff, and our community know that the University of Utah belongs to them as much as they belong here. And during each session since 2020, we have engaged national thought leaders in discussions, and provided opportunities for participants to share ideas on actionable items that support our growing diversity across the multiple communities that carry us here. And they provide guidance on creating equitable and thriving initiatives, and how we build bridges that ensure that we are mapping an inclusive campus.

So it is fitting that today we end this series with this special Tuesday edition of Friday Forums hosted with our New Leadership Academy Summer Institute, and to have my friend and colleague, Dr. Nelson Soto here with us for a discussion on what it means to lead courageously.

Now, before we begin, I want to acknowledge that our good friend, Margarita Benítez, was originally scheduled to be our facilitator, if you had seen online, but she wasn’t feeling well today. And we want to send her energy for good health and our most heartfelt and healing energy in her direction. So in her stead, our wonderful colleague Noe Ortega will be our moderator. Big shoes, right, that’s no, no pressure, Noe.

(Audience laughs)

Noe is the education commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. He is also one of the NLA founding members.
So I think we’re in good hands today with Noe leading. Prior to the Department of Higher Ed, Dr. Ortega held the role of deputy secretary and commissioner for the Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. And as commissioner, he led the work of the agency aimed at closing the postsecondary attainment gaps that have persisted among historically
underrepresented populations and communities of color in Pennsylvania. He also facilitated efforts to improve the diversity of Pennsylvania’s educator workforce and to ensure that every student of the Commonwealth had access to educators who’d been trained in culturally responsive and culturally relevant approaches to teaching and learning in the classroom.

I also am delighted to introduce Dr. Soto, the sixth president of Albizu University. President Soto is a visionary leader with a focus on enabling and encouraging change. He is deeply committed to ensuring that all individuals, no matter their background or circumstances, have access to higher education, and the opportunity to improve their own lives and those of their families. As a strategic leader, the central underpinning of his values and professional experience is promoting justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Currently, President Soto serves on the new Leadership Academy Advisory Board, and as a member of the Higher Learning Commission Institutional Action Committee.

In addition, he has served on the Hoxworth Blood Center Community Advisory Board, Harvard Business Publishing Advisory Board, Cengage Private Sector Advisory Board, Pearson Service-Learning Board, and was chair of the Harrison College Military Advisory Board. Dr. Soto is a Board Member Emeritus and founding board member of Maryssa’s Mission Foundation.

I’d like to ask you to please help me welcome, Nelson Soto and Noe Ortega.

(Audience applause)

Nelson Soto: Alright. Thank you. I don’t know my mic–I think it’s on. Thank you, friend, appreciate you. In case you haven’t seen it, that’s my mug.

(Audience laughs)

I just, you know what that’s (laughs)–just FYI, that was the first day I arrived on campus, so I’m all giddy and looking all cute, and then (audience laughs) all excited. Listen. Today, we’re going to just have an interactive conversation.

What does an interactive conversation look like? All of you should have a piece of paper and a pencil, because I’m going to ask you questions, and I just want you to reflect on these questions. It’s for your personal use. You may get to know your person to the left, your person to right. But this is really about you. Okay, so I wanna give you a couple of minutes and prepare yourself for, for that conversation.

While you do that, we’re gonna start off with some photos. And we should describe, what is a courageous leader, right? So… Dr. Martin Luther King, would some of you agree he was a courageous leader?

(Audience member: yes)

Nelson Soto: Okay, some of you may not. I don’t know. But when you think about courageous leaders, what comes to mind? What comes to mind when you envision a courageous leader what does the leader look like? What do they taste like? Feel like smell like? What positions do they hold? What do they wear to work? Do they wear suits, or do they wear guayaberas? You know? What is it that they wear?

The other question I asked you, I want you to imagine a courageous leader. They could take on many forms. They could look like this person right here. Malala Yousafzai, right? Malala, and all that she did, and all that she worked. Malala, and all that she did, and all that she worked for, and continues to work for. I think is a courageous leader.

But there are others in here. Antuan Featherstone, where are you? I hope you’re here. There you go. So…

(Audience applause)

I just looked at your profiles and a couple of you just stuck out, right? And so I said, “you’re a courageous leader.” Alright. Find out more why he’s a courageous leader.

Samantha Eldridge. Where are you, Samantha? Here, she’s in a meeting, all right. Well, I know she’s a courageous leader. Look at her bio.

(Nelson Soto and the Audience laugh)

Jóse, are you here? There you go! Another courageous leader.

(Audience applause)

Dr. Baggett, where are you? There you go! Another courageous leader, who knows how to be still.

I, you know, I wanted to list these individuals. All of you should be on this list. I just didn’t have enough PowerPoint slides to go through and acknowledge each one of you. You’re a courageous leader in your own form, like I said, you come in all shapes and sizes. You are the individuals that never ignore the person next to you, right? You follow these three golden rules. You are the individual that never allows the idea of social fears to stop you from sitting next to someone that doesn’t look like you right? You’re the individual that doesn’t invite people to your table who will enable you to stay comfortable. You’re the individuals that reach out and say, “come, let’s have a conversation. Let’s chat.”

I want you to look to the left, and look to the right. Many of us, when we went to school, they told us that at the convocation, right, “to the left, to the right, in four years you’re not going to be here.” Blah, blah, blah! I don’t believe in that part. I think you look to the left and look to your right. Those are going to be your colleagues, who are going to support you through your leadership journey, and I want to acknowledge that. I think that’s important. I’m president today because I look to the left and look to the right.

So back in 2015, there was this person walking alongside with me, Mary Ann. I see her name tag, and I just say, “hey, how are you doing?” She goes, “hey, what’s up?” I said, “I don’t know why I’m here.” She’s like, “I don’t know. We’re just here.” And so we just had a conversation. And from that conversation, it went into this relationship that I’m so grateful that I have a friend named Mary Ann. But most of all that I’m part of a network and have a rolodex that care for me, and I hope we could do the same for you. So let me give you an example.

Last year at this time I was literally invited to be a facilitator. I come in, and I am stressed beyond belief because only five people knew that literally in two days I was interviewing my final interview for the presidency in Puerto Rico. This organization just wrapped their arms around me and supported me beyond belief, and gave me that feeling of saying “you’re courageous, and you could do this. Don’t worry that you’re gonna leave your comfort zone, of the State of Ohio in the Midwest. You’re gonna move to an island where you really have some connection, but you have no clue what the heck to expect. Don’t worry about if your house sells or not. Don’t worry about the mental health of your two kids that you’re probably going to screw them up. Don’t worry if your wife is going to be okay with this. You got this because you’re courageous.”

And so I took all that energy, and I went for that final interview. And I’m proud to say I am the sixth president of Albizu University. But part of that’s because of the supportive group.

(Audience applause)

So again, I want to remind you, never ignore the person next to you. Never allow the bias or social fears to seat with you. Always invite that person that doesn’t look like you to join you at the table. So today, we’re going to have a conversation we’re going to talk about courageous leadership. How courageous leaders enable and encourage change through the promotion of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. I’ll give you a couple of examples in my nine months and the impact that I’ve had at Albizu. The role of courageous leadership in exerting and generating impact. So if we don’t go through these topics, then we’ll follow up in the Q&A session.

Alright! Reflection! You have 120 minutes. I’ve been very careful about this. The first question I want to ask you, and I want you to take two minutes. And someone time me, because I left my phone. Three to five characteristics of a courageous leader. And I’m going to walk around because I really want you to write these characteristics down. I’m not going to call upon you. Think about three to five characteristics of a courageous leader. This is for yourself. Your self-development. Three to five characteristics of a courageous leader. Process it. Think about it. Three to five characteristics of a courageous leader, and any materials that we have here that you can use back at your campuses or institutions. Please take it back.

Alright. Once you’re done, just keep the list. Not going to ask you to reveal that information. But then I want you to think about those three or five characteristics, I want you to think about the second piece. Those characteristics that you possess today, and the ones you want to develop during your leadership journey. For those of you who were in Dr. Mahauganee’s session, we started talking a little bit about this, but I want you to take time and think about what are those characteristics you possess? And what are the ones you need to develop during your journey?

Why am I asking you this question? Because, as you’re seeking out mentors and leaders, this gives them a framework to help you, guide you through that journey and process. Just take a minute or so.

As you think about that, let me tell you a little bit about myself, so I believe courageous leadership is the ability of a leader, as you see on the screen. The ability to enable and encourage change through the promotion of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
It’s a framework. You know, we talk about it, we tease, and we say JEDI, or whatever. But really, if you leave from that framework, you are going to be inclusive, you are going to allow all individuals of the community to be part of a process. Men, women, all colors, all walk with light, all sexual orientations, right? Because you’re leading from the heart courageous leadership is leading from the heart.
And I’m just adding the framework there because it promotes justice, what is right, what we should be doing. Diversity. We’re all different. Equity and it’s including everyone.

Alright, so last time we did this last year, Dr. Hinton told a little bit about her story, so let me tell you a little bit about my story, and who I am. My personal biography. We’re gonna start with this is a day at the investiture. I’m from Lorain, Ohio. Has anybody heard of Lorain, Ohio? Raise your hand. If you’ve heard Lorain, Ohio, it’s probably because you know Toni Morrison, right? Toni Morrison’s from Lorian, Ohio, right?

So I’m from Lorain, Ohio, in the Midwest, near the Cleveland area. Born and raised all my life there in Lorain. My mom and dad came from Puerto Rico in 1974 or so. Typical Puerto Rican fashion that was coming from the island to the Midwest. They were seeking work, right, and they found great opportunities in steel industry, and working in automotive industry. My old man worked in a steel plant, and so, unfortunately, you know the recession in the ‘80s, early ’80s he lost his job. Life happened. My parents divorced, and then my mom now becomes a single mom barely knows a lick of English, and she’s raising a son. At that time, she told me, she was making $3.15 an hour.

To me, she’s a courageous leader, right? Because she didn’t pack up and go back to the island. She decided to path forward and just give us access the best that she could. That doesn’t mean my mom was the perfect mother. I swear if they have 411 kids, I should have been calling on her all the time. I mean, she’s old school, you know. If you did something wrong, you’re going to get torn up. But that’s okay. That’s I still love her, and I’m grateful for that. You know, because of who she is and what she did for us. We path forward, my sister and I, you know I have a graduate degree. My sister has a graduate degree, and we’ve done well.

Then the second chapter of my life, after I graduate from undergrad in grad school, I meet my beautiful wife who was a Fulbright Scholar, came from El Salvador. She’s courageous in her own right. She was raised during the Civil War in El Salvador, and you know life is just crazy out there to an extent. We met in Indiana, so IU, for those who are fellow Hoosiers. IU has a special place in my heart, because that’s where I met my wife. We go through life of journey, ups and downs. So we have our children, Danny and Nicole, as you can see there. And so ladies and gentlemen, this is my family.

I mention them because part of courageous leadership is to know who’s the background, who’s the backbone that’s lifting you up, and for me, I think there are two aspects to it. One is my spiritual part where I identify. I identify as Christian. And the other part to go with that is my wife and kids, you know, without them. This is why, this is my purpose in life. Right? Everything else is second.

I started off with this whole notion of courageous leadership, there’s a mentality sometimes in our society that in order to be a strong leader, a powerful leader, you have to be able to pick yourself up the bootstraps, right? You gotta be fuete. Macho. You got this, right? You don’t need help. I think that’s the biggest lie and the biggest fallacy that society gives to individuals.

The next slide, I’ll show you those individuals that were my madrinas and my padrinos that helped me get through to the pathway where I am at. I agree that no one makes it without help. So what does that support system look like? In my case, had three individuals that really helped me, right, and I want to give love to these three individuals.

We’re going to talk, start with…actually, I’m going to go in the middle. Dr. Betty Overton. Some of you heard Dr. Overton–she said it, I didn’t say it so I could share a little bit. She was, uh, I was actually her boss, right? So I’m the provost, and she’s the faculty member at Union with–you all know Betty’s background. I learned so much. She was the reason why I came to NLA. She was the reason that I remember. She pushed me to the side and said, “let’s just have a conversation. Let’s have a chat.” And there was times that when we have conversations I had a remember, what context are we in? Are we in the mentor/mentee? Well, at that point, then, I’m not the provost. I’m just Nelson. I’m listening to Mother Betty.

And a lot of times I stuck to that avenue and then there’s other couple of times that she say, “hey, what are you doing as a leader here? You’re not making right decisions here for the program. Help us out here.” So we had those conversations, and I would just say, “hey, there’s just no money,” but that’s a whole different story.

(Audience laughs)

But part of that being a courageous leader is to first recognize that you can’t do this by yourself, and I would be a hypocrite to you if I said my pathway, my journey has been because I pulled my bootstraps, and I was able to do this by myself.

Let’s pause for a second. Puerto Rican. I got this beautiful color. Single mother. $3.35 an hour! Public education. I am not supposed to be a university president. Let’s be clear, right? But yet I had individuals that deposited me and saw something. Yeah, I have some smarts. Okay. But I still shouldn’t be in front of you. All right.

The next person, Dr. Emily Barnes. You look at Emily. You’re like, Emily’s younger than me. What’s this White girl gonna do to help me out? Emily is one of the few people that guided me through the process of strategic communication. And what does a presentation look like, and what the style look like? And what’s the literature in higher education? What are the changes? She’s a librarian by trade. She also has her Ed.D. She’s into technology. She’s into online education, virtual education. And she would sit with me and just talk to me. Emily, used to work for me when I was at Harrison, but she was smart, so I made sure that I stuck around her, right. 20 years later, we still have a great relationship, because those are kind of people you need to hold onto.

And then what happens? Dr. Overton says. Betty goes, “look, Nelson, I could only take you so far for this interview, for the presidency. You got to sit down with Margarita.” I said, “I met her in 2015, but I don’t really have that deep relationship with her.” I’m not Noe, because everybody knows she loves Noe, right. I’m not Noe, right. You know, that was my competition. I’m not Noe. So she goes, “don’t worry. I’ll handle that.”

Part of her mentorship and part of her process–Dr. Overton’s process–is to get on that phone. And she reminded Dr. Margarita, who I was. Literally in two seconds, Margarita had a whole professional development plan laid out for me. And she goes, “if you stick to this, you are going to be the president.”

I had to have faith and humble myself, saying, “I better listen to this lady.” Once I follow her plan, and I was…and I became President, and so forth. She invited me to her home, and as you saw that Margarita is in a wheelchair, so it’s very difficult for her to just maneuver, and she goes “Nelson, come up here.” I went up to her room. She had a nice buffet of food laid out, and she had names, contacts, and action plan for me of how I’m going to make it here on this island, and what I should be doing. Ladies and gentlemen, without that, and Alicia Barabo, who’s with her now, those two ladies were my madrinas, because I didn’t know where to start.

A courageous leader acknowledges and know that they don’t know everything, right, and they need to make sure they seek help in guidance when it’s appropriate and make sure you listen to that help and guidance. For these three ladies and many more, I’m just grateful. So now I’m going to give a round of applause to them.

(Audience applause)

So I share a little bit about those madrinas that were in my life, and someone pointed out to me, it’s interesting that you didn’t have any men listed, and I find that interesting, too. But I’ll leave that alone for now.

(Audience laughs)

So in your case, I want you to right now who are your godmothers and your godfathers? List them. Let’s start off with that, too. Just take a minute. I want you to think about who’s that support system. You can call them whatever you want, your allies, your friends. What do they look like? Take a couple of minutes and think about that.

As you list those individuals, then I want you to reflect on your own personal fallacies that you’ve been believing about your leadership journey. Do you believe in the bootstrap mentality? Maybe you do. That’s okay. I don’t agree with you. What other fallacies are you believing? About your leadership journey? Let’s give it a name. What does that look like? Because until we own these fallacies or these ideas, we can’t move past [it] on our leadership journey.

I’m gonna go back a couple of slides and talk a little bit about…Oops! My personal biography. So I mentioned to you a little bit about the idea that I don’t believe in that bootstrap mentality right? I mentioned to you the idea that I believe that you have to have a community to support you on your journey. I want you to dig into your personal biography, and from your personal biography, how does that manifest itself in your leadership journey? In your personal biography, how does your personal biography manifest itself in your leadership journey? The reason why that’s critical because then that needs to connect with the type of work that you plan on doing
to make sure you don’t have mission drift.

So in my personal biography. The other piece that I did not mention was the importance of mental health, right. In my family, there’s a, unfortunately, there was a stigma of not talking about depression. We don’t talk about if you’re not feeling well, emotionally. We were taught to bottle everything in, right? Suck it up. That’s the, my mom exhibited that, right. She made sure that she doesn’t cry in front of us, right? Because she had to hold it together. So I wanted to make sure that I worked for an institution that actually doesn’t believe in that alright.

So the institution where, where I currently serve as president, it’s all about preparing individuals to become mental health counselors, therapists, psychologists, and overall helping professions, right? So the reason why in my personal biography, letting myself to be there. So I’m going to ask you the same question. Your personal biography is part of that leadership journey. Don’t deny your personal biography. You have to make sure it’s engaged with your leadership journey. Otherwise, what’s the point?

So all this to say, is what? A courageous leader operates from JEDI: justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. I didn’t put this slide to just brag, but I put this slide up as the impact from operating from a JEDI mentality, because it doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna do my job. I’m still a president. I have to bring money in, right? And so far, in our first year, I’m very proud to say that we’ve earned roughly nine million dollars in Federal Grants. Alright. We’ve got roughly, we’re going for Community Development Block Grant some of 20 to 30 million dollars. We’re trying to build a new clinic, and we’re doing it through HUD money, right? And try and get that money through HUD, CBDC.

My first two weeks, I had a board that believed in me. A board member came to me, and gave me an opportunity to say, “you better solicit to this organization this foundation.” And it worked, and that granted us 250 thousand dollars for scholarships, right? So what I’m saying is that I’m a firm believer. No margin, no mission.

So as you think about those of you who are going, considering presidency and so forth, we still have a job we’re still going to be evaluating, right. You still have to have a strategic plan. But it’s the framework that you’re taking that’s going to guide you through that process, and how you’re going to dance right. I was just sharing with a couple individuals that, unfortunately, the way how Albizu, we give back to the community is that we have different types of clinics. We have clinics, mental health clinics that are available throughout the island and in Florida, and the one clinic that I’m not proud of, that we have is the clinic around working with those individuals, especially children that were sexually assaulted.

So we have a organization called Casa Albizu. Casa Albizu in relationship with the government of Puerto Rico, it’s a special center where individuals, children can come. They’re evaluated. They’re interviewed, and everything happens in one space. One thing we noticed at that clinic, though, that when children were being examined they would send them to the ER. And so that was a traumatic experience in its own right.

I’m excited to say that we raise enough funds this year, so that we are able now to have outside of Casa Albizu, we’re going to have a facility, a mobile unit where we will have a full-time physician there. We were able to purchase forensic equipment and have all the evaluation done right there, so we don’t have to take the kids out.

Why do I say that? Cause, guess what? As President, I got to dictate, how we’re going to seek funding and raise funds, and that’s operating from JEDI. This is operating from JEDI. Alright?

So as leaders and so forth, when you think about your strategic plan, when you think about overall budget development, when you think about just resource and resource capacity, what’s the framework you’re operating from? I’m telling you, operate from that JEDI framework. The reason why? Because you can have impact like this your first year, and then that’s there’s a connection with the mission of what you’re doing and with your own heart. Otherwise, then you’re just being–I don’t know what’s your purpose, then actually, alright?

So let me pause for a second. On your little document there, as you think about your next leadership role. What are you trying to do? Where are you trying to go? What kind of institution are you trying to work, trying to lead? What does that look like in terms of budget capacity? What’s your desire? What’s your heart? Because, if you don’t answer those questions, then what’s the point of being a leader? Alright. What are you trying to do?

So I’m gonna go back. And look at some of these…Samantha Eldridge, right. Looking at her, she’s a director of the American Indian Resource Center here at the University of Utah. But as a leader, she had so much more before she came here. If you look at her bio and her background, right? So now my question becomes, what is her next step? What is she wanting to do? Even within her current role? And how does she operate from a JEDI perspective, right? That’s the question.

I go back and ask the same thing…to Dr. Baggett. We were talking, and she’s like, “one thing that I want to work on is to know when to be still.” What does that look like? And that’s something she wants to develop as a leader: want to be still.

My goal is as you think about these characteristics of who you are and what do you want to develop, to make sure you package that with the right organization and the organization that aligns with the mission, right? Because there’s no alignment, then it’s difficult to lead.

I wanna go back here. In order to do that, then you have to have your, I believe, you’re godmothers. How do you approach these individuals now that you have a plan on paper, how do you work with these individuals? Well, first of all…Find out they even want to work with you. They may not want to work with you. Or because of their role, it may not be appropriate to work with you.

So as a president, there are some folks I shouldn’t work with as a mentor, right? Because where do you draw that line between mentor and employee and employer? It’s so much easier for me to talk to all of you, and have conversations from a mentor-mentee perspective than within my own team.

But as a leader, my job is to make sure that they have the right resources. So they could get that mentoring as they continue to grow and progress right? Because there are power dynamics there. I want you to think about those power dynamics when you think about the mentor/mentee.

In one of our sessions, we talked about what does that safe place look like? So you need to understand what’s the rule and engagement from you as a mentee, as you seek these resources. What does that look like, right? You need to dictate this relationship. And in the third piece, I’m going to ask you not to be selfish because we learn from each other. It’s not transactional, right? It’s intentional. We wanna be conversational. There are interactions that are occurring.

Last, but not least…I want to ask you, what are those bold steps that you’re gonna take? Even when it’s unpopular, involves significant personal, professional risk. Alright, so let me tell you the truth here. My arrival at Albizu. It’s been great, except for when I have to go to the board and tell them when we need to rethink our organization, our scales, our salary scales are way off, and the expectations we have for our employees are unrealistic. Tell me I was not popular that day, right? How I did that, though, was strategic, and I made sure I had guidance and support from the board chair.

So let me give you a quick example. I had to be honest with myself, and say, “what am I willing to do, or when am I willing to say, ‘I am leaving. If I don’t get this,’” right? When do you say enough’s enough, and if they’re not going to work with me on this, then I’m out of here. I’m happy to say within the first two weeks, we made, I made a very strategic move in making some organizational changes at one of our campuses. I was praying to God that the board was supporting me because if they didn’t, then I knew we were going back to Ohio because we hadn’t sold the house yet.

(Nelson Soto and Audience laugh)

The board supported me because, I also had the data, and I gave him a reason why, but they gave me that vote of confidence. I was scared when they said yes, though, because that means I had to do something. But I had the skills and the background to know where to get help, to have the next to move to the next step right? So that’s one thing.

Part Two: I had saved the organization almost $400,000 within my first six months there, and I demonstrated how we were going to save immediately. I wanted them to reinvest at $400,000, and so we did some reinvestment. What did I do? In our organizational chart, the women, especially at the president’s cabinet level, they were not making the same amount of money as the men. It’s the truth. I was asking the women primarily to do more work.

And let me give you an example. One of our senior leaders, she has a J.D. And she also oversees a certain department. I was relying on her heavily on her J.D. side in Puerto Rico, and she was doing it, and I wasn’t compensating her, and she was working above and beyond it wasn’t just a one-to-two cases here, and she saved the University a lot of legal fees. That hill, I was gonna fight. And so I was able to get her salary to a certain area I didn’t get her all the way where I wanted to, but at least I fought and worked with the board and we did have a conversation. It was a heated conversation, not because they did not approve of it because of the mentality of that. We were making such a big jump, right? But I had to know how to dance with the board on that, and so I’m happy to say we got her where she should be. That’s leading from JEDI.

So those are some clear, practical examples and if you’re not willing to do that, then don’t be a leader, please. Right? Cause it’s not all–now, the other pieces, I’ll be honest with you. I like when they call me President Soto and I get hooked up, and I have the prime parking space. But that’s not the reason to be a president. Let me tell you, it’s not.

Alright, we won’t have time right now, but eventually, I want you to think about those relationships that you need to foster, with whom we’re going back to that home mentoring mentality. Who do you need to foster that relationship with and be authentic about it? There are a lot of folks in here. Don’t go to the same three people that I mentioned. Those are my mentors, and I want you to take over my mentors. Let’s be clear. We talked about this, the idea, willing to step out of their comfort zone. You’re willing to make those tough decisions and you’re gonna handle the situation head-on.

Last, but not least, do not be lazy as a leader. Listen to me carefully, some of you get very comfortable and assume because I’m in these leadership roles. I don’t have to read anymore, and I could depend on my staff. Do not be lazy. Are you hearing me? Don’t get comfortable. Stop depending on your staff to let you know what’s going on in the day-to-day in higher education, whatever space you’re in, you better know what’s going on.

Personally, I don’t read all these every day. However, there are certain recommendations that I would recommend that you read, or just have an idea what’s going on. For those who are aspiring presidents, I suggest you become a part of a membership of an organization that has advocacy groups like an ACE, right. where they have usually, they throw a blast about what’s going on in Congress, especially when it comes to the Department of Education. Sign up for some of these blasts. Chronicles to chronicle…I’ll leave that alone. But there are other organizations out here. I like the EdUp Experience. I just like that because it’s practical advice is sometimes they have some great speakers on there, on the podcast so I want you to think about that.

Also for those of you, depending on where you are, understand your local newspaper. I know newspapers are dead, but get a vibe of what’s going on locally. Sometimes that’s where you see some local grants being announced that are not announced to the public, right? So get a vibe what’s going on locally and local job boards just get to understand what’s going on in your community. So my reminder to you here is not to be lazy and read. Let me say that again. No.

Remember your personal biography may be the secret sauce that benefits you on your leadership journey. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to leave you with this right here, because this is me and my mama dancing!

(Music)

That was the night before…

(Audience applause)

the night before the vestiture, we had a student session. And being typical, Puerto Ricans on the island, we were going to have some fun, and we had a good time. And so, I just had to dedicate that to my mom. Thank you.

(Audience applause)

Noe Ortega: President Soto, y’all. Thank you so much. We’re going to take a few minutes as well to ask President Soto a few questions. I believe these were submitted by the online audience as well. We’ll have a seat and sort of, allow everyone to kind of take a moment to take in some insight. Which, I think even, as I heard Nelson make his remarks were things that he was making note of when he was in your role, going through his fellowship as well here at NLA. So, Nelson, if you don’t mind, I think there are a couple of mics.

Nelson Soto: Alright, can you hear me on this one? Are we good?

Noe Ortega: Testing, testing. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Nelson, for sharing that insight. And I do wanna see if you can still dance that way.

Nelson Soto: No man. (laughs)

Noe Ortega: You know, I think everyone in here is always interested to get an insight on how people feel when they go into a new role. All of us has had that opportunity in those first couple of weeks even couple of months can be a little overwhelming as you try to figure out what you’re going to do. So I wonder if you can tell us a little bit when you took on this role, a presidential role, you are no doubt given a lot of information. What weren’t you told that you wish you knew going into that role?

Nelson Soto: Yeah, you know what. Humans being humans, you just don’t know their cadence, right? I didn’t know what to expect. The characteristics of each board member. Remember the board’s my boss right, and I had 16 board members, 16 different characteristics, and I didn’t know what was either their pet project or their pet peeve. And so you really have to dance. And if you have a strong team they will guide you through that process. But I wish I knew the DNA of that board. They’re a great team. But individually, I wish I would have had a clear bio-brief of each individual to help me move faster and not make some mistakes that I made at the beginning.

Noe Ortega: I think that’s helpful, because, as you said before, they make or break you, right?

Nelson Soto: That’s right.

Noe Ortega: Board members as well. You know one of the things that we’ve been talking a whole lot is how to show courage how to be agile, how to deal with adversity when it presents itself. I wonder if you can share with everyone just some of the strategies that you’ve used now in this new role, in your first year, that helped you address issues of adversity, even some of the resistance that you may have felt when you first got on there.

Nelson Soto: I shared with you that early on in my role, I made a strategic decision to make some changes at one of our campuses. In doing that, I…I failed to read how the impact of that change would impact the local campus. So I had to make sure that I was present at that campus on a weekly basis. With that interim leader, at least for three weeks. So they understand that A, no one else is going to lose their job, and B, that I respect the culture here because I made the decision without their input right? But it had to be done because there were some things that were happening that just weren’t ethical. And I discovered them, but I had to show up, right? I couldn’t hide behind staffers. I couldn’t hide behind any other VPs, the VP for HR. I had to be there, and so I was there. So to be present is critical, and that helped early on.

Noe Ortega: Really good. And I wonder when you’re dealing with these issues, how do you support others or invite others in, when you’re suiting up and preparing your team to lead, when they’re facing these situations?

Nelson Soto: Yeah, so (laughs). I think that one benefit of being the president is that some things you could just delegate, right? And I ain’t gonna lie. Some things I just delegate. And I’m like, “yeah, you need to handle that.” However, depending on the situation, I do have deep-dive conversations with that team member and make sure that they have a playbook; an action plan; plan, A, B, C, and D. Why am I delegating some of these things to these appropriate individuals? Because I have to remember process, and I have to remember if there’s going to be an appeal process, it’s going to come back to me. But I also want to make sure that those individuals are prepared. They understand the policies, the procedures, and just know their plan of how to move forward and know that they’re not by themselves when they’re engaging with whatever they have to engage with.

Noe Ortega: I think that’s great. You know, one of the things that many of us come to learn when you’re working in higher ed, and you’re looking to move on a pathway. It often requires that we move right, and in your case, in order to make this leap, you’re moving from Ohio, you know, to the island of Puerto Rico into San Juan. And you mention you have some connection to there.

Nelson Soto: Right.

Noe Ortega: But it was still a new context, and I think many of us who are contemplating what happens next, think about that. I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about what was challenging for you in that adjustment, right? You had to move into this new role. And then how did you go about, sort of, dealing with that, because it’s not just for you, but it’s for your family as well.

Nelson Soto: I want to stand up for this one. Because this one, A, I went to gut, the first thing, just to process. When I was contacted to apply for this position, I actually said no, I didn’t want to apply. I was comfortable in Ohio. Afterwards, though I spoke to my wife right. Anyone who has seen you in your underwear, they got the right to know what you’re thinking about, right? So…I spoke to my wife. I said, “do you want to do this? Yes or no?” And I probably spoke to her in my underwear on purpose, and so she could have just hurt me and said I’m a moron. But once she gave me that vote of confidence, saying, “let’s do this, let’s try it.” I moved forward. So A, you have to have that support system that has your back.

The second piece is, and I have to give Albizu credit. They make sure that Ana was comfortable with the institution, that she was comfortable with the role, and they brought us out there together as a spouse which normally happens in these rows. But they really went out of their way to make sure she understood what I was getting into.

Where I failed, and this was me being a stereotypical son of Elizabeth Soto, was that I really didn’t prepare my children for this change. I really failed there. What do I mean by that? My poor son found out that I was applying for this position and what I was doing because by chance he asked to use my iPad to play stupid robots or Roblox. And right there I had the document up, and the boy being smart when I wish he wasn’t, he could read. And he goes, “Dad, we’re moving to Puerto Rico. Seriously? You’re not gonna tell me?” And that part I did not do well, I should have known to really talk to them about it. So when they found out, they found out by chance, and we were literally leaving in three weeks. So I screwed up there. But you know what it is, what it is. I pay for it. They go to counseling. They’ll be alright.

(Audience laughter)

Noe Oretga: Oh, that’s good, good, good. So I wanna ask one more thing because I think as we get ready to wrap up, we keep talking about the challenges of the work and leading for equity, right? The challenges of some of these roles have a great deal of responsibility, not just for the agenda and the mission of the institution, but the people you serve. The changes that you’re trying to make. Mental health is critically important. And as we think about when we prepare ourselves for some of these adjustments, we often neglect that one aspect. How are we gonna be prepared to take this on? Can you tell us a little bit about how you address that for yourself? And then also how you create a culture that at your Institution centered around thinking about the importance of mental health.

Nelson Soto: So as an institution that prepares individuals for mental health, we are horrible at taking care of ourselves because we give, give, and give, so as a leader, I had to learn to, A, recognize that we’re not doing a good job with that. I have to give credit where credit’s due, and that’s my board chair. We went to one of these AGB Institute chair, president…retreat, and I remember part of it was about mental health. I remember she stopped and looked at me. She goes, “Nelson, how are we supporting you and your mental health?” And I smiled at her, and she smiled back. And we have now a plan how they support me in my process of mental health, because part of it I knew in my first presidency, I’m not going to tell the chair, “hey, in eight months you haven’t given me time to let me process and think.” But for her to recognize that we needed to make sure that we’re taking care of me and my mental health was critical.

The second piece, then I had to make sure that my team was taken care of. So what does that look like? Very simple. Our policies around telehealth, and telecommuting, we did not change those policies. Some of our individuals can actually do their work. Two or three days a week from home, and they’re more productive. And the stress sometimes of coming to Viejo San Juan–Puerto Rico is absolutely gorgeous, But I had a team that was traveling from maybe 30 to 45 minutes away. And it’s not because the mileage is because they’re just traffic. And so Viejo San Juan is literally another island on an island, and when Viejo San Juan is clogged up you see it throughout the entire island, so the idea that those individuals knew that they could work remotely made a huge difference, they thought it was going to change the policy there.

I think the third piece is to really have an open environment with my team. I cannot take care of every single faculty member, every single student. But I can make sure my team knows that they have the ability to take care of them, take care of their employees. So if you need to make adjustments, whatever you have to do, just do it. Tell me afterward, because, at the end of the day, the work’s gonna be done. But I wanna make sure those folks are well taken care of.

Noe Ortega: Thank you for that, President Soto. And I will wrap us up by sort of having a reflection that takes us back to the day that you were in that seat, and you came into the New Leadership Academy. You know, when you’re first launching the program, and that was the first year we had all those padrinos and madrinas were the people that we turned to put forth recommendations right, and Betty stepped up immediately to say I’ve got a person that I’ve been working with, and I know he has a lot of potential. And I think when you came through, we all realized it.

From someone who is there seeing you when you first came into now congratulations on assuming the presidency, and thank you for literally baring it all. We now have that picture of Nelson in his underwear… for everyone today. So thank you so much, Nelson. Thank you, everyone.

(Audience applause)

I’ll turn it over to Dr. Villarreal…There is a script here. I’m happy to read it.

(Audience laughs)

Or not.

(Audience laughs)

Alright! Alright! Because I think this is being recorded, right, so sorry for all those who are tuning in and hearing us fumble through the end of the Friday Forums. So thank you to our esteemed moderator–you’re welcome–and panelists for what you’ve been doing today. Thank you for those who have joined us today for our last installment of Friday Forums, and for the many of you who have been with us since the beginning.

Thank you to the New Leadership Academy for your partnership in hosting the special edition of Friday Forum as part of the NLA Summer Institute. To catch up on all past installments of Friday Forums, and to learn more about the New leadership Academy and all upcoming program for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, please visit our website at diversity.utah.edu.

That’s a wrap.

(Audience applause)