In August, Brandiss Pearson will defend her dissertation for a doctorate in education from St. John Fischer College.
At one point, a doctorate might have seemed out of reach. After graduating from Nottingham High School in 1999, Pearson had begun studying accounting at the University of Buffalo. She soon realized she was pregnant. She left college after her freshman year, had her baby, went back to work at Wegmans, and moved into public housing.
Her resilience and determination kept her on the educational track, starting with a nursing assistant certificate. She earned more certificates, then a bachelor’s, and eventually a master’s degree. As she earned degrees and confidence, she took on ever-more challenging roles. Now, she is director of community engagement at St. Joseph’s Health, and in September she expects to become Dr. Brandiss Pearson.
What is your dissertation on?
For context, I started the doctoral program – it's an Ed.D. in executive leadership – while I was working for Syracuse Community Health Center. I anticipated that if I was going to stay in Syracuse and go into executive leadership, I would probably be one of the only women of color in those spaces.
So, that’s what I’m studying: Black women in leadership in predominantly white institutions and strategies for their wellbeing. I thought there are some experiences specific to black women in leadership working in racial isolation, as the only or one of the only people of color. Little did I know that I would be offered a director position in the middle of my doctoral program. So now I’m not only studying it, I’m living it.
Were you in leadership roles growing up?
I was not. I do remember people saying: Brandiss is going to be a lawyer. (Laughter) Oddly enough, my brother, Seth Pearson, became a lawyer. He's a corporate attorney in Boston.
I always had aspirations to go to college, and I was in National Junior Honor Society, gifted programs, and all that jazz. But I was a little bit of a loner. I think I was popular enough – I’d say that I didn’t have a lot of enemies. But I wasn’t the girl out front. I was the girl with my hand raised first to answer questions.
I was an overweight girl with lots of insecurities, so I shied away from the front of the room for much of my life. I really leaned on my brain. My goal was always to get the highest score, to answer first. That was my thing. I’m not sure that’s a leadership role.
Tell me about some of the people who influenced you.
My mom and dad (Sharron and Albert Pearson) were both very involved. My parents divorced when I was young, but my dad lived around the corner, always accessible and present. And they had a good co-parenting relationship.
My mom worked at Miller Brewing Co. until it closed in 1994. She was laid off. I watched her earn a paralegal degree from Empire College. I thought: Oh, so you can go to school as an adult? You can switch careers?
She never worked as a paralegal, but she started her entrepreneurial journey. Now she is the proprietor of The Guest House in East Syracuse. It’s an event space and has office spaces for hire. My mom has had a series of entrepreneurial ventures – a ton of DBA’s and ideas. That let me know that I could pursue whatever I wanted at whatever age.
College?
I think the University of Buffalo chose me. My brother, who’s three years my senior, had gone to Tuskegee University in Alabama. He had left Tuskegee and returned to Syracuse and was living on his own. At Christmas, I shared with the family that I was going to be attending University of Buffalo and everyone’s clapping. My brother raises his hand and he says: So am I.
It was perfect that my brother was there to be my support because I found out during October of my freshman year that I was pregnant. Having my brother with me was just divinely aligned.
What were you studying?
I was an accounting major. I just imagined myself in a cubicle with my little accounting machine. I still love the sound when you hit the equal sign – brrduhduhduht. I loved numbers, and math was my happy place.
Your career path seems very different from accounting.
It's completely different. My children were the impetus for changing my career trajectory. I finished out my freshman year at Buffalo and came home May 12. I had my son, Shaun, May 24, 2000. I had worked at Wegmans all throughout high school and again when I came back home from Buffalo. Then I had my second son, Brandon, in 2002. He was actually born oh two, oh two, oh two.
I had no idea he would be born with Down syndrome. I was 20 years old, in a rough relationship, and didn’t receive the proper prenatal care. He was a day old when they realized that he had a bowel obstruction and required immediate surgery. We were transferred from St. Joe’s to Crouse for his surgery. I came to learn later that the type of bowel obstruction he was born with was textbook Down syndrome. His pancreas had grown around his duodenum, the small intestine.
The nurses in the NICU at Crouse took such good care of Brandon, and they took care of me, my mom, and Shaun. They were great. I thought: I want to take care of someone in the way that those nurses took care of us.
Brandon was pretty sick for the first year. I had to quit my job and move into Syracuse Housing, into the Pioneer Homes. I remember thinking I have to get my degree. Accounting was still on my radar, but I kept thinking about nursing. For me, the context of nursing was a nursing assistant. Everyone I knew that was a, quote, nurse was actually a CNA, a certified nursing assistant. I found myself walking over to SUNY EOC, the Educational Opportunity Center on New Street, because it was in proximity to Pioneer Homes. It had a free, 10-week CNA program.
I thought maybe Brandon will be well enough that I can finish a 10-week program. So I found myself in a CNA class, and I completed that. A representative from Central Tech described the adult LPN program. I signed up for the licensed practical nurse program through Central Tech. I completed that 10-month program, and I thought that was it. I knew enough LPNs and they could raise their families and own their homes. I thought I was in a good place. Then I got a postcard from Syracuse Housing Authority saying that they offered one scholarship a year for one resident.
The application process was included in the postcard. I thought: If I get it, great. If not, I think I'm OK.
We had a public health nurse and also a social worker that would come to my apartment to help with Brandon and offer oversight. The social worker was Mary Ann Schwab.
I remember her asking: Brandiss, if you could do anything, if money were no issue, if time were no issue, if there were no issues, what would you do?
I said: I’d graduate from college.
She said: What would you major in?
I was like: I don't care. I just pictured myself walking the stage.
She said: We'll do it. Let's create a plan.
She challenged me to write down short-term and long-term goals. Then she said: Now I need action steps. What can you do today or tomorrow that will get you closer to those goals?
So that was a challenge. I mean, I had a word processor, not even a computer. It was a little box that had a small, five-by-five green screen. (Laughter)
So I typed up my goals and my action steps on my little word processor, and I hung them up on the refrigerator and started to check off the boxes.
I received the scholarship from Syracuse Housing Authority and went to Syracuse University and earned a bachelor's in social work.
I worked as a social worker for a little bit, and I thought, OK, I have my degree, I've walked the stage. The boys are healthy. But I was still living in Syracuse Housing, and I thought, goodness, maybe this isn't it.
So, I was at a crossroads. I had my LPN and I had a bachelor's in social work, and I had to make a decision. Go for my RN or go for my MSW?
I researched both fields, and I said: I think it's nursing.
I was accepted into Saint Joseph’s College of Nursing. So I kind of did a backstep because I already had a bachelor’s. I went back to EOC to get a refresher on biology and chemistry. So I earned my RN at St. Joe’s. As we were coming to the end of the RN program, I found myself at a crossroads again. It was the most difficult program I had ever done, but I thought: I bet I can do a masters.
St. Joe's and Le Moyne College granted me with a scholarship to go to Le Moyne and earn a post-baccalaureate certificate, which was required to get into the master's program.
I finished the post baccalaureate certificate from Le Moyne in December 2011. I worked for a while, and then I went to SUNY Upstate for my nurse practitioner master’s degree. I completed that in 2017. But I remembered being in a really dark place when I lived in Syracuse Housing, before I started pursuing my education. I remember tucking the boys in – and I get emotional about it – tucking the boys in, sitting in the stairway, and I remember praying and pleading with God and saying: If you get me outta here, I’ll go as far as my faith and my feet can carry me.
When I finished that master's degree as a nurse practitioner, my academic dean from St. Joe's, Loretta Quigley, came to me and said: Brandiss, you should look into this Ed.D. program through St. John Fisher College. I think you'd be great.
And I thought: Oh my gosh, Dr. Quigley, no way. I'm done. No more school, please.
She said: Well, just come to an info session.
So I did, and I enrolled two and a half years ago, and the plan is to defend my dissertation at the end of August.
What's your advice for someone who wants to take on leadership responsibilities?
Find a mentor, formal or informal, someone that is doing the thing that you want to do.
Then, be transparent, be honest, ask for help, ask for guidance. If you feel like you are out of your element, sometimes you have to say that. Otherwise you can get paralyzed with fear of doing something wrong.
I think it's important to be accessible, because we learn by teaching. As an instructor, I learn the most when I'm teaching. So, be accessible to other people so that you can share your journey. You are learning more about yourself and you are sharing the appropriate knowledge with people who are aspiring to come behind you.
Then, self-care, Oh man, self-care. As I pursue this degree and I do the interviews and collect the data around my dissertation, what just keeps coming up is self-care – whatever that means for you. Figure out what makes you feel the most like you and do it and be unapologetic about self-care and the pursuit of wellness and wellbeing. If you are silent about something that disrupts your peace, you actually create a war within yourself.
Finally, establish a circle of people who are diverse in thought. You don't want to have yes men on your team. You want to have people who will challenge you. That's what pushes me, people who challenge me – but in a healthy way.
What qualities do you see in good leadership or in leaders that you admire?
Accessibility – a leader who has a healthy open-door policy. Self-care is important, so they can’t be all things to all people at all times. But they’re making sure that they’re accessible for colleagues and the people that they are steward over.
A good leader is transparent. If you are unsure about something or if you're up against some of your own challenges, being able to communicate that still allows you to show yourself as a leader, to say: These are uncertain times, and I'm figuring this out, but I'm here to support you.
That’s helpful instead of having a leader pretend to know all things at all times. I think Covid-19 has shown me that what we thought were constants or sure things are not.
What attributes do you see in poor leaders?
Leaders that pretend to know it all. The leaders who are not interested in having diverse thought at the table. Dictators.
Leaders that are inaccessible, ones that you can't ever get ahold of or that you can't get a response from, or that put up barriers.
Hierarchy is one thing – there's a proper chain of communication, but being accessible is important. We're all busy, but when a leader is with someone, they should be present in that moment as much as possible.
What do you think people want from their leaders?
I think strength in the face of uncertainty.
I think people want their leaders to be knowledgeable. They want them to read everything in front of them, to be able to speak to whatever's going on.
Honesty and integrity. I want to know that you are who you say you are and you will be who you are, whether I'm in the room or not.
What's your advice for leading an organization through change?
Four or five months ago, it would have been a different answer because I think we're in unprecedented times. We're all figuring it out as leaders.
Leading through change means being flexible and adapting to the environment. Being transparent. Making sure that you're communicating the changes.
If the ship is sinking, sometimes you have to say that. But you have to use discretion and discernment. You don’t want to make people anxious without cause. So I think discernment and discretion are important when leading through change And then it requires honesty and integrity.
The weekly “CNY Conversation” features Q&A interviews about leadership, success, and innovation. The conversations are condensed and edited. To suggest a leader for a Conversation, contact Stan Linhorst at StanLinhorst@gmail.com. Last week featured Cathy Gaynor, who says admirable leaders show respect to those they work with.
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