Persevere, Be Authentic: Take The Lead Board Chair Lily McNair Advises on Leadership
Lily McNair is the new Board Chair of Take The Lead., where she has served on the board since 2014.
“I was the kid who loved all kinds of things.”
As a girl growing up outside Trenton, New Jersey at Fort Dix, where her father was based in the U.S. Army, Lily McNair loved books—a biography on Harriet Tubman especially, plus a psychology textbook—and a chemistry set that taught her how to make little volcanoes.
The miniature chemistry set her parents gave her one Christmas ignited McNair’s love of science. Tubman’s story inspired her to live a life helping others. And the psychology textbook her father bought (though he had not attended college) showed her she wanted to pursue a career in psychiatry or psychology.
“What Harriet Tubman did to help people get through slavery, I thought wow, this is incredible,” McNair says. “I wanted to help people.”
After a stellar three-decade career in higher education, a Take The and Lead board member since 2014, and vice chair since 2019, McNair becomes the new Board Chair at Take The Lead, working with co-founder and president Gloria Feldt.
Watch Dr. Lily McNair here in Take The Lead’s Virtual Happy Hour
As an undergraduate at Princeton University from 1975 to 1979, McNair was leaning toward medical school when a resident assistant advised her she could get a PhD in clinical psychology, so she pursued that path.
Accepted to several graduate schools, McNair was on a visit to State University of New York-Stony Brook to check it out and assess what it was like for Black students. On a campus bus, she approached another Black student and asked, “I am here to see what it’s like to be a Black person at Stony Brook.”
George W. Roberts was the psychology doctoral student on the bus she approached, and they exchanged phone numbers. Though he advised her against Stony Brook, she did attend, earning her masters and doctoral degrees from there. They also later married, and have two grown children; Roberts is the retired senior administrator at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With research focusing on women, youth and specifically young Black women and the cognitive factors of alcohol use, McNair taught in clinical psychology at SUNY-New Paltz, and was a clinical psychologist at Vassar College. She then secured a tenure track position at the University of Georgia in 1992. In 1999 she was the first Black woman to obtain tenure in the Department of Psychology.
“My daughter was five and my son was two, so I had to focus and do what I needed to do. As long as I kept moving forward, I knew eventually I would get there and I did.”
After her tenure appointment, McNair says one of the full professors congratulated her, saying, “Now you’re one of us.”
She adds that what that meant to her was before that, she was not.
While the predominance of white male faculty and leadership in U.S. universities is still the norm, McNair says the culture is shifting, but not enough. “We’re still fighting” for equity, she says.
“While the predominance of white male faculty and #leadership in U.S. universities is still the norm, McNair says the culture is shifting, but not enough. “We’re still fighting” for #equity, she says.”
American Association of University Professors new December “report found that salaries for full-time female faculty members are about 81.2% of their male counterparts’, with women earning $79,368 and men earning $97,738 per year on average,” according to Diverse Education.
“Meanwhile, both women faculty and faculty of color are underrepresented in academia’s highest faculty positions – and overrepresented in its more precarious ones. While women make up 46.7% of full-time faculty overall, among tenure and tenure-track professors, the higher the rank, the lower the percentage of women. Female faculty make up 50% of assistant professors, 45% of associate professors and only 32.5% of full professors with tenure,” Diverse Education reports.
According to the new report, The Women's Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower by the Women's Power Gap Initiative at the Eos Foundation, in partnership with the American Association of University Women, startling statistics show a lack of equity and distinct progress.
“According to the new report, “The Women’s Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower,” by the @Womenspowergap Initiative at the @EosFoundation, in partnership with the @AAUW, startling statistics show a lack of #equity and distinct #progress. ”
The report shows, “Women make up just 22% of presidents and 26% of board chairs. Women of color are just 5% of presidents. The number of Black male presidents has doubled since 2020, yet women of color have not seen similar gains. Only nine colleges and universities (8%) have reached gender parity on their boards, while no schools have parity among tenured professors.”
Cision reports, "It's alarming to see that women are still so vastly underrepresented at the top levels of academic leadership," according to Gloria Blackwell, AAUW CEO. "It's extremely disappointing that most institutions are still failing to give women – especially women of color – equal opportunities to rise in their careers. We need immediate action to eliminate the barriers against women and people of color whose perspectives, brilliance, and leadership we need to move us all forward."
In 2004, McNair, who edited four editions of the textbook, Women: Images and Realities, got a call from Spelman College, a Historically Black College and University, to interview for the position of associate provost of research and divisional coordinator for science and mathematics.
Once on campus, McNair says, “I thought this is a chance of a lifetime. Look at all the Black women here, the president is a Black woman, this is all about us. I could not run away from that.” She was there from 2004 to 2011, before heading to Wagner College in New York as provost, vice president of academic affairs.
“A mentor said to me that I should be a college president and nobody ever said that to me. They said I have what it takes, but first I had to become a provost,” McNair says, so she did. Leaving Spelman was hard, she says, but it put her on the path to become president of Tuskegee University as the first female president in 2018. She retired in 2021.
“It was very different from what I thought,” McNair says. “But it was also what I expected about being at the table to make decisions on what was best for students. If there were problems in higher education, I wanted to be around the table so I can make decisions to help students and faculty.”
An exceptional leader recognized and honored nationally, McNair was named by This is Alabama and Birmingham Magazine to its 2018 class of “Women Who Shape the State” and by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education to its 2019 list of “Top 35 Women in Higher Education.”
“An exceptional #leader recognized and honored nationally, McNair was named by @Thisisalabama and @Bhammag to its 2018 class of “Women Who Shape the State” and by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education to its 2019 list of “Top 35 Women in Higher Education.” ”
McNair also received Distinguished Alumni Award honors from SUNY- Stony Brook and Princeton University’s Association of Black Princeton Alumni organization. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors named Oct. 22, 2019, as “Dr. Lily D. McNair and Tuskegee University Day” throughout the county.
As she begins her tenure at Take The Lead, McNair of course sees the mission of gender parity in leadership a Take The Lead’s goal not just for academia, but across all industries and sectors.
“The mission of #genderparity in #leadership is @Takeleadwomen ‘s goal not just for academia, but across all industries and sectors. ”
In whatever industry or area you work, to make a place for yourself in a workplace culture where you can succeed, McNair advises, “Find a place that fits who you are authentically. You have to fight the battle anyway, why not fight the battle where you are that if you win, you want to be there.”
McNair is eager to bring her lessons in leadership to Take The Lead, for her one-year term as board chair.
“In whatever industry or area you work, to make a place for yourself in a #workplace culture where you can succeed, McNair advises, “Find a place that fits who you are authentically.” #authenticself ”
“Mentorship is always important,” she says. “Sometimes people tap you on the shoulder and say something you never imagined. So when the phone rings, answer it.”
Secondly, McNair advises everyone to persevere—authentically. “Be authentic in everything you do. As a woman in leadership, we can back down and fall prey to negative thoughts.” Resist that urge and keep going.
“What Take The Lead does is so important. I always tell a young woman to be who she is, do not try to change yourself to meet other people’s expectations of you,” says McNair, who will be partnering with Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
“I am blessed to have had such excellent board chairs like Dr. Nancy O'Reilly as partners, and I am especially delighted to work in partnership with Dr. Lily McNair as our new board chair,” says Feldt. “She knows Take The Lead deeply from her tenure on the board since 2014, and her commitment to developing women leaders is backed up by her experience as an educator and leader in higher education. These characteristics make her the right volunteer leader as Take The Lead plans its growth strategies to achieve intersectional gender parity in leadership by 2025."
““What @Takeleadwomen does is so important. I always tell a young woman to be who she is, do not try to change yourself to meet other people’s expectations of you.”—Lily McNair, new board chair of Take The Lead. #leadership #parity”
Taking over as board chair for a one-year term with the opportunity to renew for two years, McNair follows outgoing Board Chair Dr. Nancy O’Reilly who has chaired Take The Lead’s board since 2018. She is the founder of Women Connect4Good, a non-profit foundation that educates people about the benefit of women-helping-women and fosters networks that raise the status of women globally. Women Connect4Good helps women develop leadership qualities, learn to take charge of their lives, and connect deeply with others to create change. O'Reilly has been a supporter of Take The Lead since its launch in 2014 and will remain on the board.
As for her board chair position, McNair says, “Right now, my goal at Take The Lead is to grow. We have some important work to do now to capture the passion of different institutions to help women take the lead.”
“As for her new board chair position, McNair says, “Right now, my goal at @Takeleadwomen is to grow. We have some important work to do now to capture the passion of different institutions to help #women take the #lead.” ”
