The value of outside perspectives and an interdisciplinary approach to education

Hilary L. Link, Ph.D., is the first female President of Allegheny College — one of the nation’s oldest and most innovative colleges where multidisciplinary learning breaks the conventional mold. She is a recognized leader, scholar of Italian Language and Literature, and globalist. In more than 20 years of experience across a broad range of institutions, she’s provided students with a cross-disciplinary path to think critically and communicate creatively.

Show Highlights

Value of outside perspectives that shows up in your work
Allegheny’s multi-disciplinary approach forces you to learn into different lenses to be more than one thing
How a leader keeps the institution moving forward without getting caught up in the tyranny of the urgent
Navigating challenges female leaders and mothers faces
Balance strength with accessibility for personal engagement
Drink beer for breakfast to evolve like a 16th century scientist for proper perspective
Take a 2 hour lunch to see the value in human connection
Use a Ruckus Making year of disruptions to own your own agency of change

“One of the interesting things is that people are still trying to sort out as with me as a woman, where the line is between being a strong, determined, authoritative decision maker, but also someone who arrives at those decisions in a very non authoritative way. I like to describe my decision-making process as really iterative and collaborative, but the reality is once I arrive at a decision, I don't change it as long as I know how I got there, why I got there, and I can explain the ‘why’ behind it.”

-Dr Hilary Link

“I believe firmly that the advantage I have had of living outside my country, my cultural context has taught me that there are multiple ways to see the world. Multiple ways to approach everything from how you express yourself, how you say things, how work is organized, how education is organized, so that carries through and drives everything I do. Whether I'm doing that from Boston, where I grew up, or New York City or Rome, or now Meadville, what it's taught me is that you can always take a step to another side and see something from a different angle, and you can often see it differently once you've moved yourself.”

-Dr Hilary Link

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Dr Hillry Link Transcript

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