First Posted: 2/11/2015
LIMA — Becoming the president of Rhodes State College did not happen overnight for Dr. Debra McCurdy.
“It’s been a long journey,” she said. “I’ve had a variety of positions from mid-level administration to senior to executive. I’ve had some excellent role models and mentors from women and men in leadership positions. I’ve been fortunate to have some widely experienced individuals with whom I could work and who helped to lay out the pathway and helped me develop the leadership skills and management skills that I needed to be successful.”
McCurdy is going into her ninth year at Rhodes State. She previously held positions with Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta and Clark Atlanta University, among others. Working in higher education held an appeal for McCurdy from early on in her career.
“You work with people who consistently prepare other people for their careers and life challenges and life-changing experiences,” she said. “So that’s pretty much where I assumed I would have my career. This is where the exchange of ideas and different philosophies evolve to their highest point.”
The journey in reaching that position was not an easy one for McCurdy for multiple reasons.
“Being an African-American woman, obviously I have encountered challenges along the way,” she said. “But you go through it and look for ways to get past it and look for the positives. There is always a bright side and positive opportunities to get you through the most challenging times.”
While McCurdy is grateful for those positive opportunities and the help she has received from mentors and colleagues over the years, becoming the chief executive of an institution that now offers 75 associate degree and certificate programs is also the result of a lot of hard work, a fact she emphasized when giving advice to women looking to become future leaders.
“The advice I would give is that you need to be prepared and work hard,” she said. “You need to understand the work and the pathway they need to take in order to sit in a chair where you’re going to have responsibility for people, finances and organizations.”
