If one is looking for hints as to the leadership style of Washington College’s new president, Sheila Bair, it might be best to get to know her political mentor, the former senator from Kansas, Bob Dole.
For more that eight years, Bair worked and learned from Dole while he served as the Senate Majority Leader, and it’s hard not to see that some of his famous drive to “get stuff done” has rubbed off on his mentee.
In her Spy interview, Bair talks about the Dole style of leadership and the need to push governments and institutions to do the right thing for their people. From her tenure at the FDIC relentlessly defending millions of small depositors in the aftermath of the Great Recession to her current dedication to her students as they deal with debt and a competitive road to a good job, Bair would never be accused of lacking a vision for her work.
President Bair also talks candidly about Washington College, the hospital, and its relationship with Chestertown. While she freely admits that nine months in office is too short a period to have developed matured ideas on how to moves forward on the economic growth of the region, she is beginning to see a way for this very old town-gown relationship to find win-win projects in the future.
This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length
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