EMU celebrates its phenomenal women leaders

Special ‘Mornings with the Mayor’ Convocation pays tribute to President Huxman and other women shaping our campus

There’s a new morning talk show host in town, and she’s here to celebrate.

As a special Mornings with the Mayor edition of Convocation on Wednesday, Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, director of alumni engagement and community connections at EMU, stepped into the role of host as she interviewed several trailblazing women leaders making their mark on campus. The one-of-a-kind program, held at the Student Union, celebrated Women’s History Month and paid tribute to departing EMU President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman.

Reed steered the show with her trademark candor and panache, holding court over the “live studio audience”—one student could be seen regularly holding up an “Applause” sign—while she posed fascinating questions to EMU students, staff, and alumnae. “It’s the show where we bring you big energy, great conversations, and way too much coffee,” quipped Reed.

The first guests to grace the stage were a pair of EMU students, Arelys Martinez Fabian and Meredith Lehman, and a recent alumna, Ray Ray Taylor MS ’24. Fabian, co-president of Student Government Association, highlighted the increased representation of women in campus leadership roles. Taylor, a lab instructor who was a star on the Royals track and field team, called for erasing negative stereotypes and for supporting women in sports. When asked about which woman in history she would share a meal with, Lehman, a Rhodes Scholar studying at Washington Community Scholars’ Center, answered that she had recently heard about Zheng Yi Sao, a pirate leader active in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810. “She was one of the most successful pirates in a time where you don’t really hear about female pirates,” Lehman said. “I would ask her where she pulls from to gain confidence and belief in herself”

Another panel discussion featured three powerhouse administrative leaders who are “changing the game in education and beyond”: Carrie Bert, Dr. Shannon Dycus, and Dr. Tynisha Willingham. Asked to provide her younger self advice, Bert, EMU athletic director, said she would’ve told her to pause and breathe to appreciate the moment. Dycus, vice president for Student Affairs, Equity and Belonging, shared some tough conversations she had when starting in her role about fighting hard to be heard. Willingham spoke about unique challenges she’s faced as a woman provost. “I think we often still see that even when women are in leadership roles, they are expected to be nurturing and can’t be as direct,” she said.

Clad in her signature royal blue pantsuit, Huxman, the featured headliner for Reed’s morning show, bounded down the aisle and shined in the spotlight. Huxman is EMU’s ninth president, the first woman to lead in the role, and is retiring this summer after nine years of service. She joked about some unexpected lessons learned over those years. “I started with a closet that had five blue outfits,” she said. “It’s half my closet now, skirts and outfits like this, and even shoes.”

She also spoke about forming closer connections between the university and city, colloquially known as the “town and gown relationship,” during her time at EMU. Early on, she said, she had visited with elected officials, educators and business leaders who told her they had never stepped foot on EMU’s campus. “I tried to work, especially in that first year, to get folks to campus,” she said. “I brought the delegates and our elected representatives up to my office. And, again, they said, ‘Well, I’ve been an elected representative for 12, 15 years, and I’ve never been in the president’s office.’”

At a time when many colleges across the nation are shuttering their DEI programs, EMU is doubling down on its commitment to the initiatives that bolster diversity, equity and inclusion and make all students on campus feel welcome. Huxman spoke about initiatives she’s witnessed over her two terms, including the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration started by Celeste Thomas during her second year as president, the Black Lives Matter mural—the only city in Virginia with a BLM street mural, Reed said—the establishment of the Office of DEI, the start of the Lavender Graduation, and the institutional statement on land acknowledgement. “It is EMU’s time to lean into DEI,” Huxman said. “It’s wrapped into our mission, it’s wrapped into our vision and values, it’s wrapped into the Sermon on the Mount. And this is who we are as a faith-based institution.”

Asked about which woman she would share a meal with, Huxman answered Ida B. Wells, a journalist and co-founder of the NAACP. “Every time I reread her biography, I just think, how did somebody walk the earth of this magnitude?” said Huxman, regaling the crowd with tales of Wells’ accomplishments. “…I always think that, in a very real sense, the graduates from our university at EMU are well-prepared to be peace and justice advocates like Ida B. Wells.”

A special treat honoring the president was free for those attending the event. Baristas at Common Grounds Coffeehouse whipped up mugs of the “Hux Deluxe,” a vanilla latte with a little cinnamon sugar on top. “I love that it’s a latte and it has cinnamon on it,” Huxman said. “Somebody knows I like that.” 

The interviews were interspersed with video segments documenting powerful EMU alumnae who are shaping the world. These included Khadija O. Ali MA ’01, who became the first female state minister of the Somalian government and serves as an ambassador for the country, and Najla El Mangoush MA ’15, who was the first female foreign minister of Libya. Another video showcased the legacy of the late Sadie Hartzler, EMU’s first full-time librarian whose name graces the library today.

Mukarabe, a student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding who fled genocide in Burundi in 1993, read from a poem and led the crowd in a moment of silence for women persecuted around the world. She was joined by her husband Makinto, a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, as they performed music to cap off the event. Together, they shared “Amahoro,” a Kirundi cultural expression conveying peace and God’s blessings, through song.

Braydon Hoover, vice president for enrollment, served as sidekick/announcer for “Mornings with the Mayor.”