Pi-Sui Hsu grateful for EdLEAD journey

Pi-Sui Hsu
Pi-Sui Hsu

When opportunity knocks, Pi-Sui Hsu answers – even if she might have doubts.

The associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment remembers feeling mixed emotions when Dean Laurie Elish-Piper offered her a spot in the 2019-20 EdLEAD cohort.

Launched in 2018, the College of Education Leadership Education and Development Program was designed to invest in the intentional development of leadership skills for faculty who aspire to take on such positions.

Participants attend a series of professional development workshops through the spring and summer semesters before spending the next academic year in hands-on leadership projects that provide practical experience.

Other members of the 2019-21 cohort were James Cohen, Joseph Flynn, Laura Hedin and Jesse (Woody) Johnson.

“I was very thrilled to receive the invitation,” says Hsu, who is also a Senior Faculty Fellow, “but I pondered on that for a while – if I was the right person. I wasn’t sure if I’m capable of doing a leadership job. I went online to check out what the previous cohort learned and did in the program, and I thought I would like to give it a try, so I accepted.”

Seven months later, as COVID-19 abruptly upended everything throughout the world, Hsu suddenly found herself with a front-row seat to the behind-the-scenes work of Elish-Piper and associate deans Bill Pitney and David Walker.

“I think I learned a great deal because it was the pandemic, and I was able to see leadership in action during a crisis,” Hsu says. “I was able to observe closely how Laurie handles all the situations, and I was able to learn different strategies from Laurie, Bill and David. I appreciate that, because you really learn about leadership during a crisis.”

NIU President Dr. Lisa C. Freeman and Pi-Sui Hsu
NIU President Dr. Lisa C. Freeman spoke with Pi-Sui Hsu about leadership.

Hsu also spent time with NIU President Dr. Lisa C. Freeman, in whom she sees and values qualities of transparency, approachability and thoughtfulness.

She also earned a certificate in leadership from Harvard Business School Online, with tuition paid by the college and her department, and created a 360-degree, virtual tour of College of Education facilities as part of a leadership project.

From Freeman, who she interviewed for a cohort assignment, Hsu received good advice on two different aspects of leadership.

One involves developing and coaching people; the other involves management of research grants or centers. “I’ve learned a great deal about how I interact with other members in my research team,” Hsu says, “and, when I reach out to people outside, how I could work them to advocate for my program.”

Conversations with Freeman also took on a biographical and aspirational nature.

“I asked her where she learned leadership skills, and she shared with me that she got those skills and knowledge by, of course, observing or from mentoring experiences. She also attended a formal training,” Hsu says.

“I have known President Freeman since she came here as director in the Office of Sponsored Projects,” she adds. “Then she became provost, and then president, and because I’m a woman, I wanted to see how I could learn from her because it’s challenging to be a leader as a woman. We might have some limitations in opportunities.”

Development of the virtual tour fulfilled Hsu’s requirement to complete a project related to leadership. It reflects her professional background in instructional technology while reinforcing the responsibility of leaders in higher education to help in recruitment of students.

Hsu (left) and her virtual reality team: Sena Bulak and Sharif Shahadat
Hsu (left) and her virtual reality team: Sena Bulak and Sharif Shahadat

“It took a lot of planning. It’s not one-person work, so I was able to reach out to some students in our program who are interested in developing virtual reality tools. We looked into free tools, and eventually I reached out to Wei-Chen Hung, who was very generous in purchasing software,” she says.

Hsu contacted all six department chairs – Hung included – in search of information for her script. She also needed to coordinate access to the buildings and facilities during the closure.

Eventually, with 360-degree photos taken throughout Gabel, Graham and Anderson halls and even the Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic, she and her team were able to stitch the images together and match them to the recorded narration.

The tour currently is hosted on a personal website, although Hsu is working with the university’s Web Team to add it to the www.niu.edu framework.

But finding a place to display her diploma from Harvard was a job only for Hsu, who is understandably proud of the accomplishment.

“It was three months of work, and it was a lot of work. It took me eight to nine hours every week,” she says.

Pi-Sui Hsu in her home office.
Pi-Sui Hsu in her home office.

“Harvard uses a very innovative approach, and they use case studies to scaffold you through the learning process. They were able to recruit many successful businessmen and businesswomen to share their stories; for example, how they handle crisis, how they lead their teams and how they developed leadership,” she adds. “They were able to walk us through different processes so they could provide us with different cases and different scenarios that we had to dive into and then apply our knowledge to analyze those cases.”

The entire EdLEAD journey has altered Hsu’s notions of her potential.

“In the past, I used to think that people are born to be leaders, and that it might be very challenging for me to become a leader,” she says. “After this experience, I thought, ‘Well, this opportunity gives me an opportunity to revisit my own capability to become a leader.’ ”

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