On March 22, 2014 Illinois State University officially appointed Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Dietz to be the new President of the University. But he wasn’t the only one who received a new title…
His wife Marlene accepted a new role as well, as the First Lady—someone that would become prominent in the eyes of the Bloomington-Normal community.
I met Larry and Marlene Dietz this past fall, at a dinner during Homecoming week. They were passionate and caring about students and the university as a whole. Little did I know I was interacting with the future President and First Lady.
I had the opportunity to sit down with this incredibly humble and hard-working woman again more recently, and ask her some questions about how these recent changes have affected her and her husband’s lives together. She remembered me by name from the dinner last fall, and even though she now has a position of much higher power, she was still the same kind-hearted, genuine, down-to-earth woman that asked me what my plans were after college back in October 2013.
It was clear after speaking with her that despite the recently attained celebrity status, Marlene keeps herself extremely grounded through her faith, her family and her positive outlook on life.
Her Campus Illinois State: A lot of things have changed since we first met at the Homecoming dinner back in October. Can you tell me about some of those changes?
Marlene Dietz: Well, as you may have known, Larry applied for the position of presidency last year when there was a national search. We were very hopeful last spring and it didn’t happen. But we are people of faith and we thought it just wasn’t meant to be for whatever reason. I always talk a lot about fit with people. If you have a good fit, it needs to be not just with the organization but with the people and the responsibilities. It’s not just about your expertise but it’s so much about fit. You can learn about the other things. For whatever reason, this opportunity has come along after they hired the Flanagan’s, which from what I think was just not a good fit. I’m not sure. More than anything, I guess what’s important to Larry and I is that we’re open and available. We had a passion and desire to have this opportunity last spring and it’s no different now. He’s been received so graciously and that was something we were a bit concerned about. So yes, we’ve gone through lots of change very quickly.
HC ISU: Tell me a little bit about your duties specifically and how they have changed now that you’re the First Lady.
MD: Well, I’m just learning! I very quickly made appointments with a couple of past first ladies to talk to them and ask them for all of their wisdom. I’ve always believed in mentors and going to the people that have had the experiences. I think number one, Larry and I see our role as representing the institution—especially as a couple—in the very best possible format, and many times that’s going to be a social occasion. It’s going to be honoring different organizations or groups and entertaining them. We are very anxious to get into the president’s home and do a lot of inviting of the community into our home and representing of the institution. We want them to come in, learn more about ISU, and walk away with a really positive feeling. I see myself as the hostess of those types of events.
HC ISU: What does a typical day look like for you?
MD: Well I’m self-employed, so a typical day probably includes taking care of business a little bit in the morning. The beauty of being self-employed is that I can pick and choose the amount of work that I do. So I have a client right now down in Texas that I travel and do work for—leadership workshops and those kinds of things. So a typical day is probably just getting organized. I’m really just learning a lot of the First Lady duties, meeting with all different people around campus.
HC ISU: Where or what do you like to get involved in at the University? Or where would you like to in the future?
MD: I’ve just started giving that some thought. I really enjoy facilitating, so if there’s an opportunity to do any sort of facilitation or basic leadership skills work, I would like to get involved with that, whether that’s with students or the HR department. I don’t know as the president’s wife if that will work or not, so I’m kind of trying to figure that out.
Another thought would be the Boys and Girls Club or the Baby Fold. Maybe there’s an opportunity to do those kinds of things with that kind of an organization. When we lived in Carbondale and Larry was Vice President down there, I was on a couple of community boards and I was able to do some of those things within the community. My bachelor’s degree was in education and things involving educational opportunities are of interest to me, so I think that’s where I’ll be looking. My hope is after we make this transition, I’ll be able to find two or three places in the community where my gifts and abilities can match up with their needs and that will give me an opportunity to do some more community work.
HC ISU: So what do you think about your husband being president?
MD: I think he’s fabulous. This has been a dream of his and truly what he would call a dream—one that he thought would never truly happen. We both kind of pinch ourselves. Some people might say it’s like winning the lottery. He’s worked his whole career in leadership, for students and for education. So to me, to see him, he is smiling from the moment he gets out of bed to maybe even through his sleep. He loves it. He’s passionate, he loves to build strong teams, and even though he’s starting with some interims, you know they’re all fabulous interim people. He’s just excited about this final opportunity for however many years it is to say, “Yes, this is what I’ve finally worked for.”
HC ISU: How did you deal with all the controversy regarding your husband taking over the presidency, that situation and the circumstances he came in under?
MD: I feel very sad when any situation like this happens… when someone enters a position and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason. We do nothing but wish the Flanagan’s well and like I said, we’re people of faith and we don’t understand why things happen the way they happen sometimes. But we feel like for whatever reason, it was meant to be at this particular time. So I guess the way we’ve handled it is trying to be as positive as possible and wish them well. We hope that wherever they are next will be a perfect fit and that they will continue to have success. It opened a door for Larry here and I’m confident he will be successful. We don’t focus on that particularly—matter of fact, we want to be very careful that we don’t imply anything because no one knows everything that happened. I think it’s just simply a matter of it didn’t work out and something else will work out because that’s the way life is. I asked Larry if he felt badly being considered second choice, because some people will say that about you. He said that’s all about pride. Pride doesn’t get us very far when it’s used in that fashion. He said he wanted to serve this institution last year, he wanted to serve it the day he came here three years ago, he wants to serve it now. They offered him an opportunity and he gladly and humbly accepted it.
HC ISU: How has this new career impacted your life together?
MD: Well it’s just getting started but yes it is very busy. One of the things that we said is we have to remember at the end of the day, we’re just Larry and Marlene and we’re as happy as we ever were. We have to make time for each other on occasion. We’ve laughed about the way changes are happening, yet it all seems to be flowing together fairly smoothly. We’re very family oriented. In the midst of all this craziness, Larry flew out and met me in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we attended our grandson’s soccer tournament, and flew back Sunday night and hit the ground running. We work in the family time, we work in time for each other. It’s busy, but it’s happy busy. It really is.
HC ISU: Focusing a little more on you now, what was your so-called life plan and what did you want for yourself?
MD: It’s fun that you ask, because I feel like I’ve reached most of my dreams to be honest with you. And so now it’s really fun sharing his. I started out as a very young girl wanting to be a school teacher. My mother says I lined the dolls up along the porch and taught them. I got a Bachelor’s degree in education at what is now Missouri State—it was Southwest Missouri State College when I attended. I graduated and taught public school for a couple of years, moved around a bit, then stayed in teaching elementary for several years. Then I found that for whatever reason I was kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time. One year I was about to get a full time teaching position after I had moved and they closed down three elementary schools so everyone was scrambling for full time positions. Kind of ironically, I had the opportunity to get involved with health insurance. They were looking for people to educated people about health insurance benefits so they looked for teachers. I ended up getting into business through health insurance and spent 18 years in the health insurance field.
HC ISU: What exactly did you do in the health insurance field?
MD: I did everything from sales to customer service and then my last position was actually as the sales manager at a brokerage firm. And it was fabulous, but all the while I was doing the sales and customer service, I stayed involved in the training. The teaching aspect was like a magnet for me. So when the opportunity came to do sales training, or customer service training, or presentation skills training, all of those kinds of things, I was raising my hand saying “let me do it, let me do it!” I got certified in many programs over the years. I then had the opportunity to go full-time with a small company out of Denver in corporate development, or professional development, and I did it. As my mother would have said, bless her heart she’s in heaven, I’ve come full circle. You know I started out in education with children, and now I continue to be in education but it’s in business and it’s with adults. It’s simply a matter of helping people find the very best that’s within them, anything from communication skills, presentation skills, interviewing skills, tackling tough conversations… just kind of core skill programs that help us pull the very best that’s within us.
HC ISU: From what I understand Executive Coaching became a part of your career path as well.
MD: Executive coaching has been a fun piece… working with people that have been promoted in an organization and then suddenly say, “Here I am, how do I do this role?” I, over the course of basically 40 years, have had the opportunity to do all the things I would’ve possibly dreamed of. So now it’s like I’m getting the icing on the cake. I get to be Larry’s partner, I get to be a president’s wife, where I can try to use the same gifts and talents in this new role as First Lady, even though I don’t know quite what that is yet. Entertaining and making people feel welcome is what Larry and I do, and therefore doing it in the education world to make people want to be at ISU and enjoy their experience whether it be a student, a faculty member, a parent or a community member, we want everyone to feel like ISU is the place that is home for whatever that circumstance happens to be.
HC ISU: What are you most looking forward to as the First Lady and what opportunities will you have that you haven’t had before?
MD: I think what I’m looking forward to most is Larry and I as a team making a positive impact on the community and on the campus. We are very positive people and we want to have that kind of positive impact, and I don’t even know what that quite is yet. We’re three weeks in, so I’m just trying to figure out what that is. We’re very passionate about students. We’re very passionate about education. So that’s what we’re excited about, and we’re excited about doing it together. I guess that’s what I would say I’m most excited about… those future opportunities. We have a good learning curve and great support around us. We’re big sponges right now as to what we want to learn and accomplish.
HC ISU: What are some of your favorite things to do in Bloomington-Normal?
MD: It’s such a pretty community. Larry and I walk quite a bit so we like to get out and do those kinds of things. I’m a movie-goer. I grew up as a young girl going to the movies. We love the symphony and we’re just getting involved with that. The Shakespeare Festival is coming up and we’re looking forward to that. Outdoor kinds of things. We had our grandchildren in last summer for a week and I did the zoo and the Children’s Discovery Museum. To me, for the size of community that it is, it offers so many great things to do with your family and friends. It’s not too small and it’s not too large and that’s what I like about it.
HC ISU: Do people recognize you yet when you’re out and about?
MD: They do Larry. And one of the past president wives told me, “don’t get your feelings hurt, just understand that when you’re with Larry they’ll recognize you and when you’re not with Larry they probably wont.” He is the face that is in the news and that has been on campus. And that’s ok, that’s perfectly fine with me.
HC ISU: What advice would you give to women, specifically right around the collegiate age?
MD: Be positive and dream. Set your goals high. Get outside of the box of what we all think we can be. I wanted to be a school teacher, but I’ve had so many greater opportunities. Yes, the school teaching was good but other opportunities opened. To me it’s being open, being willing, being positive, and being a dreamer and reaching for the stars. Because unbelievably, dreams do come true.