1. Where are you originally from?
I’m from northeast, Ohio about 45 minutes from Kent State.
2. What was your childhood like?
I had an average suburban childhood. I dabbled in band and sports. I’m a product of the 80s. It was a pretty uneventful but decent middle class upbringing.
3. What was it like growing up in the 80s?
I didn’t succumb to many of the 80s fashions. I think I was a little bit of I rebel; I never really followed the fads.
4. How did you and President Mahony meet?
I was a student at University of Cincinnati and he was an intern in the ticket office. We started out as friends. His friends ditched him one night and we went out. The first night we just had one of those great conversations where you talk for hours. He’s six years older so I wasn’t looking in that direction but overtime a relationship developed. He’s still my best friend.
5. What were you feeling about leaving your old home and starting over with your children when you moved to Rock Hill?
It was really good, particularly for me and Dan. He felt like he had accomplished what he could as dean. WE were there for 7 years and I think he wanted to grow into something bigger. We got lucky with this because it ended up being perfect for everything that we wanted. This was an area of the country that we haven’t traveled to a lot so this was great. We love the area around here. Any time we have off we try to take a trip whenever we can explore the area. It’s the perfect college for Dan; he can engage with the students. Diversity is really important to him. The kids had it a little harder. They didn’t want to leave their friends but once they saw the campus and the house they were much more excited about it. They really love the campus; so it was really good overall.
6. What is your favorite thing about Winthrop?
I love the history and I do love living on campus. Our life is really full because of being on campus, we see familiar faces everyday so that’s been one of the joys of living on campus. I have never seen a school with such a rich history and that’s one of the things that I love about this school. You get to not only be aware of the history but sort of go back in time with the video (David Bancroft Johnson, Winthrop’s first president made a silent film in efforts to bring Winthrop to other people outside of the Rock Hill area).
7. What is your role at Winthrop?
My role is to help preserve some of the past and history, to help highlight some of the activities that are going on. Obviously fundraising is a big role for any president’s wife and that is a big initiative that Dan has set forth. I’m starting a women in philanthropy group to help try to get some women together. I’ve talked to a lot of graduates who say that they want to give back to the university and they don’t know how and so hopefully this women in philanthropy group will get women together for networking and bonding; then they can see that the passion of the university and hopefully that will develop into some nice gifts for the university as well as helping with some mentoring and mentor/protégée relationships. I’m also serving on a couple of boards. I was a licensed social worker and I worked with abused and neglected children and so when I moved down here and heard about The Children’s Attention Home, that was one of the things I initially asked if I could be a part of the board cause that’s a passion of mine. I have a wide variety of things that I do. Mom is a big role. Sometimes it is hard to juggle everything; our kids are at an age where they need their parents.
8. How have you and your family adjusted to Winthrop and the Rock Hill community over the past year?
The first year when you move is always an adjustment–even when we moved to Ohio from Louisville it was an adjustment. It really does take a whole year to move to a new place. But we hit the ground running, it went by fast. There’s a lot to do when you become a president; things are always shifting and your first year people are trying to get to know you. Someone gave us really good advice and said that it’s really year three when you feel like you’re hitting your stride because the first year everyone is getting to know you, the second year they’re seeing how you work and the third year it just clicks. I think we’re pretty good on that path. Although, we felt like we were at home right away. Everyone was so welcoming and everyone was excited to have a family in the president’s house so in terms of feeling welcomed and feeling like we fit in, we felt like that right away. My husband is very impatient with himself and he sometimes wants to accomplish more than maybe is humanly possible so I think he’s anxious to do even more so hopefully we’ll get there.
9. If you could choose one improvement to make on Winthrop’s campus, what would it be and why?
Probably something to do with the history. I do know that when people come and they see the house they get all tickled about the history and I think that’s one thing that a lot of people are really passionate about and so I think that to highlight some of the things and really bring that back it’s such a rare and amazing things that a lot of the colleges don’t have; I would like to see something highlighted that has happened here. If there’s a way that we can let more people know what happened here; I think that would be a big draw. You know we had the MSNBC thing last year and I don’t want people to forget that. That was so cool. You think about it, students come here and they’re thinking about all the things that have come here and that’s a draw to bring people here. So maybe something to bring that about I think is really important. It’s more of an improvement. (We talked about the history of Winthrop and what Winthrop was like in the 80s when my mom was here and the first lady mentioned David Bancroft Johnson, Winthrop’s first president.) I think that part of that is the legacy that DB left. I think he wanted to do something good and the spirit of that is still here and so regardless of going through hard times the fact that education and the funding for education is changing I think what he did and he did it with such passion and heart; I think that that spirit has just stayed and I think that’s what makes this place so special. People still get emotional when they talk about him and that’s the spirit of what he started and it’s just really really cool.
10. What it something that nobody knows about you?
I’m always so bad at this. I’m a Game of Thrones fan and so is Dan. We are a Game of Thrones family for sure.
11. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Really probably wherever my kids are. I would love to travel all over but the most important thing is wherever they are.
12. What advice do you have for Collegiette women?
When you’re young, do what’s hardest.