Running head: CONTINUAL AND FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

Continual and Fearless Leadership: Social Justice for Students

Ashley Trewartha
Loyola University Chicago

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Numerous leadership theories, and certainly the dominant narratives around leaders and
leadership, often ignore how environments and identities affect leadership processes. Focusing
on one student affairs professionals approach to and experiences with leadership can help
illustrate how environments and identities fit into leadership theories. Using insights from an
interview with Dean Lori Berquam, I will both deconstruct and reconstruct elements of authentic
leadership and the social change model. Additionally, I will offer my own understanding of
leadership as it pertains to student affairs, with a focus on navigating social identities and the role
of context and environmental factors. Finally, I will discuss how authentic leadership and the
social change model can be used to build resiliency and communal care into our work.
Dean Lori Berquam serves as the Vice Provost for Student Life and Dean of Students at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a position she has held for over 10 years. I selected Dean
Berquam because I admire the work she does. She helped a large university feel like a place I
could belong without even knowing me. Though some of this was due to shared identities, she
found ways to show students with a variety of target identities that she was there for them. She
does not just value social justice, she does social justice. I did not get to meet Dean Berquam
until my final year as an undergraduate student, but I felt like I knew her because she was visible
on campus, at events, at student protests, at athletic events, and on social media. She shaped my
understanding of what a Dean of Students should do and who a student affairs professional
should be.
I interviewed Dean Lori Berquam to gain an understanding of how she approaches
leadership, what affects her leadership, and what challenges she has faced. I wanted to
understand what allows her to do the work she does, how she navigates social identities that are
similar to mine, and what philosophies, values, and experiences guide her work. Her approach

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which included developing trust, understanding the influence of power, transparency,

collaboration, and empowering others (L.Berquam, personal communication, October 7, 2015)
aligned with themes from authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Northouse, 2015) and
the social change model (Cilente, 2009; Wagner, 2009). In her role, Dean Berquam strives to be
visible and transparent with students as she promotes social justice for all of her students (L.
Berquam, personal communication, October 7, 2015). She develops trust with those around her
and hires phenomenal staff and gets out of their way (L. Berquam, personal communication,
October 7, 2015), sharing power and ensuring her staff has agency in their roles. Her goal for
students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is that they develop self-awareness, that they
feel a sense of belonging to the university, and that they are empowered to be able to do things
they would not do or think they do not have the capacity to do (L. Berquam, personal
communication, October 7, 2015). Through her reflections, it is clear that she has developed
self-awareness of her own values and life experiences, she understands the power that she has in
her role and how she can use it to benefit students, and she knows that her social identities can
both advance and hinder her ability to make effective social change. Because her own approach
mirrors aspects of authentic leadership and the social change model, the focus of this paper will
be on analyzing these two theories.
To solely focus on Dean Berquams reflections on leadership through an interview would
be a disservice to not only the work that she does, but also to authentic leadership and the social
change model, two theories that emphasize actions, not just what a leader thinks or says. In my
time as an undergraduate student, Dean Berquam filmed a video of herself urging students not to
go to an annual unofficial block party because the theme that year was racist (Elbow, 2012); she
apologized on behalf of the university for the descriptions of crime alerts that generalized Black

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men (L. Berquam, personal communication, 2013); and she filmed a You Can Play video to
make it clear that LGBTQIA+ students were welcome in university athletics (Mulhern, 2014).
The University of Wisconsin-Madison community and environment allow Dean Berquam to act
on her values and passions because her personal values align with those of the university.
Authentic Leadership
Authentic leadership focuses on the authenticity of leaders and their leadership
(Northouse, 2015, p. 195). Harter, as cited in Avolio and Gardner (2005), describes authenticity
as:
Owning ones personal experiences, be they thoughts, emotions, needs, wants,
preferences, or beliefs, processes captured by the injunction to know oneself and
further implies that one acts in accord with the true self, expressing oneself in ways that
are consistent with inner thoughts and feelings. (p. 320)
Authentic leaders, then, build self-awareness and seek to demonstrate to others their values,
passions, and moral standards through action (Northouse, 2015). For example, Dean Berquam
values social justice and empowering students to connect their passion to their purpose (L.
Berquam, personal communication, October 7, 2015). She attends student organization events
and programs held by offices that support students with target identities to show that she values
student interests. She takes selfies with students, tweets, and attends dialogues where students
voice their concerns with campus climate to make herself approachable to students and to show
that she is listening. She intentionally makes time for students with target identities, noting that
though her office works with students who violate campus policies, the ones who violate policies
are often students with agent identities, not students of color, students with disabilities,
LGBTQIA+ students, or first generation students (L. Berquam, personal communication,

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October 7, 2015). Though she stated her leadership approach to me, she did not need to; her
approach is visible through her actions.
Again, Dean Berquam is able to lead from authenticity in part because of the
environment in which she is. Authentic leadership states that everyone can develop as an
authentic leader, but it does not account for environments, environmental pressures, or social
location. Levinson, as cited in Dugan (2016), describes how social location influences leaders
effectiveness:
Ones social position and social possibilities are strongly shaped, even determined, by the
sense of who we are in relation to others (identity), by what we know about ourselves and
the world (knowledge), and by what we are capable of doing with ourselves and others in
the world (power). (ch. 2, p. 7)
Dean Berquam may be able to more effectively advocate for students of color within Whitedominated systems because her White identity affords her privilege and credibility in White
spaces (identity); she understands that her White racial identity affords her social privilege and
listens to what students of color need (knowledge); and she is in a position of power and is
respected by people in the university (power). However, due to multiple identities, namely target
gender and sexual identities, her social position and social possibilities can change. In a similar
example, Dean Berquam created a video urging students not to engage in a harmful day drinking
at an annual block party that also had a racist theme. Students mocked the video, called her a
dyke and said that her video was too motherly and emotional (L. Berquam, personal
communication, October 7, 2015; Elbow, 2012). It resulted in horrible comments on the video
and a remix video mocking her. Even though Dean Berquam led with and acted in accordance

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with her values, students used her authenticity to make her argument less valid. Social location
fluctuates depending on context and external factors, sometimes unpredictably.
As this example illustrates, ones social location, and in this case, a leaders followers,
determine the effectiveness of a leader regardless of how authentic the leadership approach of the
leader is. Northouse (2015) notes that relational transparency occurs when individuals share
their core feelings, motives, and inclinations with others in an appropriate manner (p. 203).
What does an appropriate manner mean, and how might that differ depending on the leaders
identities, the identities of those the leader is attempting to lead, and the values that the leader is
trying to enact? What an appropriate manner is really implying is that leaders have to show
authenticity in ways that match the values of the organization and align with followers
perceptions of who leaders are. There are real risks to disrupting dominant narratives in
leadership and advocating for social justice, risks that authenticity cannot protect.
Not only can authenticity be ineffective and risky, it may, at times, be impossible. A
leaders ability to communicate, act, and lead authentically is influenced by external and
environmental factors, such as how social identities are represented and perceived. Some
components of authentic leadership, namely internalized moral perspective, balanced processing,
and relational transparency, are emphasized as self-regulatory, giving individuals control over
how much they are influenced by and how much they engage with their environment (Northouse,
2015). Though self-regulation is an important component of the theory in that it gives choice
and agency to leaders, the theory does not acknowledge what external factors can limit choice
and agency. For example, the interaction between social identities and the environment affects
agency. Dean Berquam (personal communication, October 7, 2015) noted that before the
appointment of the new chancellor, who is a woman, very few people in the Chancellors

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Cabinet were women. In a group dominated by heterosexual, White men with significant money
and power, Dean Berquams ability to advocate for students when decisions are being made is
limited due to differences in her gender, sexuality, and social class values from those of the rest
of the group. Self-regulation places the responsibility and choice on the individual, but does not
attribute any responsibility to the contextual factors that regulate authenticity.
The varying levels of choice and agency that different individuals are granted
underscores the importance of collaboration, which is much more emphasized in the social
change model than in authentic leadership. Authenticity requires environments in which we can
minimize the negative risks of acting on our values and people who shape environments to
support authenticity. The interpersonal and developmental perspectives of authentic leadership
position leaders to work together to create spaces that increase agency to engage in authentic
leadership and build collective resiliency to address the risks of being authentic. For example,
one of Dean Berquams colleagues, the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate is a Black man.
When a Black teenager was killed by a police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, Dean Berquam
used her agency and privilege as a White woman to speak out on the pattern of violence against
Black men and advocate for change at a predominantly White institution. She did so because she
anticipated that Simss actions on the same issue might not be received as valid or unbiased
because of his identity (L. Berquam, personal communication, October 7, 2015). Developing
self-awareness of ones multiple social identities and the identities of those around them can help
individuals navigate what they can and cannot effectively advocate for so that they can step in
when peers cannot. By doing this, groups can work together to address issues rather than trying
to create change and lead as individuals alone.

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Finally, the main criticism that Dean Berquam offered about authentic leadership is that
the theory is not automatically socially just (L. Berquam, personal communication, October 7,
2015) and can, in fact, result in negative consequences if ones values and moral standards are
unethical, do not align with social justice, and do not redistribute power. This potential for
negative consequences is made worse when authentic leaders do not compromise their values
and utilize difficult situations to strengthen their values (Northouse, 2015, p. 199). When a
leader who has socially unjust or unethical values is unwilling to compromise those values, the
leader could cause more harm than good to their followers and their community. In her own
practice, Dean Berquam reconstructs authentic leadership to incorporate social justice values and
components of the social change model to ensure that her leadership stays focused on her
mission: social justice and sense of belonging for all students (L. Berquam, personal
communication, October 7, 2015). In fact, the reconstruction of authentic leadership to include
social justice as a value, collaboration that builds environments that support authenticity and
provide resiliency, and sharing power begins to look more like the social change model.
Social Change Model
Even with the reconstruction of authentic leadership, what makes the social change
model different is its focus on collaborative leadership in which each member of the group has
the ability (and even responsibility) to participate in the groups success (Cilente, 2005, p. 47).
The model itself requires individuals and groups to let go of traditional notions of leaders as
people who act upon followers and instead calls each person in the group to action (Cilente,
2005, p. 47). In addition to collaborative leadership, the model also frames leadership as a
process that is committed to values, social responsibility and inclusion of the groups members
(Cilente, 2005). For example, in Dean Berquams office, she seeks to hire individuals who are

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good at what they do, makes sure that they have the tools they need to do their work, and
ultimately grants them trust and agency (L. Berquam, personal communication, October 7,
2015). When asked about how she works toward social justice as a leader, Dean Berquam
(personal communication, October 7, 2015) noted that the continuous process is not just one that
she can engage in alone; rather it is a process that she engages in with her colleagues, with
students, and with the community. Her approach to working with the community for social
justice in a way that develops trust and agency for all group members reflects the values within
the social change model.
The collaborative process that the social change model values implies that power is
shared, distributed, and can fluctuate. But for a model that operates against power structures to
be effective, groups must have some form of power. In Astins (1996) example, an educator
with power needed to give permission, power, and agency to students to be able to create a group
for social change (1996). Because the dominant narrative of leadership is one that mirrors where
power is given, the group needed to be given power and permission to engage in a leadership
process that shares power. More simply, someone with power created an environment to give
others power. An example of a Black Lives Matter silent protest that occurred on the University
of Wisconsin-Madison campus illustrates this process of giving power. Dean Berquam stood
with a group of students who organized the silent protest. In a reflection piece she wrote for the
local newspaper, Dean Berquam shared her experience standing with them, even as people
leaving the basketball game started yelling negative and racist comments at the group (Berquam,
2014). As much as I wanted to confront those saying these hateful things, I also wanted to
honor the students event that I had joined (Berquam, 2014, para. 15). Though Dean Berquam
arguably has more power than the students at the protest, she gave students the power to

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determine what method they would use. Had Dean Berquam not supported their values and
actions, the collective leadership of the group would not have been enough to be effective.
Additionally, the reliance on the leader versus follower dichotomy, which assumes that
leaders have some degree of influence over followers, grants power to leaders. Who is granted
power, who grants power, and the distribution of power is often socially unjust and rooted in
dominant narratives of the hierarchy our society has created and maintained. If a goal of social
justice is to redistribute power, balance power, and minimize power that results in harm and
social injustice, leadership for social justice, then, must operate within the systems that create
and uphold power and privilege to change those same systems that often grant leader power to
certain individuals over others. Thus, leadership for social justice must intentionally manage
power, who gets it, and how it is used. Dean Berquam gives power to her colleagues and gives
power to students. Since power automatically exists within leadership, and certainly in higher
education, leaders working toward social justice must intentionally give power to others or they
will not disrupt the leader versus follower dichotomy. In addition to giving power, those who
have it can use their own power to advocate for giving power to and increasing agency for those
who may not otherwise be afforded it. This requires collaboration to leverage the different ways
in which we have power and agency.
Reconstructing the theory to incorporate these issues of power would include
consideration of external factors and the environment within which a collaborative group
operates. Similarly, reconstruction would account for the risk involved for group members
within the larger environment. For example, within a higher education institution, students who
work together with the overall purpose of addressing campus climate toward students of color
must factor in the risk of getting expelled from the university, the risk of being chastised by

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peers, or violence towards them. Staff and faculty of color seeking the same goal must factor in
their job security, how they would be viewed by their departments and students, and the risk of
being chastised by colleagues. In the silent protest example, Dean Berquams actions showed
support of students as they worked collaboratively. As a university representative, she was able
to minimize the risks to students. This gives greater responsibility to those working outside of
the group. For student affairs educators, we have a greater responsibility to help create
environments where the agency of students is not limited and risks are minimized.
Understanding Leadership
Dean Berquams approach to leadership helped illuminate the limitations of authentic
leadership and the social change model, particularly as they relate to building social justice into
higher education. When speaking with her about authentic leadership and the social change
model, it was easy to forget that leadership is not only used for social justice because social
justice is central to Dean Berquams approach. Reconstructing leadership theories is the
process of making incremental gains, adapting, and adopting new ways of understanding and
applying theory that move in a direction characterized by social justice (Dugan, 2016, ch. 2, p.
10). If leadership theories were created under ideological and hegemonic assumptions that are
often socially unjust, using leadership for social justice becomes incredibly complex and difficult
to do in the midst of so many dominant narratives about leaders and leadership. Her insights
reminded me that effective leadership is contextual, both because of social identities and factors
within the environment. One component of the environment is how power operates within a
context and what effects power has on leaders and leadership. This endless and exhausting
process requires resilience and a supportive community, the importance of which I
underestimated when attempting to do social justice work in higher education.

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Many leadership theories are focused on leaders themselves and leave little room for
understanding the context in which leaders operate. It was evident from Dean Berquams
reflections that leadership and environmental contexts are dynamic and constantly influencing
each other. Depending on the environment, leaders may have a lot of agency in their approach
and may be able to provide agency to those they are leading who may not have much agency.
Dean Berquam works in an environment that gives her agency, which has allowed her to
approach leadership using authentic leadership and the social change model with less pushback
than professionals at other institutions, in other departments, or in different positions. Contextual
factors can give us freedom or can limit us and that can vary across situation and over time. This
is one of the reasons that leadership cannot be solely focused on the leader alone and why
leadership must be thought of as a process that changes frequently. Understanding the role that
context plays in leadership can help us conceptualize leadership beyond dichotomies of good and
bad leadership that are often focused on specific characteristics of a leader without consideration
of how leadership is enacted based on context.
One way to understand how context affects leadership is by considering social identities.
Although many leadership theories and frameworks fail to address how identities operate within
different contexts, the two cannot be separated. The approaches that individual leaders use may
be heavily influenced by their identities and life experiences. In fact, authentic leadership rests
heavily on the insights people attach to their life experiences (Northouse, 2015, p. 205).
Leadership requires navigating our social world and how we do so is shaped by life experiences
and our social location. Dean Berquam (personal communication, October 7, 2015) shared how
experiences throughout her life have made her more humble and have made her more sensitive to
what people around her need, both of which frame her leadership approach. In reflecting how I

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approach leadership, the environment I try to create and the relationships I seek to build are ones
that I have needed to be successful, feel empowered, and have agency. Our social identities also
affect how we show up as leaders. Dean Berquam (personal communication, October 7, 2015)
shared that her sexuality shows up much differently with students than it does with alumni and
donors. Greater consideration of how identities, social location and context, and leadership are
intertwined puts into perspective how complex leadership is. For me, this consideration reminds
me to give myself and others grace and to work with colleagues, peers, and students to create an
environment that allows for collaborative and communal support, healing, and resilience.
The most equally hopeful and frustrating insight that I gained from my interview with
Dean Berquam was how much resilience it takes to be a leader and navigate leadership when our
own identities and approaches do not align with dominant narratives and ideological
assumptions. When Dean Berquam made a video in an effort to support students of color and
telling students not to attend a racist party, the comments targeting her sexuality and gender were
so horrible that the video had to be removed. Rather than stop making videos, Dean Berquam
started making more (L. Berquam, personal communication, October 7, 2015). Even when she
has the power of agent identities to advocate for underrepresented students on campus, her target
identities are still on the line. The same collaborative communities can be sources of resilience.
Authentic leadership and the social change model are frameworks of leadership processes used
for a goal, but that goal can be building resilience and healing within communities. I cannot
count how many times someone asks me how I am doing and I reply with an Im good
automatically. If relational transparency in those small interactions is used, both by genuinely
asking how a colleague is doing and by giving a genuine response, the colleagues engaging in
that interaction are opening up a space for supporting each other. This could also change the

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way we think about self-care. The word self-care in itself puts the responsibility on
individuals to care for themselves. If collaboration for the common purpose of well-being is
used, we can create more supportive and resilient communities that care for each other. In
shifting our focus from individuals to communities, we can create more socially just leadership
approaches and build the support and resiliency that people need to be able to do sustainable
social justice work.
Through my interview with Dean Berquam on her approach to leadership and social
justice, I was able to understand how she infuses context, identities, and power dynamics into
authentic leadership and the social change model. Though both of these approaches are not
perfect, they both have enough room for infusing leaders social location, values, identities, and
experiences into them. While these approaches may not work in all contexts and for all goals, I
do believe the field of higher education and student affairs could greatly benefit by using the
components of them when approaching communal and collaborative care, support, healing, and
resilience.

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References
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