A thriving career in leadership: From GED to EdD
A thriving career in leadership: From GED to EdD
Without the affirmation of a University of Northern Iowa professor, Joyce Levingston may not have realized how smart she was as a 20-something undergraduate student studying family services whose previous experiences led her to leave school after junior high.
That supportive push gave her the courage not only to excel in her bachelor’s program, but also to go on to pursue a master’s in leisure, youth and human services and, most recently, a Doctor of Education, all from UNI.
“I felt like I had imposter syndrome the whole time,” Levingston said of her first UNI degree. “I was afraid they would find out I didn’t even go to high school.”
After becoming a teen parent, Levingston left high school and went on to earn her GED. Between having three children by the age of 20 and experiencing poverty and food insecurity early on in life, the odds were stacked against her. When she went back to school, she juggled caretaking for a grandparent with parenting four young children. But she never let any of these challenges define her.
Now, at age 40, this first-generation college student who transferred from Hawkeye Community College can proudly say her hard work led to a doctorate this year and a thriving career in leadership as the executive director of the Mankato (Minnesota) YWCA.
“Dr. (Pat) Gross in family services told me I was smart,” said Levingston. “She said, ‘I don’t want to see you get another C in my class.’ That was a life-changer for me. I never got another C ever again from my bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate. She was right, and I’m glad she saw that.”
The impact of UNI faculty and staff members didn’t stop with Gross. It extends to Dean Colleen Mulholland and Julianne Gassman who chaired her doctoral dissertation.
“There are amazing women on campus who will help pull you through,” said Levingston. “I went through real life as I was going through college. I was a nontraditional student and have four kids. Over the course of 10 years, Dr. Julianne Gassman — she was my advisor— stood beside me as I lost each one of my parents that raised me: my grandparents, stepdad and mother, most recently within the last year.”
As a Cedar Valley native, the choice to come to UNI was always about how accessible it was to her. Her desire to pursue a bachelor’s was primarily to increase her earning potential and support her family.
“I’ve always done what I feel like God has called me to do,” she said. “That’s where my strength has come from. After growing up and watching my grandmother raise another generation of children after raising her own and after all the doubt and stereotypes that came from being Black in the Cedar Valley, I had to prove everybody wrong.”
While the decision to attend UNI may have originally been born of convenience, many years and three degrees later, Levingston feels pride saying she’s a Panther.
“I found my voice at UNI,” she said. “I transformed into who I am today: granddaughter, daughter and mother at UNI. I had some of the worst times in my life and the best times in my life at UNI. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”
It was while she was earning her bachelor’s degree that the seed was planted to continue pursuing higher education.
“I never knew it was possible that a Black woman could have a master's degree or a doctorate degree until I went and got my bachelor's,” she said. “I was at the African American Read-In by the late Dr. Gloria Kirkland-Holmes, and they had 20-something or 30-something Black women with PhDs. It was there that I said I was going to be a doctor, too. I was going to get my PhD.”
While an outsider might look at Joyce’s past and be baffled by all she’s achieved, Levingston thinks differently of her success.
“My younger self would not think anything of my success because I always thought I could and I would.”
With all she’s accomplished by the age of 40, Levingston hopes to be a positive influence and example for others.
“My goal is to be one of the greats,” she said. “I want to be Toni Morrison. I want to be Kimberlé Crenshaw. I want to be bell hooks. I want to be Maya Angelou, and I will be, even if it's after death. So you want to talk about beating the odds? Look it up in the dictionary. You'll see Joyce.”
