Dr. Suzanne Rivera is the President of Macalester College. She also is a Professor of Public Affairs, and her scholarship focuses on research ethics and science policy. Rivera has written numerous journal articles and book chapters, and she co-edited the book Specimen Science. Her research has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, the DHHS Office of Research Integrity, and the Cleveland Foundation. She is engaged in numerous civic and municipal leadership roles, including Chair of the Board of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), Appointed Member of the Executive Council for Minnesota’s Young Women’s Initiative, Board Member of the Science Museum of Minnesota, Board Member of College Possible, and Member of the TeenSHARP National Advisory Board. Rivera received a BA in American Civilization from Brown University, an MSW from UC-Berkeley, and a PhD in public policy from UT Dallas.Head Start ProgramsBrown University Undocumented, First-Generation College, and Low-Income Student Center TranscriptSUMMARY KEYWORDSstudents, people, brown, feeling, college, Headstart, Minnesota, Posse, support, low income students, financial aid, St. Paul, sponsored, day, job, brown university, group, Marian Wright Edelman, graduate, phdSPEAKERSResa Lewiss, Sue RiveraResa Lewiss  00:36Hi, listeners. Thanks so much for joining me with today's episode and I'm gonna start with a quote. You can't be what you can't see. One more time, you can't be what you can't see. Now this was said by Marian Wright Edelman. She was the founder of the Children's Defense Fund and was one of the original founders of the Headstart program. She graduated Spelman College and Yale School of Law. Now Marian Wright Edelman is not my guest in today's conversation, however, she was an inspiration for my guest. Today I'm in conversation with Suzanne M. Rivera, PhD MSW. Sue. Dr. Suzanne Rivera is the president of Macalester College in Minneapolis. She's also a Professor of Public Affairs. Her scholarship focuses on research ethics and science policy. She received her BA in American civilization from Brown University, a master's in social work from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in public policy from UT Dallas. Now Sue and I have a few areas of overlap. Number one, we graduated college one year apart. Number two is the Headstart program. Growing up in my small town, Westerly, Rhode Island, I was exposed to the Headstart program through my mother. My mother is an elementary school educator, and she did preschool testing for children. And my knowledge at the time was she helped with evaluating children for learning disabilities, for challenges with speech, sound, and sight. Let's get to the conversation where when we get started, Sue is explaining her ideas about mentorship, and who her mentors were, or at least a few of them. Sue Rivera  02:47I mean, one thing I tell young people all the time is, don't hold your breath waiting for a mentor who shares all of your attributes who can inspire you because especially if you're from a historically excluded or underserved group, the likelihood that there's going to be some inspirational leader who shares all your attributes is pretty small. So the mentors and sponsors who've made the biggest impact in my life have all been men. They've all been white men, they've all been white men who were significantly older than me and much more accomplished, and who came from backgrounds that were, you know, that had a lot more privileged than my own. And yet, we were able to connect on a deep level and they really opened doors for me. So a couple exams for Harry Spector at UC Berkeley was a great mentor is no longer with us. Another great mentor, for me was a guy named Al Gilman, a Nobel Laureate, who, who I worked for at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, opened a lot of doors for me, encouraged me to go back and get my PhD when I was a 35 year old mother of two school aged kids. And once I got it, promoted me and then what, and th