Change Agent: Ed.D. Marshal Marc Johnson

Though Marc Johnson, Ed.M.’99, returned to HGSE in 2009 as a doctoral candidate eager to focus on college presidencies and historically black colleges and universities, it was through his coursework that his interests expanded.

During a class focused on how to ask interesting questions with Associate Professor Jal Mehta, Johnson found all his interests and ideas align. He had long been interested in the study of senior leadership, and he realized that institutional decision-making at the Board of Trustees level in higher education most intrigued him.

“There is not a lot of empirical research on higher education leadership,” Johnson says. “Yet, this is an opportune time to study decision-making at colleges and universities because of how much is happening in higher education. A lot of colleges and universities are struggling with how they are going to survive in this changing higher education landscape.”

Johnson’s dissertation explored how trustees perceive their roles as change managers. “On My Watch: The Role and Responsibilities of American College Trustees,” examines the major decision-making of 25 Board of Trustee chairs at private colleges with distinct missions. The colleges were categorized as being liberal arts-based, historically black, single-sex, or Catholic. Johnson says that many colleges with missions such as these are finding themselves at crossroads, faced with major questions about their identities. The qualitative study, which Johnson conducted in person and via phone, asked 12 to 15 questions about mission, identities, trusteeship, and recollection of prior major decisions and their results. He found that trustees are extremely engaged with decision-making and change on major issues at colleges. In fact, trustees view themselves as their institutions’ managers of significant change on mission and identity.

“In terms of making changes to identity, some talked about changing in order to remain relevant and others talked about changing to stay alive,” he says. “Many used language in an interesting way, using words such as ‘expanding’ or ‘broadening’ to justify change. What they aimed to convey was that at the core nothing has really changed and their colleges are still connected to fundamental ideas upon which the institutions are founded.”

Upon finishing HGSE this spring, Johnson hopes to find a position working as part of a senior leadership team at a college or university. However, before then, he has one more task — acting as class marshal on Commencement Day for his cohort, a position he’s surprised, humbled, and grateful to have.

Although Johnson admits he’s ready to move on from HGSE, he knows that his work is not finished yet. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he says, recalling that as an undergrad at Morehouse College, there was a saying that you were not considered a “Morehouse Man” until you had done something of note and made an impact on the lives of others.

“In my mind, I’m not a Morehouse Man yet and the same applies as I leave HGSE. It won’t be OK for me to go ahead and have a ‘whatever’ life,” he says. “The goal is to have an impact in education. It’s not that I need to rewrite higher education, but simply having the degree is not the end. It’s about going out and influencing the lives of others in education. HGSE prepared me to do that, and that’s what I aim to do.”