Southeast first lady Jeanine Larson Dobbins leads as a lifelong learner

Jeanine Larson Dobbins came to Southeast Missouri State University with her husband, university president Kenneth Dobbins, in 1991. After coming to Southeast, she founded and developed the Missouri Statewide Early Literacy Intervention Program, which has helped more than 275,000 children across the state of Missouri learn to read. She has worked with her husband to leave a lasting effect on the university, and she has left her mark with her passion for education.

How did you come to this point at Southeast?

Really by beginning at a young age, by giving the world the best that I could. As a young child, I can remember literally back to kindergarten, and it wasn't an academic kindergarten, and then I remember first grade, and then I really remember my second-grade teacher. And I remember really wanting to be a good student, and so I tried to give the world the best that I could, and by listening to what I think is my still-small voice that I think I heard at a very early age. I don't know that I knew to call it that, but it was in there.

Sometimes with the encouragement of my parents at a young age, and then as I grew, and in college and after I graduated from college and Ken and I married, I continued doing things that were quite outside of my comfort zone. So that's how I got to this point at Southeast, by giving all that I could after listening to where was it that I was to be doing and what was it that I was to be doing in the world.

What inspired you to found the Missouri Statewide Early Literacy Intervention Program?

You know, it's very interesting, because we moved to Cape Girardeau, and I knew that there was a site for Reading Recovery in Cape Girardeau at Southeast Missouri State University. I knew that there was a site at Ferguson/Florissant, and maybe a year later, I heard there was going to be a site in the Columbia public schools. But the two of us, Southeast Missouri State and Ferg/Flor, had begun sites. I could remember getting here and thinking, "I know a map when I see one," and I thought, "Well, it's wonderful to be able to think about working in this program in this area, in this region of the state," and I was so appreciative of that at the time.

Provost Les Cochran was on board and he was one who was so supportive, and he told me the reason he was supportive of the program, and I did not know him until Ken and I moved here, and he had been supportive of the program a year or two before it actually began. He said, "You know, I had the hardest time learning how to read." Learning how to read, if one has difficulty with it, it does not mean that their IQ is low. Some very brilliant people have had a very difficult time learning how to read, including Les Cochran, Nelson Rockefeller -- it spans the socioeconomic range. It also spans the IQ range.

So I started thinking, "We're in the eastern part, right?" We're kind of on the river, and think of all the rest of Missouri, which I did not know a lot about because we had just moved from Ohio, and I thought I could almost visually see all these other children who were in need of services that we were going to be providing in this region. And I just thought, "You know, I've got to get established here," but that was one of these visions that I had. ... I just saw this need, and so that's what inspired me, and I was really interested in doing that. Now it took some time before I could put my efforts toward that, but I just saw it as a passion of mine.

Who has been your biggest influence as a leader in your life?

There have been so many big influences. The first, and I literally go like this (lifts arms upward), is our loving Creator who wants us to love our Creator and thank our Creator for all our blessings and to try to look at our problems as blessings, which is really tough, and if we thank our Creator for meager blessings that we start out with, or might be in tough times, if we can say thank you for the smallest thing.

... Now in terms of people, my late father and my late mother were huge influences on me as a leader because I was very sensitive and very shy as a child, and I can remember my dad was also a very masculine man, but he was also sensitive, but oh, don't mess with Dad. If you know, people were thinking he has compassion, he had a gentle heart, but if you ever tried to take advantage of him, oh, don't mess with Dad. ... And he sat me down one time and said, "You know, sweetheart, you have my soul. You are sensitive, and one of my jobs as your daddy is to teach you how to be a strong girl, too."

And so he and my mom, especially my dad, because we were almost like soulmates, and so he taught me important lessons about, "And if the boys ever try to say they're better than you because they're boys, you just show them. You don't have to tell them, you just show them that you can do what they do. You don't have to put them down, but you make sure they know. You can do many of the things they do."

Also, Ken has been a tremendous influence on my life, and I think he would agree that I have been a really fine influence on his life. We often talk about being soulmates, and I think we complement one another very well in terms of when we're together, and I think we complement one another when he's in the role of president and when I'm in the role of first lady, which is a tricky title for me, because I don't know what else I would be called, you know, but the president's wife. He has been a magnificent influence. Our styles are different, but I respect him so much.

Now, academically, Dr. Marie Clay, now the late Dr. Marie Clay. And Dr. Gay Su Pinnell is one of the most outstanding professors at Ohio State. So Dr. Clay and Dr. Pinnell, academically, have been huge influences on me as leaders.

What makes an effective leader?

What I think is really important is, first of all, a good leader has got to have an outstanding moral and ethical compass. ... Secondly, I think a good leader needs to be a good listener and needs to have a vision or a passion that can be shared with others. A good leader, I think, can be an opinion swayer in a tough circumstance of trying to persuade people who might want to have self-serving interests instead of the interest of the common good.

A person to me who represents really fine leadership is Colin Powell. ... Sometimes an outstanding leader, while frequently they need to be good listeners, and get the tone of what they're hearing, and sometimes they need to reflect what they're hearing back, and then agree with parts they're hearing and sometimes say, "Have you ever thought about adding to what you presented, adding this perspective? Does anyone have comments about that perspective?" So that perhaps the opinion can be broadened for the greater good, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

How do you hope to continue as a leader in the future?

I do hope to continue as a leader. I must say to you that I'd like to take a year off and spend time with my beloved husband. Now I smile at him and say, "You know, this is your first retirement." He has a job lined up, and so he will be working still, but I so look forward to him having some time where it's not a 24/7 job. So my role is I would like to rest a bit, and I would like to learn some of the Swedish language. I look forward to spending time as I said, my first priority is to have more time to spend with Ken where we can wear jeans.

When I retired in 2010, when my father, I could tell, was going downhill, and he and my mother moved to Cape Girardeau, I can remember when I retired, I knew it was the best decision and I can remember thinking, "Oh, I'd like to go as many places as I can in blue jeans." ... We also hope to come back to Cape Girardeau to attend some events, but we do not want to get in the way of President Vargas and first lady Pam Vargas, because there's no worse thing than a previous president horning in on the new president. ... I also want to spend time with our grandchildren. They're at critical stages, and of course I think they will be until they're 20.

Why is strong leadership necessary on a college or university campus?

I can think of so many reasons. One of them is because there often are dwindling resources, at least at state colleges and universities, and so those resources need to be used so wisely. ... Also, strong leadership is necessary on a college or university campus because it is essentially a community unto itself, thus the 24/7 kind of role for the leadership if there happens to be a fire or a power outage. Goodness, we've experienced both, I guess, at Southeast. I think that running a tight ship gives both students and parents of students the feeling that their student is going to be just fine.

... What I think is fascinating, and here I'm getting personal, but what I think is fascinating about watching my husband in the presidency is that he is very trusting of the process of a transparency-type process with the budget review committee, with now I know there is an academic visioning committee. ... In fact, one thing that I find with Ken, and I don't want to just use him as an example, but he's the president that I live with, and am happy to, and we've had a wonderful marriage of 43 going on 44 years, and it just amazes me that he is so patient at times, because I'll say, "Oh, Ken, how can you be so patient?" And I think that is how he has been president for 16 years here, is that he knows that what is right will occur and that there has to be buy in.