The Brief – May 2022
MAY 2022 CONTENT From Success to Significance A Festival Recap The Forum featuring Sonya Pfeiffer 5 Questions with Betsy A. Fleming, PhD A Word A year ago, in our March 2021 Brief, we mourned the loss of victims of a mass shooting in Atlanta. We send out this Brief mourning the loss of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde. In the time between these events, tens of thousands of Americans have died from gun violence. We cannot flourish if we cannot live.
From Success to Significance For the first time ever, this past April, The Charlotte Center hosted a Festival of Ideas. The Festival was part of Charlotte SHOUT! – a three week festival of art, food, music, and ideas. Our Festival of Ideas featured conversation, poetry, drumming, reflection and questioning designed to provoke, illuminate, and inspire.
Ideas and expression spur bigger ideas and expression, which ultimately alter mindsets, dreams, behaviors, possibilities, lives and communities. That is the driving concept behind the Festival of Ideas and The Charlotte Center’s mission to help people and communities flourish. Cultivating gifts, navigating life’s challenges, pursuing dreams, and becoming better humans are areas where each of us could benefit from guidance and inspiration. To that end, our inaugural Festival featured a range of thinkers, innovators and audience members, all sharing wisdom and exploring topics—from justice and learning to healing and citizenship.
Kicking off the Festival, guest speaker Eric Liu, a “civic evangelist,” posed a formidable challenge to the audience. First, he commended the strong turnout, broad diversity, and lively engagement. Eric then argued those successes were insufficient and urged participants to make something more of the moment’s magic. By activating ideas, connections, and shared concerns, we could, as Eric emphasized, make the experience and our city significant.
No more resting on laurels or playing it safe, what are you doing to push beyond success to significance?
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible."
British army officer, diplomat and writer
Join us for our June Forum featuring Sonya Pfeiffer! "Confessions of a Civil Rights Attorney: Everything I Needed to Know About Life I Learned from Buying an Art Gallery"
Together we'll explore the power of story and how narrative artwork informs ideas of justice. Sonya will share her professional journey from investigative reporter and documentarian to civil rights and criminal defense attorney to owner and creative director of a contemporary art gallery. 
5 Questions • Betsy A. Fleming, PhD An interview with the former museum professional and college president turned executive coach and investor in women
BY VALAIDA FULLWOOD
Betsy Fleming is an executive coach and early-stage investor focused on developing and equipping women as leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals. She currently serves as founder and principal coach of Cressence, LLC and moderator for the Aspen Institute. She has experience in various leadership roles including president of Converse College in Spartanburg, SC and executive director of the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC. Betsy serves on the Board of Directors of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and CTE, one of North Carolina’s largest privately held companies, as well as the boards of the Aspen Institute, Davidson College, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Spoleto Festival USA. A resident of Charlotte, NC, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a M.A. from the Royal College of Art in London, and a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University.
What did you dream of while growing up? Wow, what did I not dream of! I was close to my father who was a cardiologist, and he did rounds. I was an early riser and would make morning rounds with my father. So, one of my aspirations as a child was to be a doctor.
Another aspiration was to be a dancer. I saw the Martha Graham Dance Company at age five at a special outing with my mom and was absolutely mesmerized by the bodies, the movement, the expression. That experience jumpstarted my passion for the arts, creative expression and its power to move and create unexpected and unimagined experiences.
Interestingly, I also was a rather shy child, one that few people who know me today would recognize. Though, even as a child and a young person, one thing people noticed were my leadership skills. Learning to trust my gut and be a quiet leader, I aspired to me someone who could make a difference in others’ lives.
Please share more about your work in education and with business and community leaders today. I’m trained as an art and design historian. I have my doctorate in Art History, which is an unusual discipline for one who ultimately moved into the roles of college president as well as executive and leadership coach.
My love of art and design history stems from what people’s things—expressions, architecture, design, clothing—tell us about who they are, whether today or 200-plus years ago, and how that plays out in the creation of a community. I am interested in what the arts and material culture tell us about people. I’m mostly interested in who people are, what motivates them, and what gives them joy and a sense of empowerment.
While my education initially took me into the realm of teaching and art museums, I eventually became the leader of Converse University. Located in Spartanburg, Converse was founded in 1889, becoming the 15th women’s college in the United States. The decision to go there was motivated by having come back to South Carolina, where I grew up, and being surprised by the low status of women and girls. It is the state that produced me, and I wanted to see what I might do to change expectations for women and girls. Converse provided a platform for that. It also had a traditionally strong arts program, which re-connected me to the field of art and design history.
My passion for women and girls drove me to Converse, which I loved. That job ultimately put me in the place I am today as an executive and leadership coach, primarily for women, and as an investor of women-owned and women-empowering companies. I moved from the arts to focusing on helping women gain access to education, since it’s a tool for being the best they can be. When you educate a woman, you educate a family and that can transform a community.
I learned that women, students primarily from the Southeast, have so much passion and commitment to find their calling. They want to make a difference in their world—whether their community, their school or their business. I also found that the obstacle of societal and familial expectations often holds them back, preventing them from stepping into their big voice and big dreams. Introducing them to other role models and other ways of thinking helped blow them out of those norms and expectations that made them less confident and less convicted about their gifts.
What’s your happy place and why? I have many happy places. I love being outdoors. I love the spring with all the variations of green. If I’m feeling off kilter, I take a walk and the movement, color and fresh air can return me to myself. In that regard, my husband and I spend a lot of time in Colorado, and the Colorado Rocky Mountains are breathtaking. That’s a happy place. Skiing. Hiking. Wandering. That sense of spaciousness and openness adds an extra skip to my step.
After hearing you on a panel about women, philanthropy and racial equity, I’m curious about what shapes your perspective on both gender and racial equity and how that guides your civic life.
There are two things. One, while I’ve had incredible academic achievement, it was hard for me to learn to read. I was a slow reader. My younger sister could read before I could. It was painful to be behind where I thought I should be. Through hard work and support from some teachers and my parents, I not only caught up, I excelled. That experience gave me an understanding and a passion for what I’d call the underdog. That is, people without access to resources and education, who with the right support can then thrive and excel.
From a deeply personal and formative experience has grown an interest in expanding access for people who might be underrepresented or marginalized, in terms of voice, seats around a table, access to education or access to capital.
Another related passion—one of my biggest motivations in life—is to celebrate and inspire human creativity, expression and accomplishment. By fostering that in every individual you can truly build a just and equitable society. I want to help people who may not have ready access or who may not have been developed and cultivated to be and do all they can be. Our world is a better place when everyone feels their voice and their contributions are as valued and as important as anyone in this world.
That’s what I have worked to do not only in my role as a president but also as a coach and as an impact investor. I have resources to share so people can be exposed to opportunities they might not have dreamed of. I benefited from people who saw things in me before I saw them in myself and that empowered me to lean into that version of myself. Now I get to do that as a coach. Learn more about Betsy’s work!
Welcome to Being Human! ABOUT THE CHARLOTTE CENTER
Our mission is to help people and communities flourish. The Charlotte Center accomplishes its mission by bringing people together to explore human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination. We seek to deepen
The more we know about ourselves and each other, the wiser we are in what we do. gratitude to our sponsors 
Thank you to all of our generous donors and sponsors that make our work possible. A WORD 
A life isn't significant except for its impact on other lives.
JACKIE ROBINSON Baseball legend and barrier breaker 
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Our Contact Information The Charlotte Center for the Humanities, Inc. 620 N. Alexander Street Charlotte, NC 28202 704-807-3674 The Charlotte Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization.
Word to the Wise is compiled and edited monthly by Valaida Fullwood Design by Goldenrod Design Co. |
