theceomagazine.com | 55“Somewhere along the way, I discovered
psychology, and it became my passion,” she
says. “And it continues to be so; it has been
my academic passion.”
Having completed both undergraduate
and postgraduate studies in the US,
Harlene and her husband wanted to find
a place where they could work together.
“My husband did his graduate work at
Rutgers University and postdoctoral
research at Princeton with me. And
when we started looking for work, two
jobs came up at the same time at the
University of Otago in New Zealand,”
Harlene explains. “Working together is
often a difficulty for couples who both
want to pursue academic careers. So
we contacted the department in the
first instance, before we submitted our
applications, to see whether or not they
would even consider hiring a couple.
We knew that some universities have
clear views on this; either they’re really
for it, or they’re really against it. It turned
out, actually, that at the time we applied
for our jobs here at the psychology
department at Otago, there were already
five couples on staff.”
Harlene says that the idea initially was
that the trip would be a type of academic
adventure rather than a long-term plan for
the couple. “The first day we arrived, the
head of the department sat down with us
and said, ‘I’m pretty sure you’re not going
to be here forever, but if you can stay for
five years, then the university will have
gotten its money’s worth.’
“And we thought, ‘Yeah, right, mate.
Five years? We’re out of here in three.’
But what started as an adventure has
really turned into our lives, and it’s
been a fantastic opportunity for us,
both professionally as well as personally.”
Harlene’s first big opportunity came
quite unexpectedly. Very happy in her
academic work, she was thriving with herteaching, in supervising students, as well as
conducting research. She certainly wasn’t
looking to climb the corporate ladder.
“It’s kind of ironic, looking back, now
that I’m the vice-chancellor here; I was
a really reluctant leader. I wasn’t looking
for senior administrative roles. When I was
first approached to be the head of the
psychology department, I said, ‘Absolutely
not. You’re out of your mind. Why would
I want to do that?’ I couldn’t understand
for the life of me why anyone would want
to take on that kind of responsibility. But
the vice-chancellor at the time worked on
me quite carefully over a long period of
time, trying to convince me that it would
be a good move for me.”What he managed to do was help
Harlene shift her perspective. Harlene
knew that she was ambitious, but the
ambition was related more to herself and
her students than anything else. “I thought
that if I could turn that into a larger
ambition for my whole department, then
I could get my head around the idea of
doing something else. That made a huge
difference: simply reframing my thinking
about what the role of the head of
department is. It’s just nurturing the
ambitions of a larger group of people.
It was an absolute pleasure to work during
that period of time – not only on my
own career, but also on the careers of
the other people in my department.”
Three years later, the vice-chancellor
tapped Harlene on the shoulder again,
offering her the position of deputy
vice-chancellor of the research »“ When I was first approached to
be the head of the psychology
department, I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
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