Grads in Profile: Tom Thompson

No doubt about it, the life of a post-secondary leader is a demanding one.  A typical day can include everything from meetings to hosting and/or attendance at a range of institutional or external events to leading policy development for the institution.  And with a schedule that more often than not falls outside the typical 9-to-5, it’s hard to believe someone in this position could find time to do much else.

But it’s probably less difficult to fathom that once an educational leader decides to take on another project, whether personal or professional—or a combination of the two, he or she will get the job done.

Take for example, Tom Thompson, the President of Olds College. He’s been at the helm of the central Alberta institution for more than 14 years and has had a hand in post-secondary education leadership for more than three decades.

Just a few years ago, “Thompson the educational leader” decided to become “Thompson the student” as he worked towards his Doctorate in Higher Education Administration (EdD), which he earned in 2009. 

In the first two years of the program, Thompson was required to complete his research and specialization courses; he knew that would mean he would have to find the right balance between his academic pursuits and his career.  “When you couple the rigours of coursework with the demands of being a college president”, he says,  “you really have to shift and change your professional life, your personal life and your life as a doctoral student to adapt and satisfy the demands of the courses as well as continuing to perform as a president.”

Thompson says his doctoral research, which centered on questions of policy and governance, was a good fit for the work he does now, and that it had direct impact and relevance to his leadership and professional roles.  “I became more familiar and intimate with the research literature on policy development, monitoring of performance, external relationships and fiduciary of care and professional development,” he says.  “I was able to go deep into the critical reading of the literature as it applied to my daily work as a president.”  

As for other academic leaders who might be considering taking this path to an advanced degree, Thompson says the EdD program at the Werklund School of Education offers that necessary balance between the professional, personal and academic.  “Werklund offers programs that enable educational leaders to look at the big picture while totally immersed in developing specialized expertise in educational leadership,” and, he continues, “students are engaged with a cohort of peers who are engaged in studying and better understanding diverse problems of practice”.

“The beauty of the doctorate at Werklund is the ability to go deep and also develop a broad understanding of the discipline and also of the profession.”

“As a leader,” he sums up, “you owe it to the people that you work with and lead to bring both depth and breadth of understanding of leadership.”