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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z In her own words What triggered your career path? When I was a girl growing up in the South, my father [Samuel R. Spencer Jr.] was president of Mary Baldwin College and then Davidson College. It was the dinner table talk, as was Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. Until 1993, I worked as a lawyer, and was a litigator, but I did not find it purposeful work. With a lawsuit, you're looking back. I like looking forward. Did you have a mentor or role model? U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was always looking ahead. Drew Faust, former president of Harvard, for being ethical, having vision and being driven. My father, who was grounded, philosophical, com- mitted to the institutions, mission driven and doing purposeful work. What advice would you give your former self? Take more risks. I spent too long doing "the right thing." Do you have a motivational song? "Jump," by the Pointer Sisters. It means, just jump in — dive in and give it your all. Do you have a meaningful book? "The Warmth of Other Suns," Isabel Wilkerson. Who would play you in a movie about of your life? The Susan Sarandon that was Louise in "Thelma and Louise." Or Helen Mirren. New energy — and a $300M fundraising campaign Spencer has brought new energy to the liberal arts institution, which has been an anchor in Lewiston since 1855. She's led a $300 million capital campaign, looking toward expansion and upgrades that will raise the level of the school and help attract top-level students. For students who are already there, she has helped start programs to prepare them for work and career. Over the course of her career, Spencer has informed national education policy and made significant contributions to increasing equity, accessibility and diversity in higher education. Under her leadership, Bates has launched new initiatives in a number of areas, including digital and computational studies. Spencer grew up in Virginia and North Carolina. Her father, Samuel R. Spencer Jr., was president of Mary Baldwin College (now Mary Baldwin University), in Staunton, Va., and Davidson College (now Davidson University), in Davidson, N.C. At Davidson, her father became president just as the college admitted its first African-American students, and within four years oversaw its transition to a co-ed school. Davidson was his alma mater. Vietnam and the civil rights movement were topics of dinnertime conversation, she recalls. Spencer received a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1977, earned a bachelor's degree in theology from Oxford in 1979 and a master of arts degree in religion from Harvard in 1982. She earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985. Spencer clerked in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, then practiced law at the Boston firm of Ropes & Gray. She worked for Ted Kennedy from 1993 to 1997 and served as the chief education counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Returning to higher education, Spencer spent 15 years on Harvard's senior leadership team as vice president for policy, directing policy initiatives. Finding purposeful work Spencer's work with Kennedy was a turning point in her life, she says. "I was a litigator," she says. "e nature of being a lawyer and a lawsuit is looking back at what's happened. I like looking forward," she says. "Ted Kennedy was one of the most forward-looking peo- ple I've ever met … He had his feet on the ground and was looking ahead." Working for Kennedy moved her from work to purposeful work, she says. Her career path took her to Harvard, where she worked for another key mentor, Drew Faust, who retired recently as the university's president. Faust was ethical, had vision and was driven, she says. When the opportunity to lead Bates came up, she was eager not only for the challenge but to be in Maine. Spencer has a house on Swan's Island, where her transportation is a Boston Whaler. "I didn't have to be convinced to come to Maine," she says. Preparing students for careers Spencer's impact over six years at Bates has taken different forms. But career development is an area where she's helped lead the college. She has helped ensure that students get a liberal arts education and are also ready for a career. "Don't relegate [career development] to spring of senior year, then run off and read 'What Color is Your Parachute?'" she says. "Most students realize they're not da Vinci or Yo-Yo Ma. ey worry they don't have a passion. But finding your passion is a trap," she says. "You have to try things." Whatever people think of a liberal arts college, she says, students have always been aware they had to find a job. "It's always been about work," she says. "Everyone has to put food on the table." at's when she puts emphasis on a phrase that comes up continually in a conversation with Spencer. For students, "college is their day job. Work can be for pay or not. But it has to be purposeful work," she says. Be a "master of opportunities," as George Colby Chase, Bates' second president, once said. Bates offers an intense "short term," five-week semester, from late April through May, in which visiting professionals come in to lead courses related to their work. In one such course, students traveled to the northern Rockies to do mapping projects and study economic geology sites. Bates received a grant from the Libra Foundation to help fund "purposeful work" internships. Another initiative launched by Spencer is a depart- ment of computer science. "When I got her in 2012, there was no computer science. I said, 'I think that's a problem in the 21 st century,'" she recalls. At the same time, she didn't want Bates to treat computer science as a program of study "bolted onto the math department," she says. To start the Digital and Computational Skills Department, Bates raised $10 million and endowed three chairs, recruiting a department head, Matthew C. Jadud, from Berea College. Bates College 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston Founded: 1855 Enrollment: 2,000 Contact: 207-786-6255 / www.bates.edu C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » 29 A U G U S T 6 , 2 0 1 8 P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Clayton Spencer visits with Bates College students and admission summer interns Andrew Veilleux, middle, and Chandler Ryan.

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