Burnishing the Brightest Stars
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Faced with the prospect of finding the right person to lead CTY into its next chapter, members of the CTY Executive Director Search Committee agreed the right candidate would be someone with the intellectual prowess to strengthen CTY in research. They wanted an experienced marketer who could raise the Center’s national profile and be a voice for gifted education, says Laura Overdeck, the incoming chair of CTY’s Advisory Board who served on the committee. They also sought someone skilled at management who was experienced in directing an organization with many moving parts. “Elaine was so strong in all three areas,” says Overdeck. “And having been a college president and provost she obviously had amazing organizational ability.”
William Durden, CTY’s first executive director and now president of Dickinson College, and Hansen tour the Dickinson campus.
Hansen’s decades of teaching experience also made her stand out, Overdeck adds. “Having come from top leadership positions at two highly selective colleges, she has an appreciation for bright kids, an understanding of what they need and how fast they can run, and how often at their regular schools they’re just not given that opportunity.”
Since starting at CTY in August, Hansen says she’s found herself feeling energized by the many possibilities the Center presents—from new growth in international programs, to developing new hybrid courses blending online and hands-on learning, to creating new collaborations with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University. She’s intrigued by all of them. “Every day there seems to be 10 more things we could be doing,” she says. “Our work now is to discipline ourselves to map out a strategy and develop an agenda.”
What we’ve done is open up CTY to many people in this country and internationally who weren’t served before. There’s no doubt CTY is a much more diverse group than we were before and that’s made it a much, much richer place. ”— Lea Ybarra, CTY executive director, 1997-2011
As an educator, Hansen has never been one to follow trends. As a specialist in medieval literature, she respects history and the work of those who have gone before. As the Center’s new executive director, As an educator, Hansen has never been one to follow trends. As a specialist in medieval literature, she respects history and the work of those who have gone before. As the Center’s new executive director, she plans to focus her agenda on the future, yet ground it squarely in the research and programs at CTY’s core. “CTY has already been around for 32 years, and I value the continuity and tradition of the research Julian Stanley started,” she says. “At the same time, 32 years is a very short time in the history of education. It’s truly wonderful to sense it’s still early days for CTY.”