Liesl designed a course called Managing in Developing Countries. Instead of teaching from a textbook, she told her own story. She organized the course around a syncretic blend of the work of scholars who had inspired her, a mix of various social science classics, recent publications of her colleagues, and her own work.
While her illness turned out to be misdiagnosed as cancer, the experience taught her something very important about herself.
“It is very telltale about where my priorities are. I think what it did for me is that it made me realize how much I love teaching, particularly course design. Course design has all the elements of theater. Learning is inspired by a good story. The trick is identifying a way to powerfully unfold the story for students,” says she.
In the years to come, Liesl chose to blend her academic expertise with administrative skills to design courses that would lead GWSB into the future, by designing a suite of online degree programs that are offered through a digital-community environment.
Putting together these programs, Liesl had to devise a pedagogical model that would be both meaningful and comprehensible to all types of learners. Again, the inspiration came from a very personal place: her two children, both of whom have learning challenges.
Liesl has learned to toggle between the learning experiments she develops at home with her sons, and transfers those lessons to her professional life. She speaks of this experience with animation, gesticulating her arms to describe how she and then-seven-year-old Kristofer designed a puppet show to describe President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Working with my children, trying to find creative solutions and enhance their capacity and willingness to learn has actually shaped how I learn. It is a great blessing in my life,” she says.
Looking at this graceful and engaging woman, one could hardly guess the obstacles she had overcome to get where she is today. The her story confirms the age-old saying: you can look at life’s challenges and see only lemons, or you can roll up your sleeves, add a spoonful or two of inspiration, and make lemonade.
When Opposites Attract
As a younger woman, Liesl felt closest to people who were most like her. Over the years she expanded her intimate circle of close friends who are “her exact opposites.” These are the people that help Liesl steer her intellectual curiosity and look at a problem from a different angle.
One of these ‘exact opposites’ for Liesl is her fellow colleague and GWU professor, Dr. Jenny Spencer. “Jenny and I have known each other a long time… She always pushes me, questioning every idea,
saying, “What if I do this, what about that, or how
about this?”
The idea exchange with someone who really
“gets” you is invigorating. But imagine a room
full of senior executives, all women who are
acclaimed in the business arena? This is the
situation Liesl ended up seven years ago when
she was recommended as one of ten participants to the Women’s Leadership Lab.
“I was the young kid there,” she recalls. “I was in a
room face-to-face with the kind of women leaders you read about in Forbes. It was good to hear their stories and be inspired by them. I gained a lot of confidence because they taught me that I was not so different from them. I was just a little younger. I needed more experience and challenge. But I learned I could do a lot more than I thought I could. It was a stretch moment for me, and it changed my life.” Liesl declares.
“I was in a room face-to-face with the kind of women leaders you read about in Forbes. It was good to hear their stories and be inspired by them.
I gained a lot of confidence because they taught me that I was not so different from them. I was just a little younger. I needed more experience and challenge."
From Inspiration to ACTION