I am pleased to work at an institution that is committed to providing equitable pathways to personal and professional improvement that lead to educational credentials for all persons. Higher education has long served those with access to adequate preparation for college. However, this work has not considered the structural barriers that have denied access to other. As the Dean of General Studies at Western Technical College, I am a member of a team that is working to provide education to everyone, with a particular sensitivity to serving those students who would otherwise be deemed "not ready for college-level learning." We are removing institutional and attitudinal barriers, changing policies, training staff and faculty, and adopting radically equitable pedagogies in an effort to create a truly welcoming and supportive educational environment that works for all learners.It is my strong belief that higher education is a right for all persons, no matter the circumstances of their birth, experience, knowledge, wealth, class, race, language, gender or other category of human identity. As a leader in higher education, I own the institutional barriers that are obstacles to our student's ability to thrive. While many take responsibility for student success, we must own non-success as well. This is an important distinction that fuels me personally and drives our growth and improvement at Western as an institution. Good leadership is the result of self-critique and the ability to manage institutional change. I believe that change is not what leaders plan, but what staff and faculty do. Thus, change involves those who will implement the work in planning, and successful change focuses on building teams and consensus wherever possible and sharing responsibility and vision for projects across silos with a collective ownership of successes and failures. In order to implement change, we must change the way we work. We must assign work that recognizes strengths, document that work, and develop talent. Delegating responsibility, mentoring employees, and being transparent in collaborative decision making processes leads to competent and well-managed change. I am motivated by creating functional teams who share in the success of our work together and are, in turn, motivated to contribute to a positive and effective work environment. I strongly believe that good managers don't normally hire great employees; they take on the responsibility of helping those employees with whom they work every day to become great.