Professor Tina Butterfield Brings a Touch of Humanities to Leadership After WICHE Academy

Today, most colleges and universities are led by people trained in education, business, and the sciences. But an effort to bring more faculty from the humanities into leadership roles has one Western Colorado University professor making inroads with Colorado’s art educators and proving there’s value in bringing a fresh perspective to the top ranks of higher education.

Tina Butterfield had been a professor in Western’s art department for nearly 15 years and its chairperson for just one year when she was urged to apply to represent the University at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Academy for Leaders in the Humanities.

The Academy, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, was created to prepare senior humanities faculty for higher education leadership, with an emphasis on career development, project management, and organizational design and agility.

Out of 15 Western states and three U.S. Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States, Butterfield was one of only eight fellows selected to participate in the Academy’s inaugural cohort. Starting in 2023, she was exposed to mentoring and professional development to help her adjust to her new leadership position. She also initiated a project to strengthen Western’s relationship with K-12 educators across Colorado.

As an on-campus mentor, Butterfield connected with Dr. Anne Ryter, a professor of chemistry at Western for nearly 30 years and the chair of the Natural and Environmental Sciences Department. While most fellows were mentored by their direct supervisors, Butterfield and Ryter represented a unique partnership between disciplines.

“We were the only mentor team that wasn’t all humanities. And for most of the people in the cohort, it was their supervisor who was mentoring them. That adds complexity to it,” Ryter said. “I thought it was nice that Tina had this opportunity to ask questions or express herself without having to worry about how I was going to perceive them.”

For Butterfield, the mentorship was one of the most valuable parts of the program.

“The biggest piece was the mentorship with Anne. Having set times to discuss things, and every time we met, I had questions that she helped me understand to a greater degree through her past experiences,” Butterfield said. “Being able to have a mentor like that made the difference.”

The Academy also asked participants to complete a project tied to their institution’s priorities. Butterfield’s project focused on reaching out to K–12 art teachers from across the state and establishing Western as a leader in professional development.

In her first year as a fellow, she started working with the Colorado Art Education Association‘s (CAEA) ArtSource program and brought 25 art teachers to Western for a week-long summer workshop, complete with guest speakers, on-campus lodging, meals, and an opportunity to earn continuing education credit through Western’s Teacher Institute.

This year, the event was stretched to nine days, and all 40 spots were filled a week after registration opened. CAEA is also bringing in a nationally known jewelry artist, a sculptor, and a mural artist who will help participants create a large mural on the east side of Quigley Hall.

“It’s been incredible to support these K-12 educators who maybe don’t receive this kind of support,” Butterfield said. “I think [the growth] was mostly because we were able to do it at Western, with the facilities we offer.”

Looking back, Butterfield said the experience gave her more than just leadership training—it provided a deeper sense of the value the humanities bring to leadership.

“The humanities touch and connect to everything in the world—people, history, and culture. We can look at things through a different lens, which allows us to develop different problem-solving skills,” Butterfield said. “We are expert and extreme problem solvers, because it’s what we’re doing every minute of the day. In every painting I create, every stroke of my paintbrush is solving a problem. Now I can take that deep understanding of problem-solving and bring it into leadership.”