Sara Kempner
I’ve known Sara as a colleague for several years, but it is only in the last few months that I have had the chance to work more closely with her, and observe first-hand her intelligence, thoughtful and empathetic approach to all she does. She tells me she was always a good student and excelled in academics. Psychology as a field has always interested her, because she likes to learn about why people are the way they are and how they become who they are. As a Research Assistant in undergrad, she studied gambling at casinos (where she went to observe people) and bribed young children with oreos to assess their delay of gratification.
She was also interested in how growth mindsets vs. learned helplessness shows up in people’s lives and relationships. After completing undergrad, she went directly to grad school as a PhD student. She chose development psychology as her focus, to better understand how our development as children shapes us and how we interact with the world.
She laughingly remembers that a low GRE score almost put paid to her aspirations but she still got into one of the top grad schools for the subject (seems like it was a rough GRE verbal year for everyone). She moved to Minnesota, and quickly realized that she was moving from being the top performer to not so much. She struggled when the work she was doing, while useful, did not practically relate to the areas which she valued. But there were bright spots as well - participating in research for a longitudinal study which has been going on for 45 years now. Her interest in how relationships shape who we are and respond to the world around only deepened - but rather than the romantic relationships which were the more popular focus, it was friendships which interested her more. It was during her time in grad school where she realized that being an undergraduate professor was no longer her dream, but lacked the resources and support to find alternative pathways.
Graduating right at peak recession in 2008 was rough. She got a job teaching at Lake Forest College, and then moved to upstate NY to teach at Hamilton College the next year. She candidly admits that it was her low teaching evaluations that led to her contract not being renewed. The things that mattered to her - human development, childcare, food insecurity and stamps - she tried to expose her students to these. She arranged a field trip to the state capitol for the students to meet with legislators to see how the knowledge they were learning was applied but the impact she hoped it would have on her students never materialized.
It was then she decided she wanted to move back to Chicago, a bigger city with more options. She started as an Applied Researcher at CPS 12 years ago, and since then while tethered to the original work, has made her way around the district in several roles, most recently as Executive Director, Enterprise Data Strategy. In these roles she has been able to look at the big questions around making policy and operational decisions, she was able to use data and research to inform them. She was using the same skills but in a different context, of far greater value to her.
Several reorgs in the organization moved her to ITS in 2016, where she got to see the nuts and bolts of data across the district, and got to build her own analytics team. When her then boss, who she admired, left in 2017, he told her that she was ready for his job, something she did not believe. After counsel and persuasion from those she respected, she took over the role and for the longest time was learning about this whole new world. I ask her if there is anything she would have done differently, and she says that she would have had the confidence in herself to ask more questions.
Professionally she is fueled deeply by her deep care for what she does, being good at it, and the ability to make things better for those involved in the CPS world. The variety of the work she does and using data elements to inform the work, matters to her.
She muses that her personal life peaks coincided with her career peaks - marriage, adopting a dog, becoming a parent and leading a large and important swathe of work. She does say that she has to remind herself that in this stage of life, with two young kids and an incredibly demanding career, it is hard to refuel. Seeing her employees doing well, and the work and projects being received with understanding and appreciation energize her as well. This is a key strength of her as a leader, recognizing that her success in the work is a function of how her team works.
During the pandemic she realized that she could work endlessly if she did not learn to turn it off (which really never was an option in academia). For the Sara of the future, she says that she would like to see her in the same place and role, which she has slowly become more confident in. The career steps after this are ones she is not ready for just yet as a parent of two energetic toddlers. 10 years from now, this will be a different conversation. For now, when she is here, she is fully present, and understands the role socialization plays in building her team morale. She does say that as you move up in leadership positions, your social circle at work becomes smaller.
In terms of strong influences on her life, she has learned to take good and bad elements she encounters in her interaction, and figure out how they will shape how she conducts herself and leads.
As we wrap up, I ask her if there is anything else she would like to see included, and she mentions that while we all have different things going on, we all deserve a balance between our work and our lives outside of our work-whether that’s caring for a family, enjoying the the amenities of our city with friends, or working on a hobby.