How dyslexia, car rides with dad, and a mugshot shaped Joy Hofmeister

Panic overcame Joy Hofmeister as her teacher instructed the class to take out their textbooks and each take a turn reading one paragraph, beginning with the student sitting in the front row.

As she often did in her sixth-grade classroom, Hofmeister counted how many students were sitting in front of her and then counted which paragraph would be her responsibility. Rather than focus on her classmates' reading, she silently read her own paragraph as many times as she could, trying to mentally reset the letters that were scrambled in her mind.

Hofmeister had dyslexia, although it wasn’t yet widely identified as a learning disability in the 1970s.

“Reading was always work for me, not something to be enjoyed,” Hofmeister told The Oklahoman during a recent interview.

Assignments took longer to complete, standardized tests were a struggle, and Hofmeister would doubt her academic abilities.

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But she persisted in her studies and years later graduated near the top of her class from Texas Christian University. She later became a teacher before owning a business that helped other children who needed additional academic support.

Eight years ago Hofmeister became the state’s top public schools official, winning a statewide race for superintendent of public instruction that saw her defeat an incumbent, followed four years later by a 25-point reelection.

Today, she is the state’s Democratic candidate for governor, seemingly running a competitive race that she sees as drawing on the traits she developed as a child and young adult, persevering through a learning disability that could have easily derailed her ambitions.

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“Repeatedly hitting that struggle and overcoming it, that is what I think made me the kind of person I am today, someone who is resilient,” Hofmeister said.

As the science around dyslexia developed, Hofmeister saw how understanding the cause of a problem and its proven solutions could be the roadmap to success.

That’s how she tried to run the state Department of Education, and how she has differentiated herself from Gov. Kevin Stitt, said Phil Bacharach, Hofmeister’s chief of staff for eight years.

“She is definitely data-driven and I think that has manifested itself in whatever she does,” Bacharach said.

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“There are problems that would be easy to ignore or just overlook, but she really looks at what the science says. She doesn't just throw something on the wall to see what sticks."

One of Stitt's top criticisms of Hofmeister was her defense of schools that kept their buildings closed during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, many times because of local outbreaks and difficulties in having enough teachers and support staff.

But Hofmeister said her agency followed the science and established benchmarks for when schools should be open and how they should return to in-person learning.

"I'm the one who wrote a 100-page document called 'Return to Learn' so that kids could get back in school," Hofmeister said during a gubernatorial debate this month, referring to the state Department of Education's detailed guidance on what policies schools should consider in navigating the pandemic.

Bacharach also said Hofmeister's data-driven approach was on display several years ago when she worked to increase Oklahoma’s academic standards in order to become more in line with a respected national benchmark.

Often called the “honesty gap,” Oklahoma defined proficiency much lower than the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But closing that gap meant the state’s scores would look even worse.

“That was a very gutsy move for an elected official because invariably what that meant was our shortcomings were going to be more starkly drawn,” Bacharach said. “But that’s where the data said we needed to go, so she went there.”

Hofmeister drew lessons from how her dad managed his company

During her teenage years, Hofmeister worked in the summer as a receptionist at her father’s steel manufacturing company in Tulsa, answering phones but also observing firsthand how her father dealt with people and the inevitable problems that emerged when managing staff.

It was during the 25-minute car rides home that Hofmeister said her father would walk her through different decisions he had made and why he made them.

What stuck out to her most was her father's insistence that a manager is only as good as his staff.

“You are never the smartest guy in the room and you always want to bring people aboard that are more knowledgeable in a lot of different areas than you are,” said Jim Janosky, Hofmeister's father, recalling those car rides with his daughter more than 40 years ago.

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“My company was like any other in that it was the guys on the shop floor, the people in the office, they are the ones who build the company, not the guy with a title next to his name. Those are who you have to listen to, which is what I tried to teach her.”

Heather Lisle, who worked for Hofmeister for almost five years as the state Department of Education's chief of public affairs, said those listen-first lessons were taken to heart.

"She is so freaking collaborative it’s crazy. She is the definition of collaboration," Lisle told The Oklahoman.

As superintendent, Hofmeister created dozens of advisory groups made up of students, teachers, principals, nonprofit leaders, and other groups of education stakeholders.

When the agency wanted to undertake a new initiative, especially one that faced opposition, Hofmeister wanted to hear first from those who might be against it, Lisle said.

"She wanted to invite those people in first and she would tell her staff that we need to figure out where the gaps are in our plan, what is it we are missing?" Lisle said. "I've worked for a lot of people and I can tell you that (many leaders) don't do that."

Sometimes just listening to a person is enough to get them on your side, said Matt Holder, who joined the state Department of Education as Hofmeister’s chief operations officer in 2015.

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“Her ability to listen brought a lot of people to the table. I watched it happen," said Holder, who is now superintendent of Sulphur Public Schools. “She makes people feel heard."

Hofmeister has promoted her listening skills in trying to convince voters that, if elected governor, she can bring different political factions to the table and repair relationships she said Stitt has fractured.

This month, the state's five largest tribes endorsed her campaign for governor, in part because they said Stitt's administration had not done enough to work with tribal governments.

“She understands our sovereignty is not a partisan issue or a threat, but instead is a chance to forge new partnerships while strengthening those that already exist, because Oklahomans thrive together when we all work together,” the tribal leaders said in a joint statement.

Calling herself "aggressively moderate," Hofmeister also claims she could work closely with the Republican majority in the Legislature.

"I've been doing it my whole life," Hofmeister said.

Hofmeister pushed forward following an early threat to her political career

Hofmeister began her career as a school teacher and later became the owner of a Kumon Math and Reading Centers franchise in Tulsa. In 2012, she was appointed to the state Board of Education by former Republican Gov. Mary Fallin. Even then, Fallin highlighted Hofmeister's research-based process for solving problems — Hofmeister is "a researcher with a passion for finding ways to improve our schools and boost student performance," the former governor said during Hofmeister's appointment.

Over the next few years, Hofmeister was often at odds with then-state superintendent Janet Barresi, and she eventually resigned from the board to challenge Barresi in the 2014 Republican primary, a race she won outright with 58% of the vote.

Hofmeister credited her surprising victory to a grassroots campaign that was built on listening to as many people and groups as she could, along with working to empower teachers and educators.

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"I was pulling from those early conversations with my dad when I did that work," Hofmeister said about her first campaign.

But her young political career was at risk two years later when the Oklahoma County district attorney charged her with illegally colluding with outside political groups during her first election.

As Hofmeister's mugshot began circulating on local news, her senior staff at the Department of Education nervously wondered if they would have jobs much longer.

"She told us she was innocent and was going to fight this," Lisle, a former staffer for Hofmeister, recalled about a meeting Hofmeister held with her team after being arrested. "I'll tell you what, that woman is tiny but she is fierce and mighty. Nothing knocks her down."

Bacharach, Hofmeister's chief of staff, had faith in his boss but worried that an upcoming statewide town hall-style road trip needed to be postponed. Hofmeister had wanted to travel the state to get feedback on the agency’s new strategic plan, but that would now mean her legal problems would be written about in every small-town newspaper that sent a reporter to cover the event.

The politically vulnerable state superintendent would be exposed.

“I wanted to cancel,” Bacharach said. “But she was adamant that her work should continue.”

Bacharach and Hofmeister recalled that Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater had offered to drop the charges if she resigned from office, which Hofmeister wasn't willing to do. Prater did not return a request for comment from The Oklahoman.

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“A lot of people in that position would have been tempted but she really had faith in the judicial system,” Bacharach said. “That was an example of how she believed in just making sure the right answer was her guide.”

A year later Prater dropped the charges, Hofmeister's record was expunged and the case was never revisited.

Looking back, Hofmeister said her focus on her work during that moment stemmed from an internal sense of urgency. The clock is always ticking, she said, and elected officials only have so many years to get stuff done.

"I’m driven by the fact that people can't wait and I’ve got to get it right," Hofmeister said. "I think when these types of distractions and divisions come up it never even occurs to me to change myself or do anything differently because that's the way I was raised.

"My only plan is to move ahead."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Hofmeister says her struggles with dyslexia created her toughness