José-Marie Griffiths honored as USA TODAY’s Woman of the Year for South Dakota

José-Marie Griffiths is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact. The annual program is a continuation of Women of the Century, a 2020 project that commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year’s honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

José-Marie Griffiths, President of Dakota State University, is South Dakota’s Woman of the Year.

Griffiths, 71, was born and raised in the county of Middlesex just outside London, which is now part of the Royal London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. She became DSU’s president in 2015 after serving five years as the vice president for academic affairs and professor at Bryant University.

She was recently honored as one of 10 champions of the state in the South Dakota Hall of Fame for “literally transforming the state university into a nationally recognized institution for cyber security,” CEO Laurie Becvar said.

Griffiths has led major DSU initiatives, like the upcoming construction of a DSU applied research lab in Sioux Falls, an educational partnership with ArmyCyber, pending legislation for a $6 million Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology and a partnership for a STEAM exhibit at the Washington Pavilion.

Throughout the years, she’s made headlines in South Dakota as a finalist for the DSU president position, for attending the first-of-its-kind State-Federal STEM Education Summit hosted by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, joining the White House Cyber Workforce and Education Summit and more.

She’s held leadership positions at four universities, including Vice Chancellor, University of Tennessee; Chief Information Officer, the University of Michigan; Director, Sara Fine Institute, University of Pittsburgh; and Dean, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She has previously served in presidential appointments to the National Science Board, the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, and the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

She has led projects for more than 28 U.S. federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, and various intelligence and military agencies; more than 20 major corporations such as AT&T Bell Laboratories and IBM, in more than 35 countries; and has worked with seven major international organizations, including NATO and the United Nations. She has received more than 20 significant awards in science, technology, teaching and the advancement of women in these fields.

The Argus Leader sat down with Griffiths for a special question and answer session.

Editor's note: This conversation has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Who paved the way for you?

My parents, who really never said, “Don’t do things.” They always let me believe I could do whatever I tried to do, so they encouraged me.

I had a couple of advisors. My doctoral dissertation advisor, his name was Bertie Brooks. He was an engineer. He encouraged me to do a lot of things, and he and his wife introduced me to a lot of well-known academics in all sorts of fields. They would entertain a lot, and I was invited to come and join them. They were very, very helpful.

My heroine is Marie Curie, who is Polish by birth but French by citizenship. A physicist and chemist, she discovered radium. Her work in science, research science and collaboration with others mirrors the way I have tried to develop my career.

Who did you pave the way for?

A number of my students, because I’ve taught for many, many years at many different institutions. A lot of them are now vice presidents at universities around the country. I don’t think any of them are yet a president, but they’re ambitious and they’re really good, and I’m sure some of them will be at some point. That gives me great satisfaction that they’re doing really well.

What is your proudest moment?

Bringing up my daughter (Rhiannon). I tried to make sure she was strong, comfortable and confident in herself and her abilities. She took a different pathway academically, but that’s OK. That’s what she wanted to do. I encouraged everything she wanted to do, just like my parents had encouraged me.

Do you have a lowest moment?

I think the lowest moments come when you realize that maybe where you are isn’t the right fit for you. I’ve been in situations where I felt I’m doing the best I can, but I’m not sure that I’m doing the best that I could long-term for this organization. Fit is a concept in leadership that’s very important, and I encourage our students to find the right fit. You’ll know it when it happens.

I try and encourage people to find something they enjoy doing so they don’t mind being there and developing their careers, and in fact, enjoy it, grow and develop there.

How do you define courage?

Courage is standing up for people who can’t be heard, standing up for the right thing even if it causes you some discomfort, and not being afraid to speak out.

Do you have a guiding principle or mantra?

My mother used to say, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” We got so tired of that phrase. My daughter gets tired of that phrase, but I hear her saying it now periodically to other people. So, it’s true: If you’re going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. Don’t do it half-heartedly.

I have these three personal values that I tell all the people I work with (about) how I try to live my life, and the acronym is ICE.

The first one is integrity. If I’m to work with you, I have to be able to trust you. We have to establish that. You have to operate with integrity, and of course, I expect the same, you need to trust me.

The second one is collaboration. In today’s world, we have to collaborate, we can’t be islands unto ourselves.

The third one is excellence. I was at one institution that thought excellence should be first. I said, "If you're excellent but you don’t have integrity, what’s that worth to anyone? If you’re excellent and you don’t collaborate, you’re just an island off on your own. That doesn’t do anything for anyone.”

So it has to be integrity first, collaboration second and excellence.

Who do you look up to?

I look up to the pioneers in science and technology, because it’s hard treading the unknown and having faith that your ideas and hypotheses could work.

I also admire adventurers, who have gone where there are extreme conditions. I admire people who climb high mountains, who climb Mount Everest. I’m fascinated by Mount Everest. There’s no way I could ever do it. I would never make it across the first ladder, across a crevasse.

People who go down in the ocean, who go into the interior of the jungle and the Amazon and discover. I think that’s really admirable that they do that, and then, they’re finding out new knowledge. They do that on behalf of others, because then they can share that knowledge.

How do you overcome adversity?

One step at a time. We come across a lot of challenges. We all have ideas about what we want to do, and things come up and bump against us. I don’t give up. I try to find ways around it, and I’m a very good multitasker, so I can keep myself busy on something else while I’m trying to figure out how to get around the problem. Most times, there are ways. It’s usually communication.

I don’t really get discouraged when I find an obstacle in the way. I try to say, is it a real obstacle? Why is it there? How do I understand it?

What advice would you give your younger self?

Take time to enjoy life. Stay open to new things. That includes people, places, different foods and different ideas. I’ve tried to do some of that, but I think savoring life along the way is important. I always got really into my job. That’s taken me a long way. I’ve been able to travel with my job, so that’s good.

I’ve been able to experience things that had I not had the jobs I had, I might not have been able to do. I think there’s so much in this world that fascinates, and there’s so many things to learn about others, other people, other countries, other customs and other points of view. To me, that’s what’s interesting about life. Life is learning, and learning is life. The two go hand in hand. If you’re not learning, you’re not really living, and if you’re living, you have to learn.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: José-Marie Griffiths is USA TODAY’s Woman of the Year for South Dakota