Biography

Michael Hill is the 18th President of Chautauqua Institution in New York, he immediately ushered a fresh vision as it approaches its sesquicentennial in 2024, building its brand and thought leadership to expand engaged dialogue nationally. The implementation of a new strategic plan, 150 Forward, will see Chautauqua beyond its 150th birthday. He invested mission-driven online properties via CHQ Assembly; to serve a new generation of Institution leaders in strategic areas that engage with regional neighbors, partners, and national partners.

As President & Chief Executive Officer of Youth For Understanding USA, he expanded and diversified programs, co-led a historic civil rights trip to Cuba with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., invited by Mariela Castro two weeks prior to restored diplomatic relations between the U.S.  An international educator, he has spoken to student educational exchange, as Senior Vice President of External Affairs for United Cerebral Palsy Michael led public education, fundraising, communications, marketing and branding efforts. He also led similar efforts for Washington National Cathedral and The Washington Ballet.

Now completing a Doctorate in Education from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College Michael is also a member and Secretary of St. Bonaventure University’s Board of Trustees, the Robert H. Jackson Center Board of Directors and of the Leadership Network of the American Enterprise Institute.

This interview was outrageously exciting on many fronts, having covered impeccable topics that shine a light on the grounds of who we are. Overall, the conversation teaches us to move forward in simple yet profound ways. As a leader within a vast community it is important to map powerfully strong differences for people to care for one another while also spreading character into the world.

Highlighted Topics:

• understanding one another upscales education
• lead with good intention – kindness
• make the world a better place
• contributions in work and life
• anxious states slow when we live simply
• motivated backstory
• bring disparate voices to the table
• be yourself vs placed in stigmatized spaces
• transform life for others, a posture of gratitude

Key Words:

Authenticity, intension, interconnectedness, education, curiosity, compass, complacency, permutation, polarization, community, perspective, homogeneous, leadership, stigmatized, transformation, truth, gratitude

Ways to connect with Michael:

• https://chq.org/about/from-the-president/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhillchq/
• https://twitter.com/MichaelHillCHQ
• https://www.facebook.com/michaelhillchq/?fref=ts

Stephanie C 

This interview is all about you, I see you as an intellectual and heart based individual.

This speaks to a world class study out of Princeton, led by the social scientist Susan Fiske. She has focused on warmth and competence, the power of it, nationally and globally. As I lay that out who I see you as, is that something that is a flow state or something that you focus on? That is very intentional for you.

Importance of Heart – Caring for One Another

Michael Hill

Well, thank you for not only giving me a chance to chat about these types of things, but for that descriptor of how you see me, that’s humbling.

I think a lot of it comes from a place of upbringing. I did not grow up in a family that would have been considered intellectually grounded—wonderful people, but didn’t grow up in a highly educated family, didn’t grow up in a family of really any economic means. Which meant that the position of heart issues were more important.

How we cared for one another. How we understood one another became much more important than education has become to me. That’s still the case with my nuclear family, the family from which I came.

I credit my mom with a lot of that, she would probably be the first to say that she didn’t have many of what people would think of as traditional resources to give, but she could impart how you were supposed to treat people, to be authentic in who you are as a person, and to trust that society would mostly reward you if you lead with good intention, and kindness. So that part of who I hope I am or who I try to be on my best days, I think comes from that early grounding, the intellectual piece of who I am became much, much later.

SC

That’s how I’m experiencing you. As an underlying factor, that’s a power element, it’s intentional, but it feels like very much of a flow state, and it’s working.

MH

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

SC

With that, I’m going to dig a little bit deeper into story. Sometimes people say, Oh, boy, here we go, we’re on the Oprah show! Well, we’re not going to be there just yet. (HaHa) Digging into story, our guiding compass is what leads us into profound spaces. What is yours?

Rooted in Service and Insatiable Curiosity

MH

That’s a wonderful question. I don’t know that there’s a one compass per se. I grew up in a pretty deeply Catholic family. In the element of Catholicism that’s rooted in Catholic teaching, in service to others was part of an expectation for me growing up and certainly part of the more positive influences that were around me.

I think the other pieces that guide me, sometimes my staff would say in a very Pollyanna-ish way, I do believe that people are mostly good. That most of us are simply trying to figure out our best selves. I believe we spend far too much time listening to the minority of folks who are cranky, instead of listening to people who are simply trying to make the world a better place.

Lastly, I would say, I’m guided by an insatiable curiosity. Constantly wondering about the next thing, I’m wondering how things connect. Wondering why things are the way they are, which is why being able to serve in a place like Chautauqua is such a profound blessing for me.

SC

All that feels really great. Invigorating.

A little connected with what we just talked about, compass, intention behind action creates changing outcomes. That’s a pillar of what I believe is guiding story. Can you speak to a couple of core intentions in life for you?

Invest in Time to Inhabit a Better Place

M Hill

I am guided by a belief that in every part of my life, we are here for a very short amount of time, and how we spend that time is intended to make whatever portion of the world that we inhabit a better place. I’m not comfortable with complacency. Not comfortable with status quo in my life, that’s not a reflection on any person. When I get bored is usually the time that I move on, from whatever in my life, because I just think there is so little time to do so much in life.

I’m always curious about why I and other people are in spaces where they are, and where it’s supposed to lead them. And I do believe in the interconnectedness of all of that. Do I have something to contribute that can make wherever I am a better place? Is pretty core to who I am. And when the answer to that is no, is usually when I started looking for other things. And again, that’s not just work based. That’s why I chose to go back and get a doctorate. I felt that I had plateaued in knowledge acquisition, and felt that there were critical things I have left to learn. I’m almost done with that journey. Thank God, I’ve got six months left. And hopefully I won’t be as curious about education for a while after that. (Laughter.)

SC

Yes, time is wonderful. But every once in a while, we need a break to take a breath. A pause to reset a little bit, and also to digest everything that we’re reeling in.

I love the idea about time, because you specifically being a president of an organization, you’re a high-level individual that so many look up to. And when we have these conversations about, what grounds us: What is our compass? What helps our intentions move forward? It doesn’t have to be complex. It’s simple. It’s time. It’s curiosity. And that feels good, and, certainly really resonates. When we fall into anxious states we can slow a bit and speak to these individual pieces. That can make an enormous difference.

M Hill

Absolutely.

SC

Now, we’re going to shift a bit and speak specifically to your role in Chautauqua, start with you stepping into that role. We were in a political sphere at a temperature that was intensely rising. You immediately set a tone for muscular civic dialogue, something that my college kids and I began to leverage, we love the phrase.

It’s an incredible tagline, sound bite, and I know that there’s a history connected to that, but I’d like you to speak specifically to why you decided to weave that into the conversation and is there a connection to your backstory?

Seek to Understand Others – Best Permutations for People

M Hill

Let me start with the with the second part and then go to the first part. The connection to my backstory really comes from being educated by Franciscans. I am a passionate alum of St. Bonaventure University, I sit on the University’s Board of Trustees. And my four years of undergraduate school there really was about, truly seeking to understand other people before needing to be understood, not only in the curriculum, but in the service projects that we did.

Everything was really about before you get upset or elated by something someone has done trying to understand why they did it, and what motivated them and what was in their backstory — a lot of what we’re talking about today, right? Everyone comes to a moment based on an accumulated set of events and activities in their lives. And some of those are broken. Some of the bad delivers people in a broken state or in a reserve state. When you pull that into that first year for me at Chautauqua, one of the things I have always been in love with about this Institution is the core belief in our mission, that every human being is simply trying to find the best permutation of themselves and the world around them.

Antithetical to that is to assume the worst about the other side. So that when I showed up here as President, not only was the world heating up, I was officially voted in as president the same week that was election week in the country. And I remember thinking, Ooo, this is gonna be a very interesting first year, again, regardless of whether you were happy or not happy about that outcome. We were and remain so polarized. I thought, how do you debate amazing topics, when people have been wired to believe that truth is subjective.

So, the notion of a muscular civil dialogue was really trying to find words, for me that Franciscan teaching, which was how do I help this community believe that its first job is not to espouse a personal belief, but to try to understand why the other person may believe something counter. I’m grateful that you like that phrase, other people resented the hell out of that phrase. And I heard that all that summer.

I got shouted down on not too few public town halls. I think that was also indicative of the time, people were afraid and didn’t want to talk, did not want to be told or encouraged to listen to something that scared them. Having tough conversations makes people uncomfortable, Chautauqua for so many is a happy place. So, it was an invitation to be uncomfortable at your happy place, which is a tough invitation. All the way down to which we’re still in a place where I absolutely believe words matter. And there are some that thought that was a highly sexist way to describe dialogue that muscular, which I never quite understood this, but for some muscular was too masculine. And what was I saying about feminine qualities or other qualities.

I was surprised by how polarizing even that invitation was that first year. Gave me lots to think about.

SC

I also saw that as you entered that role in that space, you worked to build a stronger layer of diversity on the grounds, and I sense that was a call to action for you. Can you speak to the necessity and the priority for you?

Strong Layers of Diversity – Imperative for a Large Community

M Hill

It’s not only a personal priority, but I believe it’s imperative for Chautauqua. The personal priority for me comes out of a deep belief that anything good should be accessible to anyone that wants to access it. And there are lots of barriers to entry at Chautauqua. In many instances not of Chautauqua’s own making. I always joke with folks, gosh, I would love nothing more than to not have to charge a gate fee, but give me a different business model. I don’t think that’s of our own making, I think it’s a reality we have to keep wrestling with. But what struck me specific to Chautauqua was a missional imperative.

We talk about convening the great conversations of the day, and I don’t believe you can do that, unless as many disparate voices are at the table sharing their perspective. I don’t believe it’s the greatest conversations of the day. I believe it’s a siloed conversation, a homogenous conversation, and I have always believed that this place is its best self when it pushes itself beyond.

We continue to be, from my perspective, a too primarily homogenous white community. Again, I don’t think that’s because people have intentionally kept others out. I think there’s a whole host of reasons for that. But part of it starts with how do we attract audience that’s more diverse, leadership that’s more diverse. And by leadership, not only staff, but board members.

I’m going into my fifth season, we’re up to eight or nine people of color on staff, and our board will be 1/3 representative of diverse communities. African American, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, a third of our board will be that way. Those are the things that are, quote unquote, controllable. From an institutional standpoint, what we do in programming is controllable.

What I hope happens from that is that those currently less represented members of our human family will start to look in Chautauqua and see themselves in leadership and our programs. I think that is the truest sign of invitation. We can say we want a more diverse community. But if my entire staff is white, if our entire board is white, it’s hollow. We’ve spent a lot of time and we have tons more work to do. Even those two statistics that I’m very proud of, for me is just a sign that we’re starting to break through. It’s not the end of it.

And I hope that over time, what I sadly think will take a generation that will address this. It’s one of the one of the things I feel specifically called to do during my tenure. We always say to Tom Becker, each of the presidents of this place have had sets of things that were theirs, that they’ve either accomplished or not, in most cases accomplished, and they’ve had to do that so the next person can do something else. What Tom did in fixing buildings, and building endowment and creating a strong infrastructure is actually allowed me to do this work. I’m excited to think about, hopefully, quite a bit of ways away from now, when I’m no longer President, I hope that whoever takes my spot, can say, oh, gosh, we couldn’t even possibly be doing this if that team hadn’t done what they had done. Each generation builds ideally.

SC

What do you feel the internal communal response has been to this change of action for you?

Mission vs Politics

M Hill

Some of it has been wonderful. But I think that breaks down sadly on what I will call party lines. I’ve had people that have assigned traditional, political, liberal intentions to that, which from my perspective, our work around diversity has nothing to do with politics at all, it has everything to do with mission. But some have said, gosh, this is just a further dragging leftward of this institution, which I don’t even buy the intellectual premise of that argument.

I struggle with that response. But based on what I said to you earlier, I’m constantly trying to check myself around. Alright, what don’t I understand about where they’re coming from? What is the fear? What is the sense of loss? What am I missing? Because I need to understand that to get past what I think is the easy argument. I think that’s the easy argument.

If you don’t like the notion of diversity, I think most folks that rail against that come from a place of fear based on thinking something’s right.

I’m constantly thinking about, (A) let me acknowledge an honor and hold up that you’re afraid and I don’t want any of my actions to ever place anybody in a place of fear. We’re trying to understand that, but also painting the picture of what does it look like if we’re successful and can I help you understand how your experience here actually will be better than maybe what you’ve experienced before. Now, those who come from a frame of wanting to support diversity are either celebrating or you’re telling me we’re not doing it fast enough.

Like every inch of Chautauqua, no matter what you do, it will both elate and infuriate someone. I think it’s partially the magic of this place, though.

SC

That’s a great phrase. Yes.

The next is turning directly to you. And this is our Oprah question.

M Hill

Oh, good can’t wait!

SC

Yes. And that is, how have you grown your personal voice in such a strong manner? This relates to your backstory of possibly being in a marginalized space. What fuels you to stand tall, that you can be you versus someone who is placed in a stigmatized space?

Voice Built upon Gratitude

MH

That’s a great Oprah question. One of the things I have felt abundantly blessed by in my life, and only in hindsight can I say this. I’m curious what I’ll think five years from now.

When I look back on the journey that brought me here, I’m sometimes amazed that it seemed like the perfect set of circumstances to land me where I am. And that has been due to the generosity of people who saw something in me that I didn’t see. . .in myself. And who pushed that, some of it goes back to a Chautauqua story.

One of the reasons this place emblazoned on my heart, and my soul is, I got into graduate school at the end of my first professional summer here at The Daily and wasn’t going to go because I didn’t have the money to get to graduate school. I had taken out all the loans I could take out and I was down to literally not being able to get halfway across the country to physically be there. A Chautauquan who I had met in the newsroom, six weeks prior came in one day and said, I’m not sure how I know this, but I’m sensing you’re probably a little stuck and handed me an envelope with cash. And that’s how I got to grad school.

There are so many moments like that, for me, where someone has done something transformational in my life, and has only ever asked that when I see something similar to try to do that for someone else. I have a life coach who gets frustrated with me, because one of the things he’ll say is, do you spend any minute outside of a posture of gratitude? And the answer is: No, I don’t. Because so many have taken chances on me, have supported me when I didn’t think I could do whatever it is that was ahead of me. I try hard to remind myself that I don’t have the right to not speak whatever truth I’m supposed to be speaking at the moment.

Some days are harder than others. I replaced a president who had been here for 30 years who, raised his family here and I showed up for you 42 years old and gay. I spent two years with a not insignificant clump of this community trying to chase me out of this community. And I think all those things fortify you. But it also goes back to the fear. I think I am the least among anyone you might meet, I’m not sure why anyone would be afraid of anything I represent. (Big laughs.) But, that’s just not life.

So, my voice comes from a place of gratitude. And I believe that not doing whatever it is that’s mine to do is a betrayal of all those people who shouldn’t have taken chances me, changed my life forever.

SC

A key core word that you’re speaking to is gratitude. I have so much gratitude for you. I’m about to get emotional. Gratitude for you, for what you are doing for this organization, but also who you are as a person. And to step up, use your voice and to own those gratitude moments.

Because there’s so many things in life that can pull us back into the margins. You’re avoiding that. That is a profound piece of life and personal story. I think when someone has the label of being a president, that’s really a game changer. I thank you for that.

One small last question. The word on the street is that you are in love with the Elvis pie. Why is it that the Elvis pie is for you?

The Power of Tangible Items

MH

I am in love with the Elvis Pie, that is a true word! And it’s a true statement.

I wouldn’t have said to you up until two years ago, that no one could convince me that there was a better pie than a banana cream pie. And it’s an entirely emotional reason. My dad passed six years ago. His weird quirky thing was every holiday regardless of whether it made sense in the traditional lexicon of holidays, there was a banana cream pie. We had it every holiday, at Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, it was just always there.

My dad left this world, too early in my life, but also just when his and my relationship was getting interesting, fun and cool. And so, that pie kind of imprinted itself on me as the one tangible thing that I will always remind me of my father, I cannot see a banana cream pie and think of anything else except my dad.

When we were getting Portage Pies (Westfield, NY), someone said, but there’s something better. And that was sacrilegious, you can’t say there’s anything better. Then the Elvis pie came and it includes peanut butter, elements of chocolate, and those are like the other favorites in my life. And so, to put all of those things into the things that reminds me of my dad. If my dad were still living, and had an Elvis pie, he would declare forevermore that every holiday there had to be an Elvis pie, not a banana cream pie.

So, I’m feeling good about that. I’m feeling like, the blessing would still come from dad on that one. But that’s why, and it’s ridiculous, I don’t even like sharing it. Like it shows up at the house and I hide it. It’s bad. It’s really, it’s bad.

SC

No, it’s lovely. And it makes me want to close out here. I’m going to have to call Portage Pie and do a Boldly Built Story for them (Laughing stock).

M Hill

It’s the real deal and I’m pretty bullish about it. So, it was recommended to me that there was perhaps an even better Portage Pie and I just said, you know, you can push presidents only so far. It just gets me to stop talking about that. That sacrilegious, just leave it alone. You heard the right thing. (Full-on laughter moment).

SC

All right.

M Hill

Now that was a fun closer after ripping my heart out.

SC

Yeah, I know. I’ve learned that I have to do that.

M Hill

Yeah, you take people to the brink and then make them laugh. That’s a gifted journalistic technique.

SC

Okay. That’s warmth and competence.

M Hill

It is. Love it.

SC

All right. I thank you. And I will see you on the grounds.

M Hill

Thanks. Look forward to it.

SC

Take care Michael ~