By Mackenzie Grizzard | Assistant News Editor, Charlie Cole | Broadcast Reporter

In its 173 years of history, Baylor appointed Dr. Linda Livingstone as the first female president of the university in 2017. At the time, Livingstone didn’t want her gender to matter as much as her qualifications. But she found that as a woman, leading the university out of an infamous scandal meant more to her community than she’d realized.

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“I had alumni come up to me — older women that were alumni — in tears saying they never thought in their lifetime that they would see a woman president of Baylor,” Livingstone said. “I had to own it in a way that I wasn’t very comfortable owning because I didn’t want it to matter, but it did based on the circumstances.”

Livingstone is one of many decorated female leaders in the Baylor-Waco area, many of whom joined her on stage for the Allstate Women’s Empowerment Luncheon Friday afternoon in Cashion 506 Banquet Hall.

The panel, hosted by Baylor Athletics and the Big 12 Conference, consisted of several influential women who have made great strides in the community. Livingstone; Dr. Sharra Hynes, vice president of student life; Jovan Overshown, deputy athletic director and chief operating officer of Baylor Athletics; Pearl Beverly, Baylor director of advancement; and Bethel Erickson, executive director of the Waco Farmer’s Market, all came together to discuss leadership and empowerment.

“Leadership is relational,” Overshown said. “That doesn’t mean it’s void of quantitative and qualitative outcomes and all the operational needs, but you have to see through to who that person is so you can create some foundation to work.”

Overshown works closely with Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades and directly oversees Baylor football. Arriving at Baylor the same year as Livingstone, Overshown detailed the occasional discomfort of female leadership, primarily in sports.

“Baylor is one of three schools that has a female football support program administrator and a female director of [operations],” Overshown said. “It’s just representation and credibility, walking into a room and being the only female, and that can be uncomfortable. It sometimes forced me to have to work a little bit harder in the early years to show I deserve to be in that spot.”

Overshown highlighted that while leadership is powerful, women also bring the importance of empathy to the table.

“A lot of people think that authority … and empathy run counter to each other, but the way I see it is that they are actually parallel,” Overshown said. “If you can see a person for who they are, you can create opportunities for them to be heard and feel seen. That’s going to create this different level of power from which you’re able to lead them.”

Leading with empathy has also been a hallmark of Beverly’s, who has served as the director of advancement and the director of the Department of Multicultural Affairs since its founding in 2005. Since arriving as a recruiter for Baylor in 1988, Beverly attributed her perseverance and dedication to quickly rising through the ranks.

“Because I’m African-American, I have been the first in so many spaces,” Beverly said. “Fighting for the fact that I was a woman that was able to do a man’s job — and do it well — wasn’t going to be an ownership that was just given to me.”

Being trailblazers in their respective fields binds these panelists together, especially as leaders in male-dominated areas.

For Hynes, women never stop advocating for themselves, despite being in leadership roles.

“I was vice president of student life at my alma mater … and my husband and I were interested in starting a family. So I went to the vice president of human resources and said, ‘What’s the maternity policy for vice presidents?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know. We’ve never had one of childbearing years,’” Hynes said. “It was really important though to trailblaze that, because I’m not going to be the only woman who’s a vice president here. There are going to be others.”

A little outside the walls of Baylor, Erickson serves as the director of the Waco Farmer’s Market, which has been a downtown staple for almost 14 years.

“One of the most beautiful aspects of the farmer’s market is we all show up together,” Erickson said. “We all show up and are a part of the farmer’s market family, and it just gives us such a beautiful opportunity to keep having conversations with each other.”

Responsible for dozens of different vendors and event coordination, Erickson said that leadership is often about learning and adjustment.

“My advice is that you never stop learning. If you stop learning, you are stagnant in your career,” Erickson said. “If you can learn from people who maybe have opposing views of your own, I think that will make you a stronger leader overall.”

Livingstone echoed the sentiment from a university perspective, ending the panel with a reflection of her eight years of leadership at Baylor.

“When I came to Baylor, it was a very difficult time in the institution, and there was a terrible lack of trust … by almost everyone,” Livingstone said. “So when I think of my time I’ve had here to lead, it’s not just about me; it’s about our team and all the people that came alongside to make this happen. Through that, we redeveloped trust in the Baylor community, far beyond the walls of Baylor and in Baylor.”