Kathleen Walters doesn’t remember there being any women in Syracuse University’s math department in the 1970s. Though her mother didn’t attend college, Walters said she wouldn’t have noticed the gender gap in her classes.

She was raised in a family that wouldn’t notice or discuss such disparity. Her father, a lawyer, “forgot to mention” that women at the time weren’t welcome in all professions. And no one at SU placed limits on Walters’ aspirations.

“I am who I am today because there was nobody that told me that I couldn’t be who I am today,” Walters said.

Today, Walters serves as the first female chair of SU’s Board of Trustees, which oversees the university’s institutional decisions and fiscal policies. Appointed to the role in November 2018, Walters only sees herself as chair — no woman qualifier attached. 

Walters, a graduate of the Class of 1973, chose to attend SU because she believed the university was diverse and championed individual freedom. At the time, SU was progressively changing certain rules, like the closing times of dorms.

In 1965, SU student Cindy Bailey lobbied and pressured university administration to allow dorms and sororities to implement their own residential policies. Bailey, a member of the Association of Women Students, thought the residential policies imposed upon female students were sexist, including dorm curfews.

“Syracuse was leaning forward on these things, and so I consider it a momentously good decision,” Walters said. “Syracuse gave me my footing.”

As chair, Walters is the university’s highest-ranking individual authority. She leads SU’s central governing body that makes a wide range of decisions — large ones like appointment of the chancellor and small ones like creating new courses and awarding honorary degrees.

Walters served as vice chair of the Board of Trustees before becoming chair. She has worked on the board’s Executive Committee, Academic Affairs Committee and Budget Committee, among others.

She held the role during “pivotal times” of university investment, growth and planning, said Steven Barnes, who served as chair of the Board of Trustees from 2015 to May 2019, in an email.

“Kathy is a seasoned leader—a big-picture thinker and critical listener whose governance experience makes her ideally suited to chair the Board,” Barnes said.

Deb Knoblock, a member of SU’s Atlanta Alumni Club, described Walters as a “cheerleader” for the university. Walters is passionate about SU, and wants to see it excel, Knoblock said.

She met Walters at “Power Up Atlanta,” a panel held in 2014 that aimed to mentor young women and help them see the potential in their futures, Knoblock said.

Walters said at the forum that men will often jump into an opportunity and take chances, while women will often question their qualifications and preparedness. Knoblock said she never saw herself receiving an opportunity to become head of a school, but when she did, it turned out to be a great fit.

“Having heard Kathy speak a short while before that opportunity came my way really inspired me in my own career,” Knoblock said. “Seeing her lead the Board of Trustees is just further inspiration for what women can achieve.”

About three weeks after graduating from SU, Walters was working in New York City, at Chase Manhattan Bank’s management development program. The job was “earth-changing,” Walters said. She was hired soon after graduation, but also with little money and an apartment that cost half of her take-home pay.

There were about three women in the Chase program out of about 25 employees, Walters said.

“That’s not a great percentage, but that would be better than one,” Walters said. “Chase was trying to change that ratio at that time.”

Her marriage to SU football player Stanley Walters interfered with the amount of time she could dedicate to her career, she said. Instead of attending Yale University or New York University, Walters moved to her husband’s city of Philadelphia and received a master’s of business administration in 1978 from the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Penn, Walters worked in several “old-line” manufacturing industries. She served as the executive vice president of Georgia-Pacific, a consumer product and paper company, from 2007 until her retirement in June. She also was president of the away-from-home market of Kimberly-Clark, a personal care corporation, from 1998 to 2002.

At Georgia-Pacific, Walters put an emphasis on innovation and pushed employees to further develop their strategies. She describes herself as a developmental leader rather than a hierarchical leader.

“You’d be sad to hear how much innovation is in toilet paper,” Walters said.

Tom Armentrout, a member of the Atlanta Regional Council, first worked with Walters while she was employed at Georgia-Pacific. He’s been impressed with Walters over the years for advocating for women and minorities inside Georgia-Pacific, and said she’s now bringing that same sensitivity and leadership to SU.

Armentrout referenced the campus unrest that has continued since Nov. 7, as at least 16 hate crimes and bias incidents have occurred at or near SU. Walters’ role as chair comes at a “fortuitous” time, he said.

Walters released a statement Nov. 19 that expressed solidarity with the university and its students in light of the incidents. She supported Chancellor Kent Syverud’s response to the demands of #NotAgainSU, a movement led by black students in protest of the incidents and SU’s response to them.

Though the Board of Trustees raises money for the university, protects its endowment and ensures it is a fiscally-sound institution, Walters said the trustees are mainly focused on academics and the student experience.

The board is working to ensure that the university’s deans have the professors and resources needed to create the academic programs future students will need. The university is investing in new professors, areas of cluster research and involving students in research, Walters said.

The Barnes Center at The Arch, a multi-floor health and wellness facility that fully opened in September, is a “signature piece” of the board’s work on the student experience, Walters said. As vice chair, she and her husband funded the facility’s pet therapy room.

Syverud’s vision for SU as a student-focused research university resonates with Walters “at the highest level,” she said. Students wouldn’t go to laboratory classes, but would actually be involved with research, she said. She also expects innovation to occur at SU within the online classes and online certificate programs offered.

“You’ll find a whole different world here 20 years from now,” Walters said. “You’ll have access to things that you just wouldn’t have ever had access to because you just wouldn’t have had time to pursue them all.”

Walters said she has a strong belief in entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s something that was shaped by her father, a patent attorney, who taught Walters how to search patents. Every business she has ever run has benefitted from these qualities, she said.

SU has a legacy of entrepreneurship, Walters said. The first female chair of the Board of Trustees, who just sees herself as the chair, said the university has a list of ‘firsts’ that it has never taken credit for.

“If you think of all the firsts, you say, ‘well boy, wasn’t that entrepreneurial?’”

News editor Casey Darnell contributed reporting to this article.

Published on December 4, 2019 at 10:28 pm

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu