ABSTRACT
Two 20-year veteran women’s center directors describe moving from student to administrator in higher education where there was, and in some ways, continues to be little professional trajectory for those in the field of women’s center work. The chapter explores how women’s centers have modeled consciousness-raising as a professional development strategy within and outside of formal organizations and associations. The authors reflect on the “credentialing” now often required for women’s center staff positions, and the ways in which this focus on academic degrees has eclipsed the role of experience, particularly that of community-based organizing and advocacy work, which previously served as a pipeline for the field.
