{"id":117627,"date":"2023-09-25T13:06:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T18:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=117627"},"modified":"2023-09-25T13:06:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T18:06:11","slug":"dr-sheri-sesay-tuffour-distinguised-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-sheri-sesay-tuffour-distinguised-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Sheri Sesay-Tuffour: Top leader, lifelong student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheri Sesay-Tuffour, Ph.D., CAE, ICE-CCP, CNED, CEO of the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, has dedicated herself to the art of lifelong learning, a continuous curiosity about pursuing knowledge for personal growth and professional development. Having served as CEO at two different organizations, Dr. Sesay-Tuffour earned her Ph.D. in organizational leadership from The Chicago School<\/a>. She sees her education as an investment in herself that she credits for getting her to where she is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cLifelong learning doesn’t stop just because I’m an executive with many years of experience,\u201d Dr. Sesay-Tuffour says. \u201cEvery day, I see it as part of my role as CEO to look at ways that I can better improve myself and make a bigger impact on the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Sesay-Tuffour first attended West Virginia State University, a student-centered HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) where she was able to embrace being a young Black woman in a safe, supportive environment. It was there she realized the importance of community service and an engaged network, leading to her early career working with associations, first in economic development then in health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe association sector was my first role, and I never left it,\u201d Dr. Sesay-Tuffour says. \u201cI am die-hard passionate about the worldwide contributions of associations and mission-centric work in general. In the health care sector, as the CEO of the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, I am proud to represent an organization with a proven history of credentialling, providing continuing education and competency development for more than 56,000 nursing professionals who provide care for children, adolescents, and young adults. Children are among society\u2019s most vulnerable. Optimal child health from birth to adolescence lays the groundwork for lifelong physical, social, intellectual, and emotional well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Sesay-Tuffour knew that she wanted to evolve into leadership, having developed a plan early in her professional life to get to that point. She sought to advance in her chosen industry.<\/p>\n

Mentors encouraged her to attend more executive networking events and trainings to ramp up her leadership skills. While she did so, Dr. Sesay-Tuffour imagined another way to set herself apart and grow in her career, hearkening back to her endless pursuit of learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed another power tool to help differentiate myself from so many others in my circle,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s a competitive environment in an already competitive industry where the reality is that there are not many African Americans in top-tier positions in association management. That hammer was going to be a Ph.D.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Sesay-Tuffour searched for a program that would help elevate her skill set, be convenient for her as a working professional, and allow her to keep up with her volunteer engagements at the same time. She had been a leader in different capacities before and knew the intricacies of human and resource capital to manage programs. Now she wanted to learn the critical foundations of running and diagnosing an organizational system so she could step into an executive role. She turned to organizational leadership programs to achieve this knowledge, realizing that other students would bring their own experiences to the classroom and provide invaluable learning opportunities.<\/p>\n

After visiting several doctoral programs in the Washington, D.C., area, she was set on enrolling at The Chicago School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already working in an industry that is known to have small organizations. There was something about the close-knit community [at The Chicago School] that spoke to me,\u201d Dr. Sesay-Tuffour says. \u201cOn Day One, I was introduced to the dean of the program. I met the staff members and the faculty. I thought, \u2018This is the place that I want to be.\u2019 It was intimate, and it was positioned just right to help me gain the knowledge and build the relationships that I was looking for at that stage in my executive journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program grounded me in research, strategy, organizational management and leadership,\u201d she adds. \u201cI use so much of what I learned in my work today, in how I engage with our partners and with my staff. I still go back to my books and source things. Once you learn the principles, you have a model to follow for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Sesay-Tuffour earned her Ph.D. in organizational leadership while parenting two children, working full time, and maintaining service positions on various committees. She would eventually become a representative of the board of trustees at the West Virginia State University Foundation, the board of directors at the Institute for Credentialing Excellence, and the board of directors at the American Society of Association Executives.<\/p>\n

For her, earning a Ph.D. was all about investing in herself so she could reach her full potential. Her education at The Chicago School fortified the strategic organization skills and leadership acumen she needed to step into the role of chief executive at the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Achieving her second CEO position at the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board takes on even greater meaning when she considers that only 5% of C-suite-level leaders<\/a> are women of color.<\/p>\n

When asked what she\u2019d say to other Black women aspiring to executive roles, Dr. Sesay-Tuffour says, \u201cWe belong here. We just have to create our own paths. Creating my own passageway included making sure I went back to school. Higher education may not be in your lane. Look at yourself and be real in terms of what is the challenge that you\u2019re willing to overcome and the commitment you’re willing to partake in to get to where you want to be. Although people saw potential in me as I sought to advance in the association industry, I had to see that potential in myself first, then do the work. Don\u2019t ever underestimate the value of investing in oneself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheri Sesay-Tuffour, Ph.D., CAE, ICE-CCP, CNED, CEO of the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, has dedicated herself to the art of lifelong learning, a continuous curiosity about pursuing knowledge for personal growth and professional development. Having served as CEO at two different organizations, Dr. Sesay-Tuffour earned her Ph.D. in organizational leadership from The Chicago School. She sees her education as an investment in herself that she credits for getting her to where she is today. \u201cLifelong learning doesn’t stop just because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":117629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,113],"tags":[734,1369],"coauthors":[1036],"class_list":["post-117627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-magazine","category-psychology","tag-alumni","tag-distinguished-alumni"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Sheri Sesay-Tuffour: Top leader, lifelong student - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Chicago School alumna Sheri Sesay-Tuffour continues to invest in herself to reach her full potential.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-sheri-sesay-tuffour-distinguised-alumni\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Sheri Sesay-Tuffour: Top leader, lifelong student - 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