Last Tuesday, Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, pediatric oncologist Jessica Sachs and Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman (NEJS) spoke about their professional journeys on a panel called "Desserts & Dialogue: Women in Leadership."

The event was a part of the Brandeis Leadership Week sponsored by the Department of Community Living and the Department of Student Events.

The three women spoke to a packed audience in Levine-Ross in the Hassenfeld Conference Center, and began by presenting narrations of their career paths.

McCarthy was born and raised in Waltham. After receiving an undergraduate degree in biology from Boston College, she worked in a factory for four years, attended night school to receive a law degree from Suffolk University and attended graduate school at Northeastern University. Later, she volunteered for the Waltham community and ran for the school committee, a position that she held from 1986 to 1991, according to her website.

Ultimately, McCarthy decided to get involved with politics in order to "give back." She worked first in the City of Waltham law department for seven years, and in 2004, became the mayor. She was the first woman to hold the position in the town's history, beating opponents that included an incumbent and a former mayor's son, she said.

"I've been fortunate to be the mayor of my hometown," McCarthy said during the panel, citing Waltham's diverse population and "two beautiful universities" among the town's assets.
McCarthy added that her legal and science training have helped her in her career path. Of additional aspects to her approach as mayor she said, "I try to be honest and tell the people, 'I can do this, I can't do that.'"

Sachs, who works at Massachusetts General Hospital and Millennium Pharmaceutical Company, called herself a "transplant to the area," having moved to Newton, Mass. from Maryland in high school.

In her career path, Sachs said that she was initially sure of four things in which she was later proven wrong. As an undergraduate biology student at Duke University, Sachs said she was first sure that she wanted to be a scientist and had no interest in medicine. After then choosing a Doctor of Medicine program for financial reasons, she said that she thought she was sure that she wanted to do research rather than working with patients. However, after working in a clinic and enjoying working with patients more than she anticipated, the third thing she said she thought she knew was that she did not want to work in pediatrics "because I found children very frustrating," she said.

Sachs said that she was ultimately drawn to pediatrics, in part because children are generally healthy. "It was very empowering, to be able to fix someone, ... knowing that they could go on to lead perfectly normal lives," she said.

Then, while at what is now Tufts Medical Center, Sachs said that the fourth thing she initially thought was that she wasn't interested in oncology. However, during her residency, she said that she discovered that pediatric oncology was indeed the right route for her and went on to an oncology fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital, which was both the worst year of her life and "definitely also one of the best things I've ever done."

"Every one of those children I've cared for is part of who I am, part of my identity," Sachs said.

Fishman, the department chair of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, was born in Wisconsin. "I always loved to read, and I loved to read things that weren't true," she said. She eventually went on to study English at Washington University in St. Louis.

Despite beginning her career in what she called "the bad old days," in which she, as a married woman with children, was denied academic and professional opportunities, Fishman went on to teach English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Fishman first began her time at Brandeis assisting with sociological research. Ultimately, she said, she was the first female in the NEJS department to be on the tenure track, and is also the first woman to act as chair of the department.

Fishman observed the "shared motif of 'winding paths'" in the three women's journeys. She said that this quality has always been true of women's career paths, but that it is now true for both men and women. Another motif that she noted was that of "people that throw their whole heart and soul into whatever part of the path they're on."

In response to an audience question about women being cautioned against dressing femininely in the workplace, Fishman said, "I didn't wear nail polish until I got tenure." At the time that she was beginning her career, she said that dressing professionally but not calling too much attention to oneself as a woman was important.

McCarthy added that because those in the political sphere "judge you upside, downside, every side" until they get to know you, a positive first impression is important. Her frequent response, however, is that "you didn't pay me for dressing up; you pay be for my brain," she continued.

In response to an audience question about sexism in the field, McCarthy said that she keeps her mother's advice in mind: "What you do reflects upon you, and what other people do reflects upon them, and just remember that." She advised the audience to "very respectfully stand your ground" in such situations.

Fishman similarly advised the audience to "stick up for yourself without being defensive" and to be "appropriately forceful in the way you present yourself."

As a final word of advice, McCarthy said, "you have got to have experience to know what you really want, [and] you have got to have courage to change what you want when you're not happy."