Oral History Program Christy Tribe Interviewed by Sarah MacKay 28 January 2018 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Christy Tribe Interviewed by Sarah MacKay 28 January 2018 Copyright © 2023 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. 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These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Tribe, Christy, an oral history by Sarah MacKay, 28 January 2018, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections and University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Christy Tribe Circa 2018 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Christy Tribe. It is being conducted on January 28, 2018 at Christy Tribe's home and concerns minorities and women in leadership. The interviewer is Sarah Mackay. SM: This is an oral history interview with Christy Tribe conducted by Sarah MacKay January 28, 2018 at 5 p.m. in Christy's home. In this interview Christy discusses her recollection and experiences with leadership. Please start by telling us about your background. CT: I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was the third of three children and my background is I had a pretty normal childhood. When my mom, when I was about eight years old my mom and dad got divorced and so I came from a single-parent household. I think that shaped a little bit of my life watching my mom try to care for her family and just living on more humble means. SM: What hobbies and education and other stuff have you had? CT: I like to, I like design, I like to shop. I remember once in an interview telling someone that my ideal job would be getting paid to shop and I can't believe they hired me anyway. It was to answer phones. I like people. I like finding out about people, helping people, and I like to travel. SM: What experiences have you had in childhood, teenage years, and adulthood that lead you to believe that you were or could be a leader? CT: Some of the experiences that I had from childhood that led me to believe that I could be a leader and that I was a leader are, I remember from the time I was very little, my mom telling me I could do anything I wanted to do and be anything I wanted to be. I also remember that, for both of my parents, college was expected. It 1 wasn't something that, was something that I might want to do; it was, “When you go to college.” And my parents felt that way about my brother but also my sister and I and I remember my mom was always, in any situation that I was in that I felt like I couldn't do it or it was over my head or not confident, she knew that even if I didn't have confidence in me, she had confidence in me. And I think it's really important that children have at least one person in their lives who thinks they can do anything. SM: What are your core values? CT: I think my core values that I really learned from early on from my family of origin were honesty, loyalty, service, being considerate and I think that they're really important in leadership. I think for me the one thing that has helped me in leadership is to say what I mean and mean what I say, and also to make sure that if I say that I'm going to do something I deliver and that I'm really honest in my dealings. I also think that it's really important to give more than you take and to make sure that you are helping people more than they're helping you in business, because that makes for good business transactions. SM: How have these values influenced your leadership and abilities? CT: My core values have influenced my leadership and abilities I think in really good ways. I think that people trust me. I think that they know that I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do, and I think it's really important for women to lead the way women lead. Women tend to be givers and they tend to be very nice and very cordial, and I think I've heard a lot of advice from men that maybe not to be so giving and kind in leadership. But I think in the long run it really benefits you to have partners that know that they can trust you. 2 SM: Name a person whose had a tremendous impact on you as a leader. CT: I had the opportunity early on in my work at Junior Achievement of Utah to have a board chair. His name's Ron Jibson and he was the CEO of Questar Corporation at the time, now it's Dominion. And it's interesting because I left Junior Achievement for a little while, and he called me up on the phone and asked me if he could meet me to lunch. My position wasn't very high there but he was really interested in why I was leaving and what I was doing, and he was really interested in me. So as I came back, he became someone that I really wanted to emulate because what I realized is, he made me feel very important. He made time for me when he was a very busy man. And the things that I value in him: I've gone to him when I need advice, when I'm seeking a promotion, or just when I'm in trouble or in a situation that I think might be a precarious because I know he'll offer me really good advice. But I think the thing that I like the most about him and his mentorship that means the most to me is just the fact that he believes in me like my mother did. He believes I can do anything I set my mind to do and he has confidence in my abilities. So, talking to him, I feel like we worked through solutions together and I feel confident in the solutions that I come up with. SM: What do you see as the biggest challenges of being a women leader in Northern Utah and how do you overcome those challenges? CT: It's interesting because when I decided that I wanted to move up at Junior Achievement and apply for the CEO position I had several people who actually came to me and said, "You don't golf. You're a woman. We've never had a woman in that position. I think it's going to be really hard for you." And I was a little bit shocked and perplexed because, I think, you know, 3 especially in the nonprofit world where you see more women in the jobs, I wasn't expecting that. I think it threw me off base for a little while. But I just kept believing that I was the best candidate for the job and I think that it does happen here in Utah more than other places, because so many women choose not to work full time. They're not as used to -- we're not, as a society, used to seeing women in leadership positions and I think women have to keep telling themselves that they can do it and they're confident and capable. SM: What advice would you give emerging young women leaders in order to be successful? CT: The advice that I would give young women emerging leaders in order to be successful is to believe in yourself. It's interesting because statistics show that if a man is looking at a job and he's looking at the qualifications that are needed, if he has one or two of those qualifications he'll apply for that job. For a woman, if she doesn't have every single one of those qualifications, she won't. We've got to change that. Women are more critical of themselves and they don't see themselves in leadership roles. We really, really need to change that dynamic and that thought process, and more women have to go for it and just be in leadership positions. I also think it's really important that women help women. Sometimes there's a scarcity mentality where women aren't as forthright with helping another woman to be successful because there's only so many jobs that women can hold, or there's a perception of that. I think it's really important that we help each other and we work together and take care of each other. One of the things that I think is really important for young women and girls in Utah to realize is the importance of education and the importance of 4 being able to have a career, any career, even if they plan to work that career part-time. The reality is most women in Utah, 90% of the women in Utah will be the major provider of their family at some point. So I think a lot of women think, "Well, I want to be a mom and I want to be a wife and I don't know that I want to spend that much time in school or that much time learning a trade for my career." What I would say to those girls is, the reality is, is that I was a single mom without a college degree working a minimum-wage job and I had to finish school while I was working with two kids, and that's not the way you want to do it. I think what girls need to realize is that you have more of an opportunity to be with your children and spend more time with them the more educated that you get, because I know that I wasn't when I was first working the jobs that I had. I wasn't able to get off and go to back-to-school night or leave during the middle of the day, and I know a lot of women who are architects and engineers and lawyers and have jobs that they can do at home that they're more flexible with. So I think the reality is that most women are going to have to support their families at some point or be a major supporter in their family and that they can have both. They can have a career and they can be a mom, and the more educated they are, the more they'll make, the less time that they'll have to work. SM: What other insights can you share about being a woman leader in Northern Utah? CT: I think for me, a lot of times in situations that I'm in, I'm the only woman in the room. And it's a little bit intimidating and it's a little scary to be the only woman at a meeting. But here's what I will say: statistics show that any time that you have 5 diversity in a group, your productivity goes up. So what I would really, really encourage is for women to realize that they do have a place at the table; that in any big decisions that need to be made in any large corporation, women and men are needed to add diversity and different opinions. SM: Awesome. Thank you for sharing all of that with us and thank you for letting me come interview you. CT: You're welcome. 6