The daunting task would seem impossible to manage, but Dr. Dotson, supported by a full learning development team, is beyond qualified. “I was born to do this. I don’t know how to do anything else but grow leaders.” Dr. Dotson, often described as “positive” and “sparkly” by colleagues and reports, has been on track to fill this Liberty Mutual role since her days as a serious and focused latch-key kid who spent a couple of hours reading—history and self-improvement books being her favorites—until her two older sisters came home from high school each day. Mentored by her beloved books, Dr. Dotson began down a path of curiosity and interest that laid the foundation for her grounded but open and perhaps unconventional worldview. Still, no shrinking violet, a duality was apparent early as she was also encouraged by an eighth-grade teacher to discover and develop her love of public performance as she participated in cheerleading, debate, and dance. “I never had a fear of public performance, and she helped activate that in me. I became comfortable in front of people in many different capacities.”
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I was born to do this. I don’t know how to do anything else but grow leaders.
Dr. Dotson credits two families—both her own and the Huxtables—for establishing her incredibly strong work ethic and for opening her eyes to possibility. “My family upbringing taught me a lot. Everybody in my family worked all the time. They taught me that my life is my responsibility. The greatest gift I got from them is this notion of self-sufficiency and independence.” Although she has lived away from her family for many years, they reach out to one another, often daily. Through the years, their gems of support and acceptance have served Dr. Dotson well. She learned early from them to go full throttle after her dreams and to be authentic, even if her true self happened to be different than most. Attending Chicago’s Jones College Prep High School, a business-focused school then known as Jones Commercial, Dr. Dotson went to school parttime and went to work part-time as a receptionist. Although she fully intended to go away to college, a workplace offer of full tuition and expenses paid at Northeastern Illinois University was impossible to turn down, so she remained in Chicago, taking on a fulltime position in human resources with her employer on top of beginning her undergraduate career. Restricted to the twenty-four hours the heavens dictate, the young Tiffany didn’t have a lot of time for extracurriculars between class and work. “I was too responsible. I didn’t have a lot of fun in college, I was so serious.” She did make the commitment to pledge the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, which she values tremendously. Unlike the steadiness of sisterhood, Tiffany’s studies evolved over time with the same intensity of self-evolution that showed itself at a young age. Tiffany began as a journalism major with the ultimate goal of becoming a news anchor, but after learning that she’d have to put in years and years as a reporter first, she switched to philosophy—the study of the concepts of logic, beauty, knowledge, and morals. But a sudden and dramatic shift came from nowhere her sophomore year when a sociology class plunged her into a deep dive into leadership with Adolf Hitler. The assignment was for students to choose a leader in history that they disagreed vehemently with. The twist came when the students were next assigned to write a paper showing the effectiveness of their leadership, whether the leaders’ actions were perceived as right or wrong. “I had a hard time arguing—in the space of leadership—that what he did was ineffective. It was useful to study him because he was very effective at inspiring an organization . . . He put up a compelling vision, got people to rally behind it, got people to execute flawlessly. I became fascinated.”