When Paige Williams saw the job posting for a new Dean of the School of Visual & Performing Arts, she was struck by the similarities between Endicott and the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Though she was instantly captivated by the College’s waterfront location, further research revealed the focus on experiential learning. “I was blown away by the amount of support for students, as well as the professional development and study abroad opportunities,” she said. “That was something I was working on at my school.”
She’d been mulling over a change for a while, but after decades in Ohio, any move—especially from her role as Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs—had to be for the right fit.
But it was the right fit—and Williams officially arrived at Endicott College in June, succeeding Mark Towner as Dean of the School of Visual & Performing Arts. Her appointment and Julie Kenny Calzini’s naming as the Myrt Harper Rose ’56 Dean of the School of Education in January 2024 now place women at the helm of five of the College’s eight schools.
From its origins as a two-year women’s college to its current status as a dynamic, rapidly growing institution, these appointments reflect a significant moment in Endicott’s evolution and underscores the importance of leadership diversity.
Now, as they settle into their prominent roles, Calzini—an established leader within the School of Education—and Williams, who brings a fresh perspective as a renowned working artist herself, are poised to shape the future of Endicott with their forward-thinking vision.
But before they landed at Endicott, Williams and Calzini took similarly circuitous—and wildly fascinating—paths to find their way to their fields and the Nest.
Making good trouble with Julie Kenny Calzini
Julie Kenny Calzini knows she has big shoes to fill in her appointment’s namesake.
That’s because longtime Endicott Trustee Myrt Harper Rose ’56 is known for bold, daring living. She’s wing-walked on airplanes, scuba dived for treasure, and even ridden an elephant in Florida while wearing a flesh-colored bodysuit to create the illusion of nudity.
“She seems like such a badass,” said Calzini.
But Calzini is a badass in her own right, too. Growing up in a lively Irish-American family in Danvers, Mass., Calzini’s life took a sharp turn when her father’s job moved the family to Galway, Ireland. She quickly adapted, learning Irish to keep up in school, and falling in love with her ancestral homeland. When the time came to return to Danvers, family legend has it that she dug her fingers into the front lawn, bolting herself into the damp Irish landscape.
“My dad had to come and rip me out of the earth,” she said. “I was devastated.”
Returning to Danvers with a thick brogue, Calzini’s sharp intellect landed her in gifted programs, but she noticed the disparities between her education and her friends’ experiences. This ignited her lifelong commitment to educational equity. At home, she tutored her siblings and, back in the classroom, began advocating for classmates with learning disabilities.
“I couldn’t understand why I was doing cool stuff while others weren’t, so I started speaking out to teachers,” Calzini said. This early advocacy led her toward education, though she once believed she’d be a lawyer.
Calzini worked numerous jobs to pay for college, including lifeguarding, bank-telling, and babysitting. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she chose Merrimack College over the University of Vermont, where she had been recruited for DI field hockey. “I don’t regret it,” she said. “I was there for my family when they needed me.”
She worked at Merrimack’s Writing Center, saving to pursue a job in Ireland—until the harsh reality of the country’s economy set in. Instead, she backpacked through 11 European countries after graduation, contemplating whether law school was her next step.
Calzini was often told she was strong-willed and opinionated—traits that made a legal career seem inevitable. But after passing the LSATS and getting into law school, she packed her car and moved to Arizona to start graduate school for education instead.
After her experience in Merrimack’s Writing Center, “I figured out that I liked to help people make that connection between their ideas and how to express them,” she said. “I also thought it would be a good gig to be a teacher and to coach, too.”
When her mother’s health declined, Calzini transferred to Salem State University, attending night school. While working full-time, she earned her teaching credentials and became an English teacher at Revere High School, and then at Pentucket and Masconomet, where she became an early advocate for DEIB principles.
In her teaching, Calzini built strong relationships with students, especially those who struggled. “When they came into my class, it was a fresh start,” she said.
Calzini believes in the power of fresh starts, including her own. After over 20 years in secondary education and an Ed.D. from Northeastern University, Calzini found her way to Endicott. She started as the Director of Endicott Teaching Fellows and was soon promoted to Associate Dean and later Acting Dean before being officially named Myrt Harper Rose ’56 Dean.
Now, Calzini is working to expand the possibilities for education degrees at Endicott. Over the summer, she collaborated with Gene Wong, Dean of the School of Science & Technology, on a National Science Foundation grant to redesign the trajectory for secondary education students. Their goal is to allow students to earn a bachelor’s degree in three years and a master’s in four, with a year-long clinical service experience. “We’re trying to entice young people into STEM education, especially in high-needs areas like biology and math,” she said.
Calzini is also focused on improving the doctoral program. She’s restructuring it so students begin in the summer and has revised the curriculum to help current teachers explore leadership and curriculum development more deeply. “This will better prepare them to affect change,” she said.
“I’m so happy to see what the school is doing,” Rose said of the School of Education’s momentum in the fall/winter 2022 edition of Soundings. “It’s wonderful to experience the growth and the path they’re taking.”
Under Calzini’s leadership, Endicott was also invited to the Carnegie Professional Education Doctorate (CPED) convening as Explorer Members, which aligns with her goals to ground the doctoral program in equity. “CPED supports equity-minded professionals, and this is an incredible opportunity to further our goal of producing reflective, culturally competent leaders,” she said.
Despite her academic accomplishments, Calzini remains the wry, sharp educator she’s always been. And she’s still eyeing a return to Ireland—this time through dual citizenship.
“I know people don’t think of retiring in Ireland, but I’d be so happy,” she said.
Inside Paige Williams’ life shaped by aesthetics
Growing up in Lexington, Ky., Paige Williams was surrounded by art.
Her father was an architect, and she lived among what she called “aesthetically pleasing objects”—from flatware to furniture, “everything was considered,” she said. “We didn’t just have things around—home was a creatively stimulating space.”
Williams has carried that ethos into her office in the School of Visual & Performing Arts. A working artist herself, Williams has lined the room with paintings—hers and her former students’ from the Art Academy of Cincinnati—and with knickknacks and tchotchkes like ceramics, hand-blown glass figurines, a trophy from a road race she ran.
“I’ve gradually brought stuff from home,” she said.
Home is now Beverly for Williams, but the Southerner-turned-Midwesterner grew up roaming her father’s office, playing with his architectural supplies: “He had every marker and every kind of paper,” she mused.
There was never a doubt Williams would also pursue a life of aesthetically pleasing objects, and she doesn’t recall a time when she wasn’t making art. Her first “real painting,” she said—a copy of an Italian landscape—was in eighth grade. By ninth grade, she was enrolled in a kids’ summer program for the arts at Murray State University, and a teacher noticed her talent. By high school, she was the teacher’s pet of art class.
“I was always in the art room,” she recalled. “They let me hang out in there whenever. They supported and pushed me and I won a few awards.”
But she didn’t realize until college that “being an artist is a thing,” she said. “Art gets made, but I never realized people were artists. My parents didn’t take me to museums; and while they were engrossed in the idea of their environment being aesthetically pleasing, there just wasn’t a lot in Lexington.”
At Eastern Kentucky University, though, life took off when Williams studied abroad in Austria.
“That’s where I gained so much confidence and realized how large the world was—and how small my world was,” she said. “The possibilities of putting yourself out there and being in an environment where you’re not in control—it opened up my world.”
Williams pursued an MFA at the University of Cincinnati. “It was the big city compared to Lexington,” she said.
After graduating, Williams set out to find work. Teaching jobs were hard to come by, “so I was thinking, ‘What else do I do that I love that would support my art?’”
One afternoon, she got the newspaper and found an ad for a six-week course to become a travel agent. But just like that, the phone rang. The Art Academy of Cincinnati wanted to see if she could teach a class.
That was 1990, and Williams served as an adjunct professor for seven years between Northern Kentucky University and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Williams had four jobs, including teaching, working at the mall, waiting tables, and freelancing for a publication company that sold how-to art books.
But Williams loved teaching most, and that passion inspired her to lead a variety of courses, from art history to painting. She thrived on creating syllabi and researching for her classes, and when the painting professor at the Art Academy was set to retire, she applied for and was chosen for the position after a competitive national search.
Her journey continued when the studio arts chair became dean, and Williams was asked to step into the role of studio arts chair. Eventually, when the dean retired, she was offered that role, too.
Throughout her career, Williams earned a reputation as a passionate educator, empathetic leader, skilled administrator, and accomplished artist. She exhibited her work internationally and attended prestigious residencies, including the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center.
“Art is a fundamental part of who we are as humans—we make things and we’re inspired by things. It’s necessary for our survival,” Williams said.
As dean, she successfully built a Center for Teaching and Learning, led the accreditation process for new programs, broadened study abroad access, and joined national organizations to expand her knowledge and the institution’s reach—all while enthusiastically building her network.
But after 34 years—during which she got divorced, experienced her parents’ passing, and watched her son grow up—Williams was restless. “I loved Ohio and I’ll always love that school,” she said, “but I just thought, ‘What else is out there?’”
Known for her nonobjective paintings, Williams now finds inspiration and serenity in the North Shore coastline. At Endicott, she’s excited to lead a school that goes beyond the visual arts, overseeing diverse programs like interior architecture—a passion she inherited from her father—as well as art therapy and performing arts.
Just months into her new role, she’s diving deep into the curriculum, looking for growth opportunities, while getting to know the community and brainstorming ways to recruit students of color to the School of Visual & Performing Arts.
“I love problem-solving, and in academia and especially in art, there’s no one right answer,” she said. “There are so many possibilities in academia, and that’s very similar to being an artist. It’s like you’re looking for something but you don’t know where you’ll end up. It’s open-ended. It’s exciting.”