How an Ed.D. degree helped this chief learning officer succeed in her career

Gotian’s interest in pursuing an Ed.D. degree was sparked by her involvement in the student affairs group during college. That’s when she realized that she was passionate about helping others to succeed. “This was a journey that I knew—from the age of 20—I wanted, because that was the environment I was in,” explains Gotian, adding that many of the professors involved with the student affairs group had Ed.D. degrees. 

“I knew I was going to get an Ed.D.” she says. “And then life happened.” 

It was during a crossroads in her career, when Gotian began having bigger questions about retention issues at corporations, that she decided the time had come to make her long-held dream a reality. “I said, ‘Okay, it’s now or never.’ In 2014, she began the Ed.D. program at Columbia, ultimately graduating in 2017. 

The degree helped Gotian to move into one of her many current roles, as chief learning officer in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. In that capacity, she regularly taps into the tools she acquired through her Ed.D. studies and professional experience to lead the way in developing and enhancing educational programs in the organization. Gotian is also the author of The Success Factor and an assistant professor of education in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell.

Fortune sat down with Gotian to learn about how the Ed.D. helps her thrive in her current role.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Why pursuing an Ed.D. was the right choice

Fortune: Tell me about your Ed.D. degree and your concentration. 

Gotian: I wanted to learn from those who came up with education theories and did the research. I wanted to learn from the source. Look, I was 40-something when I applied, so I knew my chances of getting into my top choice were slim. So I only told five people about my decision to apply—three of them wrote the letters of recommendation, and the others were my husband and my uncle. I didn’t even tell my parents at that point! I didn’t want anyone to try to talk me out of it. Thankfully, I did get into my first choice school, Columbia University Teachers College, and the rest is history. 

In terms of my concentration, I met with the then-head of admissions, Dr. Tom Rock, who is now the vice provost for student affairs. And I said: Look, I really want to study higher education and administration. He said: “Well, what do you want to do?” I told him, and he said, “I think you’re interested in adult learning and leadership.” I didn’t even know what that was. He planted the seed. 

I started looking into it, and I said: Yes, this is exactly what I want! I applied to that program, and I was enamored with all the faculty and all the subjects and everything we were learning because it was based on research and theory, but it was all about applying it and putting it into practice in the workplace.

Fast forward to today. What is your role as chief learning officer? 

I tell people in one line: My job is to make people successful.

I take them from where they are to where they want to be. And I do this by offering information and resources in a variety of ways. So there will be articles, video conference meetings, courses-–in long-form, short form, one-on-one, big groups, small groups—because we know that people have different constraints and ways of absorbing and processing information. 

We want to provide access to educational information in all of those formats. And then, because I work in an academic medical center, it’s also about helping people with qualitative research and writing. For example, we’re getting people to publish in journals where they’ve always wanted to publish but didn’t know how to approach the process. In other words, we don’t do a one-size-fits-all model. We offer a variety of ways to learn.

In my role, I also coach the faculty, and that’s a new opportunity for them. If every Olympic athlete can have a coach, we should all be able to have one. That’s a fun part of the job.

How did your Ed.D. prepare you for your role as chief learning officer?

The reason I wanted to get the degree is because the program doesn’t just teach you the theories. It’s all about how to apply them. So I learned about adult development, which is about how we’re all different variations of normal; how we process information is different. I learned about the different adult learning styles and different leadership styles.

I took a class about leadership and I didn’t think I would ever use that. Except now we’re working on a project that is about using virtual reality to teach what is often called ‘soft skills,’ which I call ‘power skills.’ These are useful in the operating room, for example. 

How do you work and interact with other people? It’s communication, interpersonal skills, teamwork, time management, creative thinking, conflict resolution, adaptability, and leadership. These are all power skills, which I learned about in my Ed.D.

How an Ed.D. can quench your thirst for knowledge

Before getting your Ed.D., did you know that you wanted to have the role of chief learning officer? 

It’s interesting, I didn’t know I wanted to be a chief learning officer. But I always subscribed to the Chief Learning Officer magazine because it was all about helping people develop professionally. And I get to do that now. My story started in student affairs in college where I was helping people develop professionally. 

And my research on extreme high achievers is about how we can get people to be more successful. Everyone always focuses on those who leave the pipeline. I’ve always been more interested in those who stay and do well. I often questioned, how can we get and even make more of those people?

How did the Ed.D. curriculum prepare you for your current role?

All of the classes I took helped me set the foundation. And the courses taught me different ways in which teaching methods can be implemented. Often at school we learn a variety of things, but we don’t learn how to apply them. If we don’t know how to apply them, those things are not giving us much use in the day-to-day world. So, I get to constantly go between being an academic, grounded in theory, and also teaching people how to apply knowledge. And that’s what makes the theories sound and trusted.

What are some transferable skills you learned while studying your Ed.D.?

The biggest skill was understanding that adults take in and process information differently. We process it differently from children, but we also process it differently from each other, even if we’re in the same profession. The other skill is group dynamics—why certain things work in group settings. Thirdly, leadership development taught me how to listen for what is not said—that made me a much stronger qualitative researcher, find themes, and ask follow up questions.

You mentioned that you decided to pursue your Ed.D. later in your career. Can you tell me more about that?

I have a master’s degree in business and I needed a break after that. Then I got married and started a family, and that was not the time to go back to school. Later, I had been working at the same place and I didn’t know exactly what my next move would be. But, I knew there were questions that I wanted answered. Why are we always focused on those who are leaving instead of those who are staying at organizations? How can we get those who stay to succeed? I kept asking those questions and nobody answered. I said: Well, it’s now or never. Let’s do it.

When I got my master’s degree, we didn’t have e-learning classes, mixed media, or Google classroom. We barely had the Internet. So for a year or two prior to starting my Ed.D. I was taking online courses through the eCornell online programs to figure out if I could do this online stuff. I knew I would at least have to submit papers online and have group conversations, and I didn’t know how to do that virtually. I realized: Oh, I can do this! I then took classes at Columbia University as a non-degree student to see if I could keep the pace and rigor. I did this while simultaneously applying to the doctoral program and that solidified the idea that this is possible.

Going back to school later in life is not easy. It’s an enormous commitment, and you have to be all in. Part of the Ed.D. is structured—the classes. Once you start doing your research, however, there is no timeline. You have to motivate and push yourself, and give yourself deadlines. That’s where most people fall off the wagon. You need to know that you can motivate yourself, have exceptional time management skills, and a support system. It’s the best professional decision I’ve made.

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