Stephanie Hightower first broke on to the scene as a track and field star at The Ohio State University. She holds the world record for the 60-yard hurdle, and went on to serve the people of Columbus as a member of the Columbus City School Board, Columbus City Council, the Columbus College of Art and Design, and is currently the president of USA Track and Field – all while working as the first female CEO of the Columbus Urban League.

It’s hard to get a world-class hurdler to slow down long enough for an interview, but (614) managed to get an hour to find out more about this woman on the fast track.

How would you describe yourself?

The one thing I tell people when I’m introduced to a crowd is that I’m Cameron Baker’s mom, first and foremost. I also would say I consider myself an energetic, high-maintenance and passionate person.

What about your professional life and background?

I am the chairman and president of USA Track and Field and we are currently preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, so I’m doing a lot of work around that event. This is my fourth month as president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, and I am the first woman to hold this post. It is an honor and privilege to do this work and serve the urban community and really to reposition the Columbus Urban League and its relevancy to the community today.

What are your duties as CEO of the Urban League?

Based upon the economic climate in our country today, the services we provide are very, very important: career services, housing, childhood early learning opportunities, GED preparation and job readiness programs are just some of the services we offer to the community. We do a lot of work to help African American males stabilize their families.

It’s been said you have well-honed political skills and the ability to build constituencies around ideas. If you had the job of coaching a young person to develop those skills, what training regimen would you focus on?

Never, ever, ever burn bridges. We live in a small community. Even though Columbus is a big city, it’s built around intimate community networks. Knowing your audience and building relationships are so important. If you want to build consensus, you have to understand the people you are engaging with and develop strong long-term relationships. You accomplish this with integrity and accountability. When someone asks you to do something, if you say yes, they need to know you can be counted on to follow through and make sure it gets done and done right.

You are a community leader and a woman with a very strong personality, and competitive nature. When did you first discover that drive within yourself?

I remember being such a chatterbox in the second grade. My teacher would sometimes make me and my classmates stay after school and write I WILL NOT TALK a hundred times. That became my first competition: to see who could write it all first. It became an-all out competition and a game to win. I had to make a game out of it, because I knew I was going to go home and get a spanking (laughs). It’s interesting; I came into the office about a week ago and only had about three holiday cards on my door. The housing department downstairs had their entire door covered with cards. So I looked at the housing director and joked, ‘You have more cards than I do!’ Then one of my colleagues answered, ‘Are you always this competitive about everything?’ (laughs). My husband tells me the same thing – ‘Everything is a competition with you.’ I think it’s just instinctive, but I am trying to dial it down some because I know it is sometimes irritating to people.

When did you win your first award as an athlete?

It was in Germany on the military base. I was 13 and ran a race against the boys and won! That was my first real competition when I knew I wanted to run track.

You lived in Germany?

I’m a military brat, so that’s part of where my hard core comes from. I had a strict no-nonsense father. We lived in Germany for three years while he was stationed in Baumberg.

On the subject of girls competing with boys, what was your experience as a female athlete in the era of Title IX?

I was the first track and field scholarship athlete at Ohio State because of Title IX. There were a lot of inequities in resource allotments for women’s sports then. I will say, a change we are seeing in collegiate sports now, is there was a time when men never wanted to coach the girls’ teams. As a result, there were always coaching jobs available for women athletes. Now that women’s sports are more accepted, and have a solid place in the sports arena, we have women competing with men for those coaching slots. We see this a lot in track and field. It used to be you could look at any college program and find women coaches running the women’s teams. Now, all across the board men are taking those slots. When Ohio State selected the first man (Jim Foster) to coach the women’s basketball team, I was very disappointed. Not that he is not a good coach, but these decisions are bumping women out. A woman can’t go and coach a Division I men’s basketball team. How many women do you see coaching men’s teams? None. But the men are coming in and coaching ours. It’s one of those issues I’m keeping an eye on and watching how the dynamics play out in our country.

Let’s talk about your experience as an Olympic track and field athlete. It was 1979. You were slated to compete and favored to win gold. Russia invaded Afghanistan and President Jimmy Carter decreed our country would boycott the Olympics. All your dreams were crushed in that moment. If you could sit down with the president and talk about that experience, what would that conversation be like?

(Stephanie’s face became somber as she took a long pause and cleared her throat before answering.) I’m still a little ... I think as I’ve gotten older, I’m not as bitter, but I’m still very disappointed how the president chose to use the spirit of what the Olympics represent in making a statement on behalf of our country. Basically, I still see it as a punishment to all the athletes who trained for years to make this team. I felt then it was the wrong political statement to make and I still believe that today. When you look at the Olympic movement and what it represents, while the politics are there in it, I think he could have made a stronger argument by allowing us to go, perform and win medals, as opposed to the boycott. I think the bigger statement would have been showcased in the accomplishments of our athletes. Russia boycotted our Olympics in ’94, and that didn’t accomplish anything either. I think the international politicians have learned from that and are not doing that anymore. You just don’t get anything out of it. Participating showcases your country. It builds national pride. That, to me, would have been a much bigger statement than telling our athletes to sit at home. I was in my prime then. Not to be able to fulfill that dream was a huge disappointment.

Can you ever think of a political situation that would warrant an Olympic boycott?

Probably. There were times when Apartheid was prevalent in South Africa where I did personally boycott an event. I wouldn’t go to run in a track meet down there. That was even before Mandela was released. I was offered the chance to run several races, but I refused. So yeah, but I think it needs to be an individual choice. To penalize an entire Olympic team I think is wrong, but if an individual wants to stand down, that’s their choice. On the other hand, look at what Jessie Owens accomplished when he competed in Berlin. It gave the United States the opportunity to really showcase democracy. That could have and would have been the same message we would have sent had we gone to Moscow. That’s the example I believe President Carter should have used.

So it goes back to your philosophy on building relationships; you gain more ground when you engage.

Absolutely.

Your uncle, Paul Warfield, played football for Ohio State, and went on to play for the NFL. Do you ever play a little football with your Uncle Paul?

No (laughs). I’m the one person in my family who does not watch much football. It’s a great entertainment vehicle, though. My friends Joyce and Otto Beatty have a huge Super Bowl party every year, but I don’t go to watch the game, I go to socialize with my friends. Angela Pace is always sitting in the front row glued to the game, but not me. I’m chatting it up with my pals in the kitchen. I guess I’m that way because I grew up with my uncle and every weekend, it was football, football, football. You couldn’t move, you couldn’t talk, and even here at Ohio State, it’s still football, football, football. It’s all just a bit much. I’m a basketball fan.

Why did you go into public service?

Oh, there are so many stories I could share, but I’ll give you a recent one. We have a program here at the Urban League helping men stabilize their families. We work with men who can’t see their children because of back payments in child support. Not many people know this, but when a parent falls far enough behind, it becomes a felony. This often means they lose their driver’s license, both of which impede their ability to get work. It’s a vicious cycle. Helping people, and helping families get back together – that’s what matters. I had those experiences working with the school board, too, and with the state while working with the department of mental health. You go into these schools and children’s centers and you see these tiny little faces and they just come up to you and all they want is a hug. In some situations, you realize it might be the only hug they get all day. It’s moments like that that just break your heart and drive you to make a difference. We all have a responsibility to be our brother’s keeper and it’s those kinds of experiences that keep me grounded.

Your clients at the center face some very difficult challenges.

Yes they do. I had a gentleman walk in recently in tears, in tears. He had his paycheck with him. His wages were garnished for back child support and his take home pay for two weeks was two dollars. Two dollars! We contacted the proper agencies to fix it, and get it cleaned up, but two weeks later he came in and the same thing happened. He said to me, ‘I cannot go home and bring my wife a paycheck of only two dollars. I just can’t do that.’ Luckily he came in early enough that day that our staff had time to work out the problem and get a new check issued for him. This is what we try to do here. It’s not that these men are saying they are not going to pay their child support, but we need to make the system work in a way that is reasonable and fair.

Who are the people that inspire you?

The people who work here are incredible. I try to walk through the offices every day and let the staff know how much I appreciate them. I know there are hard-to-serve, hard-to-employ clients here, so I just want to make sure my people know that I am their cheerleader. They inspire me.

What are your goals for the agency in the future?

I hope that we can encourage community leaders and thought leaders to come here and see the kind of work we are doing. I want them to see for themselves the services we provide and have the experience to allow them to understand what we do. Too many people are just too far removed from the reality of what we are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. I have a responsibility to educate them about our mission. Nobody is a ‘throwaway’ person, regardless of their past. We have to find ways to help these people become productive citizens. That’s what we are all about. I tell my staff we have to find new ways to get this job done. I tell them, ‘Don’t tell me no, tell me how.’

You spend your days with boots on the ground with people in need, then get all dressed up and go to high-dollar fundraisers. What’s that like?

I think it’s a talent and a gift not everyone has. My job is to bring these groups together for positive change. But the reality is you have to do that in a way that ensures everyone is comfortable. I am not in any way naive about that.

Tell us about your home life.

I live in the ’hood (laughs). It’s a great neighborhood. I live in Emerson Burkhart’s house. He was a famous artist from Columbus. I’ll tell you a story about the people of Columbus. My son went to the Columbus Academy. He wanted to have a sleepover, so we invited all his friends from school. I told my mother about it and she said, ‘What if no one comes? These people are from the suburbs. I’m not sure they are going to want to drop their kids off in the ’hood.’ But that’s not what happened. Everyone came, and about half the parents ended up coming in for drinks and staying for several hours. We had a great time.

So it sounds like your house is the one where all the kids come to hang out?

Mmm-hmm. You know it. Ya gotta have food, ya gotta have drinks, but you would rather have them there because you know they are safe. It’s expensive, but well worth it. As a parent, you can sleep at night. My savior is Sam’s Club. Ya gotta have that if you have teenage boys!

If you could play a character in a movie, who would you be?

Harriet Tubman.

If they made a movie about you, what actress would you want to play the lead?

Angelina Jolie. I don’t care what anybody says, I just love her.

When you meet someone who has never been to Columbus, how do you describe our city?

Because I have had the opportunity to travel all over the world, I tell people Columbus has a little bit of New York, a little Atlanta, a little San Francisco, a little Dallas, London, Paris and Germany. I can go to all these wonderful cities, but when I do, I always find some neat little pocket that reminds me of something we have right here in Columbus.