LIMELIGHT INTERVIEW WITH OLIVIA MOSS

Imagine leaving your job, your home, a way of life you have known for 3 years and flying with your 15-month-old daughter and husband from Australia to Ireland to start all over again. Imagine saying goodbye to your friends and colleagues in Canberra, flying home with all your possessions, and landing at Dublin Airport to begin a new job and a new life. 

Now, imagine doing that all in the midst of a pandemic… 

Having to travel through an empty Sydney airport. Meeting all the strict travel requirements. Having to apply for and receive exemptions to the travel restrictions. Be Covid-19 tested, be met with hazmat-suit-clad temperature testers, all before you even got on the plane… and then, once you had landed, exhausted at Dublin Airport, you then had to start a 2-week self-isolated quarantine. 

Starting a new job whilst still in quarantine, not being able to see your friends and family, having to adjust to another new normal, and trying to deal with your toddler’s jetlag doesn’t sound like much fun, yet Olivia Moss, the new Director of International at the National College of Ireland, seems to be taking all this in her stride. 

After all, she is no stranger to change. She made a huge leap of faith by moving from Ireland to take up her position at The Australian National University (ANU) having never been to Australia. She and her husband arrived in July to Canberra in the middle of winter with a suitcase full of summer clothes. She had her first skiing lesson in Australia, living closer to the snowfields than the beach, something she just did not imagine doing in Australia! She settled in very quickly to the Aussie way of life, making lots of friends and calling Canberra her second home after a short time. 

I loved talking to her about her previous role at ANU as Senior Manager for Future Students. This role encompassed domestic and international recruitment as well as community and government engagement. A demanding yet hugely satisfying role that could vary between engagement with International Strategy, Marketing, and Recruiting, or liaising with ANU’s offices in China, Singapore, and North America and ANU’s Public Policy and Societal Impact Hub. 

The Australian National University needs no introduction to readers, it is one of the leading global research universities with over 20,000 students, ranked number 1 in Australia and 31st in the world by QS, and 59th in the world and 3rd in Australia by the Times Higher Education. It was a big move to make to come back to Ireland and take up her current role at the National College of Ireland. 

While the move is certainly a big change, Olivia makes the point that every institution can have the same challenges when it comes to international recruitment- it is the way they do things that differs. 

Working for a large public university, high in the rankings, with so many stakeholders working together can prolong the decision-making process for example. This is necessary to include academics and administrators to ensure all the strategic goals and measurements are being met with each decision. She loved her time at ANU but can already see the differences between working for a large group of 8 Universities to a smaller private institution. Sometimes, in the decision-making process, the smaller college can be more flexible, more agile, and can make decisions more quickly. This is just one of the differences she can already see from her new role yet she understands where the value comes in working for both. 

At the moment Olivia is working from home and not seeing friends and family because of current travel restrictions in Ireland. Now, instead of Zooming from Canberra, she Zooms from her home in Ireland. Her mother, who lives in Spain, arrived back in Ireland at the same time as Olivia and her family from Australia so they could all self-isolate together. Contemplating how they had to manage this just reinforces what a strange and difficult time this is for so many people.  

Sadly, Olivia’s father passed away suddenly this May and it has been a tremendous year for her, personally and professionally. 

When asked how did she manage it all, Olivia talks about Ruth Bader Ginsberg and an article she read about her following her recent passing. 

Ruth Bader Ginsberg talked about how being a parent made her better at her career and Olivia says she can relate to that. She explains that she differentiates the time she is with her daughter and being a mother from the time she is working. She appreciates the work-life balance so much more now because she can enjoy being an adult and strategizing and creating and working with colleagues when she is at work, but when she is not working, she enjoys playing, and telling stories, and being creative in a different way with her daughter. 

I looked up the Ruth Bader Ginsberg quote Olivia referred to:

“When I started law school my daughter Jane was 14 months, and I attribute my success in law school largely to Jane. I went to class about 8:30 a.m., and I came home at 4:00 p.m., that was children’s hour. It was a total break in my day, and children’s hour continued until Jane went to sleep. Then I was happy to go back to the books, so I felt each part of my life gave me respite from the other.”

Having a work-life balance is necessary. It doesn’t have to be spending time with a child, it can be your pet, your elderly neighbor, the trees in the park, or spending time with yourself.

I think one of the lessons Covid-19 has taught us all is that it is ok not to be perfect. It is ok to tell people, I can’t take that call at 6 pm this evening because I will be having dinner with my family, or having a socially distanced walk with my friend, or just sitting at home with a cup of tea by myself with my own thoughts.

I am inspired by the choices Olivia has made and the changes she has undergone this year. It has been a year of transformation for her and maybe there is a lesson in that for all of us- that we can make changes in very difficult times in our lives. We can allow time for our family and friends and ourselves and we should remind ourselves of that. 

Olivia is a truly inspirational story and we at the Global Leadership League wish her every success in her new role and thank her for sharing her story!

- Interview by Global Leadership League member and volunteer, Noreen Lucy

The mission of the Global Leadership League is to ignite change across the global education field by empowering, connecting, and training leaders. We invite you to reach out to us here or learn more about becoming a member.