Each May, we recognize Military Spouse Appreciation Day*, a time to honor the resilience, sacrifice, and quiet strength of those who serve alongside our nation’s service members. For me, that recognition is both personal and professional.
Being a United States Marine Corps spouse did not simply shape my family life. It prepared me to serve in today’s complex community college environment.
I have the privilege of serving as president at Houston City College-Southeast within one of the nation’s largest community college systems. In partnership with our chancellor, fellow presidents, faculty, and staff, we work collectively to expand access and opportunity across a region, navigating workforce transformation, enrollment pressures, fiscal constraints, and rapid technological change.
Houston is home to the second-largest veteran population in the United States. Service is woven into the fabric of our city, which makes Military Spouse Appreciation Day more than symbolic. It is personal to the communities we serve.
The leadership required in this moment, steady, adaptive, and mission-focused, was forged long before I stepped into the presidency.
Early in my career, I was working at a college in Texas when my professional path was gaining momentum. New opportunities were emerging and the trajectory ahead felt clear.
Then came orders. We were moving.
The professional foundation I had carefully built would have to bend. So we relocated and I began again.
In 2001, I was working for the American Association of Community Colleges when our nation experienced the attacks of September 11. We were living on a military base at the time. Lockdowns quickly became routine. Uncertainty was constant. Across the country, colleges were trying to make sense of a new and fragile reality.
From both a professional and personal vantage point, I witnessed how institutions respond to crisis. Rapid coordination. Clear communication. Commitment to mission. I learned that in moments of national trauma, leadership is less about visibility and more about stability.
That lesson would return again and again.
In 2005, we faced another defining moment. My husband deployed and our family relocated once more. Military life does not separate personal and professional disruption. They arrive together. You steady children while navigating career transitions. You make decisions without perfect information. You move forward because the mission requires it.
Over the course of my career, I have served at six colleges across multiple functional areas. Each transition required building trust quickly, learning new institutional cultures, and delivering results in unfamiliar environments. Repeated reinvention cultivated strategic agility, which is an essential leadership capacity in higher education today.
In 2017, while living and working in Houston, we experienced Hurricane Harvey. The devastation was immediate and overwhelming. Colleges across the region shifted from routine operations to crisis response almost overnight. Students faced displacement, financial instability, and housing loss.
Military life had prepared me for that moment. In disruption, you focus on what can be done. You safeguard people first. You communicate clearly. You act with purpose.
Years later, for two and a half years, I commuted between Virginia and Texas in preparation for a presidency position. That season unfolded during COVID.
Airports were nearly empty. Campuses were quiet. Community colleges across the country were redesigning instruction, expanding virtual services, and working urgently to preserve student access. Like so many colleagues, I worked alongside teams navigating rapid change while remaining grounded in mission.
Uncertainty was constant. So was responsibility.
Leading in a Complex Higher Education Landscape
Today’s higher education environment is defined by volatility. Enrollment patterns shift. Funding models evolve. Technology reshapes delivery. Students arrive with greater financial, academic, and mental health needs. Public expectations for workforce alignment and measurable outcomes continue to rise.
Community colleges operate at the front lines of economic mobility. At Houston City College, in one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the country, we must be responsive without losing focus, innovative without sacrificing stewardship, and student centered without compromising fiscal discipline.
Military life instills habits that translate directly into this environment. Mission clarity in the midst of noise. Adaptability when plans change. Decisiveness under pressure. A team orientation over individual recognition. Endurance during prolonged uncertainty.
Resilience is not dramatic. It is disciplined. It is showing up consistently and making steady decisions when conditions are unstable. It is protecting access and opportunity even when circumstances are complex.
That steadiness is essential in today’s community college landscape.
Recognizing Strength in Military Affiliated Students
Serving in Houston, where veterans and military families are a visible and valued part of the community, reinforces another lesson.
Veterans bring leadership, accountability, and the ability to perform under pressure. Military spouses bring reinvention, adaptability, and strategic problem solving. Many have rebuilt careers across multiple states, navigated licensure barriers, and managed households independently during deployment.
These are not deficits to be accommodated. They are strengths to be recognized.
Community colleges are uniquely positioned to serve those who have served and those who have stood beside them. Flexible pathways, workforce aligned programs, stackable credentials, and strong student supports reflect the realities of learners whose journeys are rarely linear.
Because I have relocated while advancing professionally, supported children during deployment, lived through base lockdowns, and navigated institutional crises, I do not see disruption as deficiency. I recognize capacity forged through challenge.
Preparation Through Service
When I reflect on orders that redirected my career, 9/11 lockdowns on a military base, deployments that coincided with relocation, a hurricane that tested our city, and a pandemic that reshaped higher education, I do not see interruption.
I see preparation.
Each experience strengthened adaptability. Each crisis reinforced clarity of mission. Each season of uncertainty deepened empathy for students navigating complexity of their own.
Being a Marine Corps spouse did not compete with my professional calling. It strengthened it. It prepared me to serve in a higher education environment that demands collaboration, steadiness, and unwavering focus on opportunity.
This Military Spouse Appreciation Day, I am filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the life that shaped me. And deep gratitude for fellow military spouses working across higher education. Many serve quietly as faculty members, advisors, staff leaders, and executives. They navigate relocations, deployments, and reinvention while remaining committed to students and institutional mission. Their paths may not always appear traditional, but they are marked by resilience, discipline, and purpose. Our colleges are stronger because of their leadership and service.
Mission. Mobility. Leadership.
In my life and in higher education, they have always been intertwined.
And I am grateful for the opportunity to serve at that intersection.
Semper fi!
Frances Villagran-Glover is president at Houston City College-Southeast, part of the Houston Community Colleges system.
