Changing History, One Step at a Time

The boots-on-the-ground approach Tiffany Anderson, Ed.D., (ED ’94, GRAD ED ’01) takes to education as the first Black woman and longest-serving superintendent of Topeka Public Schools has changed the history of Kansas’ academic landscape. Her appointment pioneered a pathway for women of color to acquire the highest level of leadership in the same school district that sparked the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Supreme Court decision, ending legal segregation in schools.

Described by the Washington Post as “the woman who made schools work for the poor,” Anderson lives out Saint Louis University’s Jesuit values by advocating for the marginalized and removing challenges created by poverty to empower her students, their families and the community.

“SLU’s strong foundation of faith and commitment to diversity in the heart of the city allowed me to develop as a leader in education, using innovative strategies within teams to truly create inclusive communities in diverse, high-poverty, rural and urban communities,” said Anderson, who earned her bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in education from the University.

Anderson said her mother’s and aunt’s experiences as teachers and principals helped her know from an early age that she would be an educator and advocate. Following in their footsteps, Anderson became a principal in the City of St. Louis, the director for desegregation and assistant superintendent of Rockwood School District, and the first African American female superintendent to serve in Virginia’s Montgomery County.

When she was tapped in 2012 to guide the struggling Jennings School District to regain full accreditation, Anderson and her late husband Stanley Anderson, M.D. (A&S ’91, GRAD ED ’96, SOM ’01), their daughter, Whitney (PH ’16, GRAD PH ’21), and their son, Chris, lived in Kansas. Not wanting to uproot her family, she decided to commute four hours each way, five days a week for three years. She was inspired, she said, by the educational system of hope and possibility that SLU embraced.

For the school district students and their families who lived in poverty, Anderson quickly implemented critical and easily accessible social services. She opened an on-site pantry that provided food for 200-400 families each month and a health clinic with medical staff that included a pediatrician and a nurse practitioner. She converted a district office building into a foster home for unhoused students, set up washers and dryers in the schools, and offered parenting classes and support programs. 

Anderson believes that education is lifelong and should prepare people to think critically. As superintendent, she elevated the quality of education across all academic levels. From 2013-2016, the district’s state educational accreditation standards test scores rose from 57% to 81%, and graduation rates were at 92% with a 100% college- and career-placement rate. When Anderson completed her work in 2016, Jennings School District had gained full accreditation for the first time in decades. 

Anderson credits many influential SLU faculty members for helping her ensure that comprehensive services and care are wrapped around families. She said she is forever grateful to the late Linda Bufkin, Ph.D., Ronald Rebore, Ph.D., and Judith Medoff, Ph.D., and retired professor, William Rebore, Ph.D., for leading her and her husband to their respective roles as a school superintendent and a pioneering OB-GYN and robotic surgeon. 

Stop and notice what is going on around you. Collectively, we all make a difference in building a future of hope.” 

Tiffany Anderson, Ed.D. (ED ’94, GRAD ED ’01)

“Through them, and the SLU faculty overall, countless lives have been changed as we seek to ‘Love one another as God loves you’ (John 15:12),” she said.

Investing in relationships is vital to becoming a difference maker, Anderson said.

“Stop and notice what is going on around you. Collectively, we all make a difference in building a future of hope,” she said while serving as the keynote speaker at SLU’s 2024 Cannonball Conference, an annual event held each year to recognize staff contributions to the University. 

“How can we engage with people in ways that put their ‘brains on fire’?” she asked the audience. “Be a light and speak life into others.” 

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