Stepping into the gap
How montrose gives girls the courage to innovate
Montrose School was honored to welcome Dr. Nichole Mercier ‘94 back to campus this week to coach our students and faculty on the importance of innovation and creativity. She is our first Innovator-in-Residence as a part of our Women of Noble Purpose series, a chance for our girls to work with women who have proven their character, leadership, and creativity in their respective fields and careers.
At Montrose, we know how important it is for young women to meet and receive mentorship from women who have charted courageous paths to discover their unique purpose in the world. We hope this series will be a fruitful time for our entire community to learn from each other and spark new ideas for the future careers and paths of our students.
When Dr. Nichole Mercier ‘94 sat down as a promising young scholar in her first theoretical math class at Clark University, she realized she had made a horrible mistake.
“I wanted nothing to do with math,” she admitted. “And I really didn’t like research.”
Self-doubt raised its ugly head and she debated her choice in major and intended career.
Do I even like this? What is wrong with me?
It’s hard to believe these thoughts even crossed the mind of Dr. Mercier – someone who is so accomplished in her career, and so influential in the careers of others. Today, Mercier serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor and Managing Director of the Office of Technology Management (OTM) at Washington University in St. Louis.
While some might have panicked and backtracked their decisions that freshman year, Mercier was able to lean on the lessons that she learned at Montrose to propel her through a PhD in Cell Biology and set her on an unexpected career path.
“I practiced perseverance to finish a degree that I didn’t like. I practiced humility to keep working at something I wasn’t really good at, while everyone else was on the road to running their own lab. And I used fortitude to figure out how to take what I was learning outside the lab.”
These virtues are the habits of mind, heart, and character that Montrose girls study and practice every day — directly in their Habits courses, and indirectly in their classes and leadership opportunities outside the classroom.
It was clear that Mercier had a passion and a calling in the sciences. But it wasn’t going to be in the traditional way that everybody else was following. As she navigated a career change in a new city, she realized women in the sciences weren’t given the same benefits and opportunities as men. They were underrepresented in patents, startups, accelerators, and in venture capital awards.
So she did something that required courage, leadership, innovation, and creativity. She knew she wasn’t a specialist or an expert – she was a generalist who saw the bigger picture. She saw what needed to be done.
So, she stepped into the gap.
As a part of her work at Washington University, she founded Equalize Inc, which supports women scientists to take their innovations into STEM start-ups.
“At Equalize, we help women scientists visualize the bigger vision for their innovation and form partnerships or startups. We help them chart the path from an academic to a business setting.”
Mercier’s compass pointed her toward serving women inventors who hold so much potential to change the world for the better. Together with her team, she’s grown 115 startups, all of which have demonstrated records of being acquired or successfully raising money in their venture capital fundraising campaigns. Some of their products include a blood test for Alzheimer’s and a wearable device to detect hemorrhages in pregnant women. These scientists are now prepared and supported to guide their new discoveries into the market to help improve the lives of many.
We’re so grateful to Nichole for sharing her time and talent with our students and faculty this week, and hope her stories will inspire our students in pursuing their own noble purpose.
While she was visiting Montrose, Mercier workshopped with seniors on their capstone projects, and middle schoolers on their decision-making processes when it comes to choosing their classes and imagining their future careers. And she delivered a powerful testimony to the entire school, leaving students with three important messages.
“One — the world needs female leaders. We lead with a human heart and see employees as holistic persons.
Two — Don’t be afraid to step into the gaps. That’s where lives are changed, where we can help our fellow humans as servant leaders and use our creative mindsets to make things better.
Three — We all have a noble purpose. There were so many moments in my life where God was gently guiding me in the right direction. To quote St. Frances de Sales …
Be who you are, and be that well.”