Although Janet Hill is perhaps best known as the mother of former Blue Devil basketball star Grant Hill, her success story is all her own.
Currently serving her second term on Duke's Board of Trustees, Hill has spent three decades at the helm of her own consulting firm, served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army and sat on several corporate and nonprofit boards. At a luncheon sponsored by the Campus Club on Monday, she spoke about her career and her views on success—along with stories about her family, including both her NBA star son and her husband, Calvin, who played in the NFL for 12 years.
"Leaders lead. They make tough decisions after weighing all the alternatives," Hill said. "They take the heat or receive the praise.... Leadership is not easy, and it often goes unrewarded, but great leaders are made in moments of adversity."
Hill described her path to success as starting during her time at Wellesley College. Though leaving her segregated hometown of New Orleans to attend the all-female Massachusetts liberal arts school was a bit of a culture shock for Hill, the experience was ultimately an opportunity for personal growth.
"Many of them had never had a conversation with someone black in 1965," Hill said of her college classmates. "But we were even—because I had never met anybody white."
Giving others the benefit of the doubt and learning to appreciate different perspectives were key lessons from her college experience, Hill said. She later applied these principles as owner of the corporate consulting firm Alexander and Associates, where she worked with companies to increase accessibility for employees of all backgrounds.
"We didn't use the word 'diversity,' which the dictionary defines as the condition of being different," Hill said. "We preferred the word inclusion, which does not speak to separation—but does speak to the rich source of human capital available at every position."
She went on to emphasize the importance of being grounded in one's principles and consistently striving for excellence, noting the value of having strong mentors.
Hill peppered her speech with anecdotes of close friends and family—including her former classmate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who she described as "intimidating" and driven even as a college freshman. She also spoke about parenting, describing the strong values she worked to instill in her son and the emphasis that she and her husband placed on education.
Hill also described sitting in the audience while her son played basketball at Duke, including in the 1992 Elite Eight game against Kentucky—which ended in "The Shot," Christian Laettner's famous jumper on a full-court pass from Grant Hill.
"It was a wonderful shot, but the entire play was all about the pass," she said.
The afternoon was hosted by the Campus Club as part of their yearlong centennial celebration. The club, which brings together Duke-affiliated women, has used the theme of "Honoring Women in a Century of Change" for their 100th anniversary.
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