Batavia Chamber Member Insider - Meet Lisa Hichens

Welcome to this week's Member Insider! We are excited for you to learn more about your fellow Batavia Chamber members. This week, we continue the series learning about our hard-working Board of Directors. To gain insight into our esteemed members, we are asking them to answer a total of 20 questions.
 
Our Board of Director member to meet this week is Dr. Lisa Hichens, who is the superintendent for Batavia Public Schools (BPS101). Lisa has worked at BPS101 for 20 years and has been a member of our board since 2012. The School District has been a member of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce for 65 years!

 

First, we explored Lisa’s thoughts about the Chamber. Here are her responses:
 
Question: What makes our organization’s mission powerful for you?
Answer: The mission is inclusive of all community organizations: businesses, governmental bodies, industries, not-for-profits, individuals, etc.
 
Q: What is your favorite Chamber event to participate in and why?
A: The Inspire Awards because they bring in a large group of diverse, community members.
 
Q: What does the Batavia Chamber do better than anyone else?
A: Connect people and make them feel they are a part of something bigger.
 
Q: How do you think that the Batavia Chamber impacts the community?
A: As City Administrator Laura Newman often says, collaboration is Batavia’s superpower. The Chamber is a major contributor to this collaborative spirit.
 
Q: What does "success" mean to you in terms of your work as a board member?
A: We are successful as a Chamber when members are actively involved.
 
Next, we learned a bit more about Lisa’s work life.
 
Q: What was your first job?
A: I started babysitting neighbors at a very young age. People had different standards about leaving their toddlers and newborns with pre-teens back in the 70s.
 
Q: What job would you be terrible at?
A: Any job that would require me to drive something larger than a mid-size SUV (truck driver, UPS delivery person, bus driver, etc.). Also, any job that would require me to parallel park.
 
Q: What’s your favorite part of the workday?
A: Anytime I can be in the schools and around students!
 
Q: What's the worst career advice you've ever received?
A: Someone at my first teaching job told me “never volunteer for anything.” Horrible advice.
 
Q: What's the best thing you've learned in your current position?
A: Give grace because you never know what someone is going through. People are more likely to return the kindness when they have been treated with kindness. You never know when you are going to need to be on the receiving end!
 
Of course, a few personal tidbits about someone are always interesting. Here are the final five questions – and answers – from Lisa. 
 
Q: What is your proudest accomplishment?
A: Giving families the option to attend in-person school during a pandemic.
 
Q: Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?
A: My phone

Q: Which of the five senses would you say is your strongest?
A: Smell. I am a picky eater, and I can smell the foods that I dislike from a mile away.
 
Q: What could you give a 30-minute presentation about with no advance preparation?
A: Trigonometry
 
Q: What is your superpower?
A: Jigsaw puzzles