The department-chair position is, as a 2022 trend piece in The Chronicle put it, “the faculty job (almost) no one wants.” For years, many department heads have criticized the lack of preparation they receive for the job. As midlevel managers, they are rarely encouraged or sufficiently prepared to see themselves as leaders capable of initiating and sustaining meaningful change.

Yet department chairs — positioned directly between frontline faculty members and senior administrators — may be our last, best hope to improve our institutions from the inside out. But to do so requires those of us in higher ed to take a lesson from Evelyn and evolve our conceptions of what midlevel leadership can be. (Warning: plot spoilers ahead.)