When Zaldwaynaka (“Z”) Scott became president of Chicago State University in 2018, things were in pretty dire straits: the state budget had been slashed, operations rolled back, and they had gone years without permanent leadership. A mere four years later, things look very different and CSU is now in the top 4% of universities nationally for supporting students’ economic mobility. She explains how she turned things around and why, as she likes to say, “a strong Chicago State … is a strong United States.”