At Auburn University, you are the Associate Director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. Can you share more about this and why you love it?
Lindsay: I moved from Auburn’s English Department to the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in 2016, when my interests shifted from teaching students to teaching faculty.
The Biggio Center is the faculty development unit at Auburn, and my team leads workshops, programs, and events designed to help Auburn faculty improve their teaching, integrate new technology into their courses, and form a community with others. I love this job because I believe education is the most powerful force for good.
As a wife and a mother to two young girls, how do you balance pursuing your career and your family?
Lindsay: I’m not sure balance is the right word. It’s more like holding back the dam of chaos and plugging leaks one by one. There’s no strategy, just day-to-day survival — I’m only partly joking.
What has been the most important lesson you have learned as a mother so far?
Lindsay: During Mira’s first year in the Woodland Wonders program, we went out for a walk and saw a big yellow spider. I told her, “We call those banana spiders because they’re yellow.” She was just this tiny thing at the time, but she looked up at me and said, “Actually, Mommy, that’s called a golden orb weaver.”
That moment was a profound learning experience for me about the importance of naming things out loud for my kids as we go through the world, whether it’s an emotion, an object, or some kind of bug. They may not get it at the moment (or not have the capacity to express their understanding), but it’s wild how much they absorb. It’s amazing to see their confidence when they use their voice and feel understood.
What does community mean to you?
Lindsay: I think about this question a lot. The University is what brought me to this community. I had no ties to Auburn before moving here and zero knowledge of the school’s traditions. Truth be told, I thought Auburn was the “red football team” before I got here. I remember driving around town and feeling bewildered by the amount of school spirit I saw—even the firetrucks were orange and blue!
Now, in my role at the Biggio Center, I lead New Faculty Orientations and strive to create experiences where folks feel like they have an on-ramp into the community no matter where they are coming from. Many of these folks are, like I was, brand new to the area.
Do you have any important values/priorities that you work to instill in your girls?
Lindsay: Beyond the obvious values of kindness, respect, and persistence, we value travel and learning about different cultures. Alex is teaching the girls how to speak Greek and play chess. I’m big on creative writing: memorizing poems, drawing pictures, making movies, etc.
What is your greatest hope for your children’s future?
Lindsay: My hope is that my children have adventures and opportunities that engage their curiosity, that they discover passions and interests that align with their strengths and talents, and that they stay authentically themselves. I hope they are always surrounded by people who love and respect them and who find them as delightful as I do.
What advice would you give to another mother who may be struggling in her parenting journey?
Lindsay: Parenting looks really different from the outside than it does on the inside. There’s a tendency to compare ourselves and our kids to others. Fight that urge by all means possible! Stay in the moment with your kids and hold yourself accountable to your own values. If you need to compare, use a fair measuring stick—what does it look like for you to show up as your best self? What do you need to stay calm and connected? What makes your family weird and wonderful? It’s really hard to stay present, but it’s worth the effort. The best moments are tiny slivers in ordinary days; they’re easy to miss and don’t come again.
Now that my kids are getting older, the other piece of advice that I follow comes from a speech the Dean of Students at Stanford gave on the one common trait that the most successful students she has seen over the years share — they were given chores as kids. She said kids who are given the opportunity to share responsibility for taking care of housework are more tenacious, confident, and able to persist through adversity compared to those who aren’t given a share of the responsibility for taking care of the family. My own struggle with this is knowing when to stop doing things my kids are capable of doing for themselves and giving them the space to learn without jumping in—even if that means getting out the door late or eggshells in the muffins (and it almost always does).
Rapid Fire Questions
Pizza or Tacos? Taco Pizza
Texting or Calling? Calling
Indoors or Outdoors? Outdoors
Read or Watch TV? Read
Describe yourself in one word. Dandelion
Lindsay Doukopoulos married her husband Alex in 2012 after connecting at Auburn University. He is originally from Greece and was studying for his PhD at Auburn. Lindsay, originally from Illinois, had recently relocated to the community in 2010 as an instructor at the University. Together, they have two daughters — Mira (7) and Adriana (5). The family loves to be outside together and disconnected from technology as much as they can.
Author: Staff
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