UOPX alumni spotlight: Iris N. Leonard takes life in stride

Talk to Iris N. Leonard, and you might assume she’s had an easy life. She’s planning her wedding. (“My first and last,” she quips.) She laughs easily. She has a good job with U.S. Bank as a senior operations account processor. When it comes to the major metrics of life, Leonard seems to have it all.

Of course, one should never assume.

As it turns out, Leonard has faced down adversity over the years, from navigating single motherhood to managing health crises to earning not one, not two, but three postsecondary degrees. The secret to each of these triumphs? Her twin virtues of determination and positivity.

Leonard has been working since she was 15 years old. She had everything she needed, she says, but some part of her craved independence. “I wanted my own money,” she says, a smile peeking through her voice. So, after school one day, she walked across the street to a grocery store and got a job as a cashier.

She came home and told her mom, who was a stay-at-home parent and less than thrilled about Leonard’s news. But her daughter wasn’t one to be dissuaded then, and she isn’t now either.

In fact, Leonard’s commitment to work and the self-sufficiency it engendered only grew with time. She went on to try her hand at a number of roles. She worked at an optical shop and a pharmacy. She worked at a tax preparation company and at a collection agency. (The latter was an especially poor fit, she says.)

As she tried on different hats, she graduated high school and started attending a community college. Her commitment to school at that time, however, was not as strong as her desire for financial independence.

“I was focused on the wrong things,” she acknowledges. After too many tardies to class, Leonard’s parents lost confidence in her commitment and stopped paying for school. So, Leonard focused on supporting herself. By 20, she’d moved out and secured what turned out to be what she calls a predatory home loan. When that fell through, she moved back in with her parents and continued searching for a path and purpose that resonated with her.

Everything took on new urgency by her mid-20s, though, when she gave birth to her son, Tayshon. Suddenly, she needed not just a job but a career path that would ensure both her financial security and her personal and professional growth. “I needed a job desperately,” she says. That’s when she arrived at U.S. Bank.

Working from home and completing her bachelor’s degree opened up new possibilities for Leonard. She decided to pursue her master’s program the same year she completed her bachelor’s degree. “I did that one for me,” she says of her master’s.

Again, she chose human resources as her focus for the MBA, despite working in banking. “I have a knack with people,” she says. Looking back, she wishes she’d better researched how to change careers while she was earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees to make a transition out of operations and into HR a little smoother.

But hindsight is 20/20. While she was in her master’s program, life continued to unfold. She met David and fell in love. Then the pandemic hit, and she became pregnant with Bryce, which necessitated several leaves of absence from her degree program. Still, she completed her MBA and decided to earn a second master’s degree, this time in industrial-organizational psychology. “I love to learn,” she says simply.

U.S. Bank’s tuition assistance policy also empowered Leonard to achieve her goals. “That helped me out tremendously,” she says.

In her current role, Leonard oversees operations for five U.S. Bank cash vaults across the country. Her position carries plenty of responsibility, and while she’d still like to move into HR someday, she appreciates the security she has now. She can work from home and focus on addressing the pressing health issues she and Bryce currently manage. She can prioritize doing her best work, because it is familiar.

Perhaps most importantly, she can continue to grow. She and David “have really thrived together,” she says, despite the setbacks. “I really try to research ways to keep myself uplifted,” she explains. “Sometimes I can go to a dark place, and I have to dig myself out of it.”

She has help. “I consider myself Iris’ right-hand man!” David says. “Everything she can’t do while in school [or at work], I pick up that slack with a smile on my face. Whatever it may be: I cook dinner, I wash clothes, I help care for our special-needs son. Anything I can do to take the pressure off.”

The wins in Leonard’s life may not have come easily, but they have made her stronger. And, thanks to her determination and hard work, they’re adding up to an impressive account balance.

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