Dr. Dang Le Hoa did not plan to become a leader. She grew into the role, one challenge at a time, and she recently shared that story to help other women see their own path to leadership more clearly.
Speaking at a recent workshop on women's leadership in Vietnamese universities, Dr. Dang Le Hoa, a researcher with EfD-Vietnam and a member of the WinEED network, described how taking on leadership responsibilities pushed her to adapt, build confidence, and learn from setbacks. It also meant working more closely with colleagues and stakeholders she had not worked with before. None of this came naturally at first, she admitted. It came from practice.
“To me, leadership isn’t about having control; rather, it’s using authority as leverage to bring positive change to the organization,” said Dang Le Hoa.
Dang Le Hoa was open about a tension many women in academia know well: how to grow a career while staying present for family. She makes it a point to be there for important moments in her children's lives, and finds time to study and play music with them. When colleagues asked how she manages this, her answer was simple. Personal growth and family connection are not things that happen by accident. They have to be planned for, and treated as priorities, like anything else on the calendar.
“I always do my work with passion, even the smallest tasks, and everything else just falls into place as a result”, she noted.
Dr. Dang Le Hoa shared her story "The journey of growth in leadership"
Her research asks the same question of farm households
Her own research reflects the same steady, deliberate approach. Over several years, Dang Le Hoa has built a body of work on how gender shapes the way rural households in the Mekong Delta respond to salinity intrusion, the seawater pushing further into rice fields and freshwater sources as the delta changes. With various co-authors, she has looked at how gender roles within a household influence which adaptation strategies get chosen, how salinity intrusion affects women's and men's agricultural production and food security differently, and what would actually help, from better resources for female farmers to wider access to education and social participation for women in these communities.
A network built to help women lead
Stories like hers are part of what Women in Environmental Economics for Development (WinEED) was built to bring forward. Set up in 2018, the EfD network works to open doors for women economists in the Global South, particularly those researching environmental sustainability and poverty reduction, through mentorship, collaboration, training, and institutional engagement. The goal is not just to include women in research, but to help them lead it, as principal investigators, mentors, and voices in their fields. Dang Le Hoa's journey, balancing research, family, and now a growing leadership role, is the kind of journey WinEED wants more women to have the chance to make.
About the workshop
The workshop, held on 16 June at UEH Mekong in Vinh Long province, was part of the British Council-funded project " Empowering Women’s Leadership in Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions: Navigating Retirement-Age Reforms and Cultural Barriers." Dr. Dang Le Hoa shared the stage with Dr. Nguyen Thi Thy Lieu, Director of UEH Mekong, and Assoc. Prof. Pham Thi Hoang Anh, Deputy Director of the Banking Academy in Hanoi, who also spoke about their own leadership path. The event closed with an open discussion among UEH Mekong staff and leaders on building a more inclusive workplace.
Participants at the workshop