Frayed

An honest account of burnout among women leaders in higher education—and what you can do about it.

Higher education has begun to take burnout seriously—except when it comes to its leaders. Deans, chairs, directors, provosts, and presidents are expected to absorb relentless pressure without visible strain, even as institutions face enrollment declines, political scrutiny, labor unrest, and financial uncertainty. Frayed centers the voices of women leaders navigating this reality.

Rebecca Pope-Ruark draws on interviews with women across administrative roles to document how burnout takes shape in leadership positions that allow little room for vulnerability. These leaders describe chronic exhaustion, isolation, distrust, and the emotional toll of being held responsible for decisions they did not control. Gendered expectations intensify these pressures—particularly for women of color, who face additional scrutiny and fewer margins for error. Pope-Ruark offers concrete strategies for rebuilding trust, practicing compassionate leadership, cultivating peer support, and modeling sustainable work practices. She also considers how institutional reward systems, crisis governance, and chronic under-resourcing concentrate stress at the top, making burnout appear personal rather than structural.

Frayed reframes burnout as an organizational outcome—one that demands collective responsibility rather than individual endurance. Speaking directly to leaders who feel alone in their exhaustion and unsure where to turn, the book fills a critical gap in conversations about leadership and well-being and insists that institutional change must begin with acknowledging the human cost of leading.

Rebecca Pope-Ruark is the director of the Office of Faculty Professional Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is the author of Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal and the coeditor of Of Many Minds: Neurodiversity and Mental Health Among University Faculty and Staff and Redesigning Liberal Education: Innovative Design for a Twenty-First-Century Undergraduate Education.